# Help! My Praying Mantis havent eat for 2 days.



## Perilous (Apr 21, 2012)

I've just caught my mantid yesterday. i placed it in a small tank and also bought mealworms and cought a spider for it to eat. but it havent been eating anty since yesterday..how do i feed it??!! HELP!!


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## gray1 (May 24, 2010)

Mantises don't eat everyday unless you feed them really small prey. If you fill them up each feeding then you only need to feed them maybe twice a week.
Also if a mantis is nearing time to shed its skin it will not eat.


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Caught a mantis? :gasp:

Try feeding it on flying food, small flies if it's small, big flies if it's medium, bees or wasps if it's an adult. 

Mealworms can be difficult to feed, if you just stick it in the mantis face it just freaks them out, the food needs to move in the right way which triggers their feeding response, the best way to to this is put the meal worm on a flat surface and make it move, somewhere where it can't bury. 

I've fed spiders to my mantids before, but just be careful, some spiders can have a nasty bite...


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## Perilous (Apr 21, 2012)

i see, I just fed it butterflies yesterday. is that the best food for a mantid?


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Perilous said:


> i see, I just fed it butterflies yesterday. is that the best food for a mantid?


They can be a bit fluttery, too much wing, not enough food. Plus I hear the powder on their wings can be poisonous to them, but I'm not sure if there is any truth in it.


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## Oderus (Nov 24, 2009)

I find them to be more buttery than fluttery myself, but I rip off the wings before eating them. As for the wing dust/scales being toxic I don't about that, but I used to have a cham that loved them though.


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## Perilous (Apr 21, 2012)

So is a mealworm the best source of food? coz i bought quite a few mealworms


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Meal worms are ok, if you can get your mantis to eat them.


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## Perilous (Apr 21, 2012)

i just left about 2 mealworms and after a few hrs both are gone


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## OrigamiB (Feb 19, 2008)

do you have a soil substrate? mealworms will burrow in the substrate pretty quickly


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## norfendz (Jun 30, 2008)

were did you catch a mantis?


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