Using dubias as feeders...........

[mantidmomma]

I am confused. I have read through tons of posts and do not see my question answered, so here goes.

My orchid, Beauty, LOVES dubias! I started a colony that are growing at leaps and bounds. I feed organic and give them organic cantaloupe balls for fluids. 

I fed dubias to my 2 galinthia amoenas and 2 Indian barks. I fed the galinthia many weeks before the barks. The galinthias got very ill. I posted about it when it happened but could not figure out what went wrong. One made it. The other did not. 

Fast forward to when I fed the barks...they got sick. By sick I mean they were in the bottom of their habitats and they were not moving. They were lethargic. I nursed them and thankfully, both survived.

Since this happened, I am afraid of dubias with my mantids.

Are there certain species that should NOT eat dubias? Or was this just a fluke for me? I log everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. The ONLY connection to the 4 of them getting ill was the dubias. At the same time, my orchid was continually eating the dubias.

Any input would be appreciated. I know that they can get ill for no apparent reason. But my gut says that was not the case. 

 

[Aristalochia]

Did you raise them or acquire them from elsewhere? I have read about people that had issues with store bought feeders. Ranging from throwing away an unpaletable superworm to death from crickets. Although these shouldn't pose a problem, it seems that if cared for badly enough, they can taste bad or even kill our pets. If you raised them yourself, I think it is not likely the cause. That being said, I've also heard of reports from vets saying someones frogs died from blockage cause by those poly-acrylamide 'water crystals' used for providing water to crickets. The dry polyacrylamide holds something enormous, like 200 times its weight in water. So if a tiny piece, gets stuck to a feeder or maybe even a dry piece gets ingested by said feeder, and then eaten by your pet that could be a problem too.. I'm not saying that's the cause but, maybe..food for thought.

If it came from the wild, which I highly doubt. I believe mantids often get parasytes like nematodes that actually cause the mantis to seek out water where the huge worm crawls out into a puddle to complete the next stage of its life cycle. Maybe someone more experienced can chime in here, has anyones pet mantis ever got parasytes from a feeder?

 

[mantidmomma]

The adults we bought elsewhere. We have had them about 4 months.  We don't use water crystals (thank goodness). We use frozen fruit balls for water and they love it. I'm now debating if we should keep our dubia colony or rehome them.

 

[Aristalochia]

The orchid has not any problems, right? I've not kept barks, maybe they are a sensitive species. I suspect the dubia to be fine, but that's just a feeling.. I hope your luck changes

 

[mantidmomma]

Thank you!