vegan alternative for mantises?

[kayimbo]

Hi. I found a mantis on a trash can at a gas station. Then a second mantis was hanging out on my door frame! now i love mantises.

what essential vitamins and nutrients are food bugs made out of? I want to try and make sort of extruded soy protein gelatin food for the mantises. I'm thinking if i can find something nutritious for them, i can make it into a jelly and make a little robot that wobbles around like an insect. cover the robot in vegan mantis food.

mantis see's robot wiggling around and starts eating it. eats all the good nutrient jelly, robot parts are left over for another feeding.

Any input on specific nutrients in insect bodies that mantis needs would be appreciated.

 

[jrh3]

HAHA LOL. REALLY? Whats wrong with them eating the natural food them have been eating and was born to eat throughout history? What if you were locked in a room and fed a multivitiman everyday and a glass of water?.

 

[Mime454]

Why do you feel the need to impose your morals on an insect? Feed it what nature intended or just let it go. Plus mantids won't eat prey unless it is moving.

 

[kayimbo]

wow this mantis forum is hopping!

since i have a male and female, i'm going to see if i can't breed my mantises to be vegans. i figure a bunch will die

uhm so i have no clue what kind of nutrients are found in insect meat that might not be available in plant form. i figure it can't be TOO specific because different species of mantis must have very different ideal prey!?!? does that make sense? If i can't find specific info, i think i'll do pretty much what the guy above recommended and try and just like, mix every random plant ###### together with the protein stuff and hope there isn't some mantis version of b12 deficiency.

 

[Mime454]

since i have a male and female, i'm going to see if i can't breed my mantises to be vegans. i figure a bunch will die

You said that you like mantids, but it's better for your mantis prisoners to die than for the bugs that they normally eat to die? What an odd morality. Trust me, you're going to have a near 100% death rate. You can't breed mantids to be vegans, Evolution has already spent millions of years ensuring that they're carnivores. And they're just going to starve to death unless you can install some kind of biodegradable motor to attract their attention.

 

[jrh3]

Your going to starve them to death, and they will die, what do you think the large raptors are for..... Holding jelly beans.....NO.

 

[Mime454]

Your going to starve them to death, and they will die, what do you think the large raptors are for..... Holding jelly beans.....NO.

Gnawing on Celerey.

 

[patrickfraser]

I'd really like to see this introduction. It's gotta be fascinating. :lol:

 

[kayimbo]

ah i dunno. genetics can adapt pretty quickly. you know the whole human cow milk example. if crickets can live on just some water and 1 or 2 types of food, their requirements for nutritional diversity must not be very high. I'm hoping that extends to most insects in general?!?!?

either way, i'll make my paste of whatever i can figure out, and if i can get these two to breed, see how many of the nymphs live from the paste ######.

Any input on what types of food should go into their food, or how to make a robot small enough a nymph would be attracted to it would be welcome.

 

[agent A]

ah i dunno. genetics can adapt pretty quickly. you know the whole human cow milk example. if crickets can live on just some water and 1 or 2 types of food, their requirements for nutritional diversity must not be very high.

crickets are NOT mantises!!! in the wild a cricket is an oppurtunistic scavengar/omnivore/herbivore thing

they do not survive long term on a small range of food and the only way to keep them alive for more than a few weeks is to give them a huge variety of things such as crackers, fish flakes, apple, orange, sweet potato, carrot, celery, strawberry, and a whole bunch of other ###### they can digest

just because something is a feeder insect doesnt mean it's requirements r any less than that of another insect and that they should be treated any worse than another insect

they r still insects and u only wanna feed healthy stuff to your insectivores

 

[Mime454]

Any input on what types of food should go into their food, or how to make a robot small enough a nymph would be attracted to it would be welcome.

We're obviously being trolled, guys.

 

[jrh3]

This noob is Coo Coo.

 

[kayimbo]

nah not a troll. just got alot of free time and have some roommates who are really into building robots. i'm thinking just have the food gel stuff kind of food dye painted to look like a tiny insect, and then have a motor pull it along on like the tiniest fishing line i can find or something.

for the food i have to do alot of reading about what insects are made of. off the top of my head i'm thinking like the extruded soy protein or whatever, mixed with ???

 

[Mime454]

I can't take this thread seriously anymore. Hopefully someone else will be able to help you, if it's even possible. I know that some mantids like honey, but you might as well feed them poison to make their death less prolonged.

 

[massaman]

or just get out of the hobby and do something else like trying this on spiders or scorpions or something else or do something like underwater basket weaving or something.

 

[brancsikia339]

This will never work. Very bad idea. Your mantids are going to die if you attempt this, so please don't. These innocent creatures are going to have a horrible prolonged death if you don't feed them live food. SOY PROTEIN?!!? FOR A LIVE MEAT EATING INSECT?!?! They're not humans, and they're certainly not crickets. My warning: PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS. If you're not going to feed them live, let them go. That's what I told my friend when he found one.

 

[massaman]

Or form a metal band and save the moss.

 

[Orin]

Sorry our members are more opinionated than friendly but I guess that's why most people like to hang out here (if everybody agrees the conversation becomes dull).

nah not a troll. just got alot of free time and have some roommates who are really into building robots. i'm thinking just have the food gel stuff kind of food dye painted to look like a tiny insect, and then have a motor pull it along on like the tiniest fishing line i can find or something.

for the food i have to do alot of reading about what insects are made of. off the top of my head i'm thinking like the extruded soy protein or whatever, mixed with ???

Obviously you could formulate a synthetic diet though the time and effort would be extensive. Many mantids eat prey that are little more than fat (many moths) so you might find the more extras you add the worse off the creatures are. You'd really need to start off with a very easy species to have any chance of success and you'd have to understand it's going to take more effort than you are guessing.

 

[agent A]

Sorry our members are more opinionated than friendly but I guess that's why most people like to hang out here (if everybody agrees the conversation becomes dull).

Obviously you could formulate a synthetic diet though the time and effort would be extensive. Many mantids eat prey that are little more than fat (many moths) so you might find the more extras you add the worse off the creatures are. You'd really need to start off with a very easy species to have any chance of success and you'd have to understand it's going to take more effort than you are guessing.

like pseudocreobotra or creobroter!! they r so prolific u can get enough experimental individuals from just a few adults!!