She molted!!...badly

[Carnival Glass]

Hey there everyone~ Nemo molted sometime last night while I was asleep and she did pretty well..except for her wings. They're sorta..everywhere.  She seems fine and MUCH bigger at least, climbing right onto me and tickling my hand lol. She can't really climb like this now, but she can walk pretty fast so I was wondering how you think I should rearrange her habitat to accommodate this? 

 

[Connor]

Hmm... her legs look pretty mangled. As far as an enclosure. If she can't climb make more horizontal space? It's hard for a mantis to catch food if they can't climb and stuff but with some special care she should be able to survive.

 

[Carnival Glass]

Hmm... her legs look pretty mangled. As far as an enclosure. If she can't climb make more horizontal space? It's hard for a mantis to catch food if they can't climb and stuff but with some special care she should be able to survive.

Her legs are actually working okay now, her one front raptoral arm has a little bit of molted skin still on it but she's been grooming it off. Her wings don't seem to want to fold any other way than that though.. Yeah I've taken out most of her plants and I'm thinking of just sprinkling a few leaves around and setting up like 'ramps' for her to walk up on so she feels like shes off the ground. Gonna feed her some moths with tweezers today too and we'll see how that goes.  ^_^

 

[Connor]

Alright, good luck

 

[Ocelotbren]

The back two legs look bent as if she fell while molting.  It probably won't be an issue, as long as she didn't sustain any internal injuries during the fall, which you can verify once you see that she can eat and poop.  But that's probably why her wings didn't open correctly, because she fell and couldn't get into the right position to let them open like they're supposed to.  Or she fell while they were drying and they got bent in weird directions.  But the wings won't impact her health so no issues there!  I believe you can simply trim them with scissors if they're impeding her movement.

Also, she'll get better at moving around as she gets used to her bent legs and so on, so hopefully she'll become more agile in time.

 

[Carnival Glass]

The back two legs look bent as if she fell while molting.  It probably won't be an issue, as long as she didn't sustain any internal injuries during the fall, which you can verify once you see that she can eat and poop.  But that's probably why her wings didn't open correctly, because she fell and couldn't get into the right position to let them open like they're supposed to.  Or she fell while they were drying and they got bent in weird directions.  But the wings won't impact her health so no issues there!  I believe you can simply trim them with scissors if they're impeding her movement.

Also, she'll get better at moving around as she gets used to her bent legs and so on, so hopefully she'll become more agile in time.

She seems alright in regard to eating/pooping and yeah you're probably right that she fell at some point.  I'm glad shes okay and yeah she acts like the wings arent even there, and her legs (though bendy) are moving just fine..
I'm never heard of trimming their wings. That won't hurt or make her bleed..? O:

 

[Ocelotbren]

I haven't done it myself, but I have seen it mentioned before:



and:



The second thread above has some more detailed discussion on it if you're curious.

 

[Carnival Glass]

I haven't done it myself, but I have seen it mentioned before:



and:



The second thread above has some more detailed discussion on it if you're curious.

Thank you for those threads! I think I'll wait a few days and see how she's faring with her wings like that..
If she's having trouble, I'll cut just a tiny bit to start with.
The pics I posted here look a lot worse than she really is though tbh. She's crawling all over me and drinking water droplets off my palm  :wub:  Like she doesn't even know shes got wonky wings lol~

 

[Ocelotbren]

Haha that is great then!  It's possible you won't have to do anything if she just gets used to it and can get around.

 

[cwebster]

Wishing the best for you and Nemo. Out of five Chinese mantises only one molted perfectly despite having a humidifier in the bathroom with them. One sadly wont eat no matter what I try (honey, cricket guts). The three with crumpled wings dont need to fly and are eating fine.