R. Valida nymph not eating

[Plex]

My R. Valida, Scyther, is not accepting the small(around a third his size) crickets I offer him, or the fruit flies, and I was wondering what could be the cause. He is an L3/4 that I have had for a little over a week. He was eating well the first few days and then stopped eating suddenly. I know that they will not eat right before molting and for the first couple days that's what I thought it was, but the fact it's been around four days has me a bit worried and I was wondering if it can take that long or if I should try another prey item such as BB flies that may appeal to him more. My other mantis, an H. Parviceps, has no issues with accepting the crickets.

Thank you for your time.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

BB's can get a mantis attention better than most any prey item, so it's worth a try but I would guess he's going to molt, even not eating for 5 days is normal sometimes before hand, so don't worry to much yet.

 

[Plex]

Okay, thank you. ^^ I'll wait a couple more days then and wait to see what happens.

 

[Rick]

FF's seem a bit small for that size. It sounds like a molt is coming. I've had many a mantis refuse food for four or more days before a molt.

 

[fleurdejoo]

I may be wrong but I really think my Taumantis went for way longer then that not eating before a molt.

I mean it was crazy long. I will check my diary.

As soon as I find it!!!

We moved but it's here somewhere.

 

[Plex]

Enigmatic, they are, but he wasn't going for the crickets at all, and the blue bottle flies I ordered aren't scheduled to arrive until tomorrow or tuesday, so I figured it was worth a try at least even if they're too small.

And thanks fleurdejoo. ^^

 

[Precarious]

Don't start to worry until after it doesn't eat for a week. And when in doubt try smaller food. Valida are pretty aggressive eaters but I've found some mantids I thought weren't eating were just not taking food as large as I thought they should. I offered smaller prey and they took it right away. Collect some wild flies off of dog poop if you have to. They come in handy when you're out.

 

[gripen]

Not trying to be knit picky but in the future this species should be called Rhombodera sp. (valida), as we are not 110 percent sure on the correct ID.

 

[fleurdejoo]

True story!!!

On the catching flies from dog pooh.

Precarious told me to to do that today and I fed 10 + mantids.

I fell during the move and killed all my houseflies.

Catlike reflexes!

 

[Plex]

Thanks for the advice Precarious, I'll make sure to catch some in the backyard.

And okay gripen, I'll keep it in mind.

 

[patrickfraser]

Not trying to be knit picky but in the future this species should be called Rhombodera sp. (valida), as we are not 110 percent sure on the correct ID.

I don't think we'll ever be able to attain those numbers for a proper ID. :lol: How sure are we?

 

[fleurdejoo]

Ok so, my Taumantis stopped eating on Aug 11th. She didn't molt until the 20th!

I remember being pretty worried.