Mantis as a feeder?
- Thread starter zlew
- Start date
pigglett79
Avid Member
While mantids can be exciting for your cham, they are not an economical feeder at all. They eat a ton of insects, grow very slow (take months to be full grown in many cases) and if housed together they will eat each other even if well fed.
I kept them for a while, but it became too much to continually feed them insects and house them separate. I would only recommend them if you are interested in them for fun, but not solely as a food source for your cham.
I kept them for a while, but it became too much to continually feed them insects and house them separate. I would only recommend them if you are interested in them for fun, but not solely as a food source for your cham.
RyU
New Member
My chams love mantis. I've never hatched them before so I'm not entirely sure how to rear the young. They are insectivores so they'll probably eat small crickets and stuff like that. They are also cannibalistic so you will have to find out about that too. Not sure at what age they will start eating each other, but they will eventually.
The egg cases (called "ooths"-short for ootheca) are not in season right now, but will be early 2015. A new hatched Chinese Mantis ooth will produce 200-400 tiny nymphs. They will need Melanagastor fruit fly cultures, then Heidei fruit fly cultures, and then blue bottle flies.
Once they get to BB flies, you can do crickets, but the crickets should br able to climb up to the mantis who hang out up high.
A "solution" is to keep them together, they will cannibalize, then separate the number you want as feeders out into 32 ounce insect cups. Then you can move to feeding BB flies, and smaller crickets.
Pigglett is sooo right-it is more work for a feeder than it is worth.:roll eyes:
Nick
Once they get to BB flies, you can do crickets, but the crickets should br able to climb up to the mantis who hang out up high.
A "solution" is to keep them together, they will cannibalize, then separate the number you want as feeders out into 32 ounce insect cups. Then you can move to feeding BB flies, and smaller crickets.
Pigglett is sooo right-it is more work for a feeder than it is worth.:roll eyes:
Nick
junglefries
Avid Member
I am yet to a mantid last longer than 4 seconds in a cage. You blink, you miss.
