picky eaters

[kllinke]

I am hoping for a little advice I have two Tenodera sinensis mated females, they only want to eat crickets. I know they are not a great food source, all summer I would catch insects for them but in NH the bugs are gone. I ordered sone silk worms to give them a try. The ate a few of them but only if I could get the to take them from tweezers. I have not raised them by hand feeding. I figured I would try doubia. I have been tryi g for two days no such luck. I know they are not too big but o e female grabed but pretty much dropped it. They are stalking around looking but paying no attention to the dubia. Any sugestions would be appreciated.

 

[sally]

I think crickets are fine for T sinensis. Just keep the crickets for a while and feed them to be sure they are healthy. My T's eat anything... They love grasshoppers as well as crickets and flies and moths.

 

[devetaki9]

My Tenoderas eat crickets, waxworms and waxworm moths. There is nothing wrong with crickets if they are kept clean and fed well. Mine are on organic bran and oatmeal as a substrate and are given the water crystals for water. I also feed my crickets honey powder, bee pollen, fish flakes and veggies and fruits but NOT carrots. All my mantises thrive on these crickets with the waxworms being a treat

 

[sally]

My Tenoderas eat crickets, waxworms and waxworm moths. There is nothing wrong with crickets if they are kept clean and fed well. Mine are on organic bran and oatmeal as a substrate and are given the water crystals for water. I also feed my crickets honey powder, bee pollen, fish flakes and veggies and fruits but NOT carrots. All my mantises thrive on these crickets with the waxworms being a treat

Oh, fishflakes! I am going to try that with the crickets

 

[gm88]

My Tenoderas eat crickets, waxworms and waxworm moths. There is nothing wrong with crickets if they are kept clean and fed well. Mine are on organic bran and oatmeal as a substrate and are given the water crystals for water. I also feed my crickets honey powder, bee pollen, fish flakes and veggies and fruits but NOT carrots. All my mantises thrive on these crickets with the waxworms being a treat

What is the reason for excluding carrrots? I have seen this stated before but never saw a reason why.. So far I have almost exclusively fed my store-bought crickets carrots and have not seemingly had any problems though my one favorite female did just die which may have been due to a bad cricket. However my other mantises are fine which ate from the same batch so idk..

 

[kllinke]

Thank you so much for all ghe replies. I do make sure all crickets are well fed. All summer I was able to give them a nice variety of insects. They do enjoy BB's. I was hopping to get away from the crickets due to the fact that they are so noisy lol. I am fairly new to mantids and have read everything I have been able to get a hold of. I have had these two females since they hatched, one of them had some problems with her third molt, I was successful in helping her back legs from being stuck in her old skin. Her back legs did not work at all until she molted again and with every molt they got better. I can barely see that one of them is a hair shorter than the other. I am hoping to have my first ooth laid soon. I am completely fascinated with them even though my mom and husband think I am off my rocker. I want to gI've another species a try. The next babies I have I will make sure they are handled more I have not handled them much at all. One of my girls pinched my husband pretty good I told him to leave her alone ha ha.

 

[devetaki9]

What is the reason for excluding carrrots? I have seen this stated before but never saw a reason why.. So far I have almost exclusively fed my store-bought crickets carrots and have not seemingly had any problems though my one favorite female did just die which may have been due to a bad cricket. However my other mantises are fine which ate from the same batch so idk..

I have just always read from multiple different sources that carrots could be an issue when fed to crickets that mantises and some reptiles/amphibians will consume. Being paranoid and not wanting to take a risk I feed my crickets all sorts of other good stuff instead

 

[Extrememantid]

Try using forceps and holding the roach in front of their head