My Poor Little Lone Chinese Nymph :(

[ZoeRipper]

My lone Chinese nymph (ironically named Cricket) molted to L3 today.. Sorta. He mismolted, and is still alive, but I doubt he will be for long. His back 2 legs just aren't there. I don't think he's gonna last much longer. What should I do? Squish him? Or just make him as comfy as possible until he goes?

 

[kamakiri]

If he can take his own food, I'd definitely keep him!

 

[PhilinYuma]

The hind legs are most easily lost and most easily grown back over a few molts. Like Kamakiri says, if he can take/catch his own food fine, but even if not, you being you might well manage to feed him until he molts (perhaps twice). Let us k ow how it works out!

 

[Rick]

His main issue will be molting again. HOwever, I have a mantis that only had half of one back leg. After a molt he now has a full leg (smaller though) and half of another one. He should have two functional legs next time he molts.

 

[massaman]

I had a shield female when she was a nymph she had lost one leg at l2 but now that she is a adult the leg is fully functional and cant even tell that it was ever gone and she had a bent neck leaf side thingy but that corrected itself as well!

 

[charleyandbecky]

He will probably be okay and grow them back. They may end up smaller but it can happen. You may have to help him get his food at first. This happened to me once with a Chinese and I had to kind of slide the crickets in front of him until he gained confidence. Then I made his container as molt-friendly as possible with material on the top that he could easily hang from. He lived to be over 10 months old.

 

[ZoeRipper]

Sadly, poor little Cricket passed sometime last night. He couldn't stand right, poor guy.

 

[DannyN]

When things like this happen to me, my mantids get made useful and become enrichment feeders for my chameleons.