some odd foods ive used

[JSaff86]

ok so i was just curious if any of the folowing would be bad for the health of a mantis. last year i fed my chinese mantis fish, raw chicken, raw beef, and left over flounder from the fillets i got from fishing. all the raw meats i just used a pair of tweezers and put in near my mantises mouth. I dont know if any of these choices were bad but she lived a long life so i didnt see a problem with any of these. anyone else feed theres anything wierd?

 

[massaman]

no I would never feed mine anything like that even if it was dying because in the wild they would not have access to that and prob just die or starve and trying to keep a mantis alive just for a few more days is something I just dont really try to do if a mantis is going to die then so be it as I said in nature this is the laws of the animal kingdom!

 

[frogparty]

Whatever works! I feed my cats tuna, they'd neer get that in the wild, but they love it

 

[Rick]

Only time I've done that is when I had run out of food or something. I can't see it causing much harm unless it is the primary diet maybe.

 

[JSaff86]

Only time I've done that is when I had run out of food or something. I can't see it causing much harm unless it is the primary diet maybe.

yeah i just did it for the fun of it. she mostly ate crickets i either caught wild or from the pet store

 

[eyes]

Since they eat snakes, lizards, frogs, birds, fish, etc in the wild I can't imagine that any type of raw meat would be bad for them. Maybe not as the primary diet but I don't think it hurts them. They seem to like it as much as insects anyway.

 

[whatislove]

Alot of the time I have to resort to handfeeding nymphs brine shrimp because fruit fly cultures are so sporadic.

They love the stuff and as soon as I pop the toothpick in the enclosure they stalk it like they would prey.

Raw meats lack a few things that mantids need but brine shrimp has most of what raw meat is missing (Mainly Chitin) and is a very good hydrater. It's also cheap as heck, Pretty sure I got just about a years supply for over 200 nymphs for under 5 bucks.

On more of the weird side though, my heirodula mascjula ate a big chunk of cooked bacon a few weeks ago, My friend thought it would be funny and I didn't think she'd eat it but devoured it in less than 30 seconds lol

 

[Mvalenz]

Wow! Bacon? How can anything resist bacon? My budwing ate a live goldfish before. Maybe I'll feed it a bacon wrapped fillet next time.