My praying mantis has an abnormal appetite

[PlayingMantis]

My praying mantis loves bread for some reason. He gobbled it up like it's the best thing ever. I don't understand...I'm pretty new to keeping praying mantises, but I kept them before. In the past I used to get my praying mantises to eat dead insects by tying the insects to a string and swinging it around.

Btw, my praying mantis is a Chinese praying mantis, I think, and he's about 2" in length. I've been feeding him (live) moths, spiders, and flies. He's a voracious eater! Today I was just bored so I stuck a piece of bread crumb under his head and he grabbed it and started eating it. I was worried that the bread wouldn't be good for him so I managed to get him to drop it, but he probably wasn't really happy that I did that. Do any of you have similar experiences? Is bread bad for praying mantises?

 

[agent A]

bread is bad for humans, so I would venture to believe a creature evolved to eat the chitinous exoskeletons and hemolymph insides of other insects should not be eating a carb loaded spongy food made from wheat

 

[ScienceGirl]

Bread is a carbohydrate, which when digested turns to sugar. It is a processed food.

This is probably quite unhealthy for a mantis. When making choices about a mantis' diet, think of what they'd ordinarily eat when in the wild.