Premixed Mantis Chow

[mantiscraze]

Do mantis absolutely need live food? Has anyone tried to raise them on premixed mantis chow (I'd imagine some banana, honey, and insect mixed together into a paste or cube of some sort). I used to think that silkworms need fresh mulberry leaves, but I've seen them feed on powdered chow mixed with water. Has anyone had success with freeze dried or canned crickets with mantis?

This probably won't work for all or any mantids, but perhaps some hardy types can handle it?

 

[RevWillie]

The thing that comes to mind is the line from Jurassic Park, something about the lion in the zoo is bored because his meat is put in a dish in front of him instead of having to hunt for it - "T-Rex wants to hunt!"

I think it is good for the mantis to hunt, and sometimes miss, his food. Of course hand feeding is necessary in emergencies, but hunting is a necessary part of their lives IMO.

 

[mantiscraze]

Yeah, I agree that it's better to have live food, but is it possible to feed certain types of mantis processed food from L1-adult?

 

[jrh3]

no mantids are carnivores why make a change in a perfect insect.

 

[lancaster1313]

Yeah, I agree that it's better to have live food, but is it possible to feed certain types of mantis processed food from L1-adult?

It is done with other creatures all the time.

I have seen gecko food at the pet store, and I thought that was weird.

Even if it is all insect based chow, it would probably be quite a challenge to get them to actually eat enough of it. Also, if it worked and became popular, and mantids were raised on it for a few generations...

Could the chow raised mantids lose important instincts that they would be very important in the wild?

I often fear that keeping mantids in containers and making sure that they eat,(even live food), might actually cause enough changes like, loss of instincts, or lower hatch rates over many generations of adapting to captivity. How well would these CB mantids do if they were put back in their natural habitats?

It was just a thought. I have no Idea if this can happen with insects. :mellow:

 

[PhilinYuma]

As always with these hypotheticals, you are the one with the major interest in this topic, so you should be the one to test it out and get the glory of a new discovery!

Formulate you "mantidchow" and start feeding it to young nymphs. Keep careful records and let us know about your success! If it is taken well, it should make a great standby for when the rest of us run out of live food. You may make a fortune.

 

[lancaster1313]

As always with these hypotheticals, you are the one with the major interest in this topic, so you should be the one to test it out and get the glory of a new discovery!

Formulate you "mantidchow" and start feeding it to young nymphs. Keep careful records and let us know about your success! If it is taken well, it should make a great standby for when the rest of us run out of live food. You may make a fortune.

It does sound like an interesting experiment.

Also, having some chow stored for emergencies would be nice.

 

[PeterF]

I never would have thought it could even work, because we are all given to the "attack moving thing" concept of mantid eating.

But your notion of using honey is interesting. I of course have fed mantids honey, this is a GREAT outreach event, kids love it. I have never seen mantids eat honey out of a bowl (or what have you) but I have never tried. It could be that honey and fishfood could be taken. I guess I would not be surprised.

I am not certain it would be healthy, in the amount of honey that might be needed to make the whole work. And I don't know that I would suggest it. But it is a neat idea.

 

[sporeworld]

I'm convinced you could do this, although it seems impractical on large colonies.

I've certainly fed un-living food to mine with no apparent ill-effects (there's a thread on it here somewhere).

Like Phil said, give it a try and let us know what you come up with. My approach would have been to freeze, well-fed, excess flies before they withered, and mulch them into a kind of chewy granola bar. Maybe dip them in water before tweezer-feeding them to the mantids.

Good Luck!

 

[ShieldMantid1997]

I believe this could be done but only if you hand feed them because it is basically the same thing as the technique i use for my "hunch back" creo, rip the head off a cricket so it's all gooey, then hold it to its mouth and it will take it from you. Maybe this could be done with a pre-mixed chow with maybe bee pollen mixed in for naturalistic nutrients. Does that sound about right?