Momantis Caffra worries

[Penguin]

My Manis is a Miomantis Caffra, it's a female, and I think she (could) be pregnant because she is

quite big, she is also a wild one, I caught her three days ago but Im worried because at the moment

I can only feed her on flies, yesterday I fed her a large Cicada, today she ate half a fly and then a whole one,

but I was gone for a while I came back and her eyes had turned red.. and she is quite alot slower, also her abdomen

moves quite alot (is this normal? Im quite new to all this mantis care stuff so I am not sure if she is okay..)

P.s. she lives in a tall glass jar, I put in a new branch with leaves on it everyday, refresh the peat/soil at the bottom

and she has a wide climbing stick, also she has a cellophane lid with holes I have punched in with a needle..

has she got lack of oxygen? ( should I made holes bigger??)

 

[Findarato]

My Manis is a Miomantis Caffra, it's a female, and I think she (could) be pregnant because she is

quite big, she is also a wild one, I caught her three days ago but Im worried because at the moment

I can only feed her on flies, yesterday I fed her a large Cicada, today she ate half a fly and then a whole one,

but I was gone for a while I came back and her eyes had turned red.. and she is quite alot slower, also her abdomen

moves quite alot (is this normal? Im quite new to all this mantis care stuff so I am not sure if she is okay..)

P.s. she lives in a tall glass jar, I put in a new branch with leaves on it everyday, refresh the peat/soil at the bottom

and she has a wide climbing stick, also she has a cellophane lid with holes I have punched in with a needle..

has she got lack of oxygen? ( should I made holes bigger??)

I am no experienced mantis keeper either (just raising my first generation of Hierodulas), but movement of the abdomen is sign of heavy breathing in an insect. I don't use any cellophane, but net lace for covering the top of my enclosures. the jar with the cellophane seems to give your mantis too little ventilation. And I give them plastic (silk) plants and some real, bare sticks to climb. replacing real leafy plants each day just makes the crickets jump out. (and it pisses off the mantis if I disturb her(or him)every day.)

If your mantis is adult, you can't tell her age since you caught her from outside, so she might as well be old already. in that case you can't help her. But give her more air, your description shows me she seems to feel suffocated. Holes in cellophane can't be enough, no matter how many of them. I would use some mesh or net lace (from fabric store). Tell us how your mantis is doing in the meanwhile.

 

[Penguin]

Thank you for this :] I have sorted out the issue, the reason I used cellophane was because it was easier to see her if she had climbed higher but I changed back

to the original lid for the jar she is in which has a number of good sized holes and she seems to be very happy

also with her eyes turning red I have come to the conclusion that they do that at night.. or when the lights are on

at night I should keep her out of them... but yeah that day I found her she actually had an injured leg

and became very tame when I was feeding her cat food(lol) because she couldn't catch anything herself

but perfectly healthy now and slightly feral again xD

 

[Rick]

Yes, mantis eyes darken in low light. Their abdomen also pulsates.