Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii cricket binge

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agent A

agent A

the autistic flower mantis
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I have a wahlbergii nymph that ate 2 crickets that were almost the size of it last night. I fed it another one this morning, it is really fat, abdomen is bigger that whole rest of body. The strange thing is, it ate half of the cricket I gave it today, now it is just holding the cricket and isn't eating it, arms spread away from body but still holding cricket. I know it wasn't just startled because I watched it for a good 5 minutes or so, if it was just startled, in less than 1 minute it would go back to munching away. Is it normal for them to just hold on to food like that?

 
yeah, he is full, he will start eating it again when he is more hungry, he's just saving it for later.

 
agent A said:
1 more question. another male ate 1 cricket, after that, grabbed another and ate for a minute or two, then threw the cricket and ran away. what gives?
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LOL..... He's full, if you feed them crickets their own size or larger feed one every other day :/

Or do you want it to burt open if it drops from a large distance?

 
here is the leftover from the binge:

ghostsandwahlbergii%20001.jpg


ghostsandwahlbergii%20002.jpg


 
Yeah, little dude's full. My ghost's hardly ever finish their crickets, but they're fat, plump and healthy. All it means is a little more clean-up work than if they always finished.

 
Like everyone else is stating they are dropping the crickets because they are stuffed.

 
I'm paranoid of overfeeding my mantises, so I only give them a single cricket and only a cricket that I know they will handle. The crickets I got a few days ago are also molting and growing, so some of them are too big for the L5 African mantises. I gave one to Angel and it made him really plump! But I know he could handle it. With the smaller mantises I just feed fruit flies until they appear plump.

 
JoeCapricorn said:
I'm paranoid of overfeeding my mantises, so I only give them a single cricket and only a cricket that I know they will handle. The crickets I got a few days ago are also molting and growing, so some of them are too big for the L5 African mantises. I gave one to Angel and it made him really plump! But I know he could handle it. With the smaller mantises I just feed fruit flies until they appear plump.
Click to expand...
What do you fear will happen if you overfeed them, Joe? They won't burst! :D They'll just stop eating!

 
I feed until they are full and not interested anymore. And with most of my mantids, I provide plenty of food available at all times (unless complications with food orders, acquiring them on time, or problems with eclosion. Then I resort to hand feeding roaches (my back-up food source that I always have and breed) to the ones who will accept it.

 
oh, yeah, that reminds me. I need help with hand-feeding (hey, I'm asking for help and admiting I'm having trouble). The mantis always gets scared when I try to hand feed it. I try handfeeding wahlbergii crickets when the crickets can hide or the wahlbergii is just too lazy to persue the cricket. I take 10 inch tongs and hold the cricket by the leg and I wiggle it like it is a fly in flight but the mantis usually backs away with forelegs close to the body.

 
Paranoid of overfeeding?

Sheesh, I think I'm a major offender of overfeeding...I find they just don't eat when they're not hungry.

I always try to keep some food in the cage, since I keep my ghosts all together. They're not all that predisposed to canibalism, but I figure better safe than sorry.

 

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