save male when breeding?

[Collin s]

for everyone that breeds, do you guys save the male when breeding or do you let her eat him? would feeding the female before breeding help out any with a chance of her being full and not being able to eating him?what do you guys do when breeding?

 

[Mime454]

Feed the female during breeding. Cannibalism is generally rare if you know what you're doing, and you can always manually pull the make from the female's claws.

 

[colddigger]

Make sure the female is very well fed prior to mating.
If I recall correctly I generally had her eating something when I left the male to mount, if her claws are full she can't grab him is the logic behind that.
Give them a nice open area to breed, the male will want to fly away afterward and he can't do that in a little cage.
I always just had them breeding on a bookshelf or something in my room with the door shut and left them mostly alone after I made sure he mounted and she wasn't going to outright kill him.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Feed her a bunch(as much as she'll eat)the days before and have plenty of prey in there when you try and mate them, yes save the male for remating later.

 

[Collin s]

ok thanks guys for the replies! i just thought it would suck if you had to get a new male every time you wanted to mate them. i cant wait to get my ghost mantises!

 

[lancaster1313]

To be safest, wait until the female is releasing her pheromones,(pointing her abdomen down). I don't always wait for the calling, but it is best to do so if you know what to look for. Feed her until she is no longer hungry. Give the couple plenty of room so the male can escape the female if he needs to. When the male tries to mount, or mounts, watch them for signs that the female is not in the mood, (even if she was calling). Obvoius signs are attacking him or kicking at his genitalia as if to prevent him from mating. Sometimes the female will hold her genitalia closed purposefully while she kicks at the male. If the female isn't having any of it, try again on another day.

If the male is not in the mood, you are out of luck until he gets in the mood. lol

 

[Collin s]

if the male isn't in the mood we've gotta problem!

 

[ScienceGirl]

There is a sticky topic (one of the ones at the top of the page) in the breeding section of the forum. That should help a lot.

Before breeding, you want your female nice and plump. You can feed her something to keep her occupied before introducing the male. Introduce the male behind her, where she hopefully won't see him.

Save the male if you can. Repeated matings over a couple days can improve chances of fertilization. Another good idea is to trade males of the same species with someone else to vary the gene pool and ensure healthy offspring.

 

[Collin s]

i actually just got done reading that thread. i was checking all the sticky notes or pinned threads.

one thing i didn't read that was clear is how breeding and what instar they need to be to breed. do they need to be 8th instar to be able to breed? i read somewhere that they need a couple weeks as an adult then they can breed. is that true for all species particularly ghost mantises?

 

[patrickfraser]

I think the "general" rule is 2 weeks after adult to breed females and males are supposed to be ready a week after becoming adult. I used to wait until the 2 week mark and try mating. Now I give the females more time to feed up and I will mate them when they start calling.

 

[Collin s]

ok thanks!

 

[Malakyoma]

I think the "general" rule is 2 weeks after adult to breed females and males are supposed to be ready a week after becoming adult. I used to wait until the 2 week mark and try mating. Now I give the females more time to feed up and I will mate them when they start calling.

A lot of big species and some smaller ones need a month for the females. My taus have been adult 3 weeks and aren't ready yet even though they eat like a dump truck.