Praying Mantis

[Michael]

Hello
I was just surfing the web, looking for some praying Mantis egg sac. I came across the MantidForum.com and found a website called "mantisplace.com" that sells all kind of Mantis and their egg sac. I just thought I would share this with people who are interested on getting some Mantis as feeder.

 

[pohchunyee]

Yeah...they sell Mantis Ooth for 5 bucks with cup and incubating instruction in it. Buy them now, cos they are offering free shipping anywhere in USA.. Don't tell them you are feeding the mantis to your chameleon. LOL. They loves mantis a lot!!!

 

[Michael]

Yeah...they sell Mantis Ooth for 5 bucks with cup and incubating instruction in it. Buy them now, cos they are offering free shipping anywhere in USA.. Don't tell them you are feeding the mantis to your chameleon. LOL. They loves mantis a lot!!!

yeah the website have some good deals and the website seems to be getting pretty good review on their Customer service. I am always trying to find various type of food to feed my cham. Maybe getting some next week.

 

[royden]

I'm actually a mantis and insect hobbyist as well as a chameleon keeper.

My giant african recently became ill and I considered feeding him to my 6 month old veiled but he was way too big. Plus I don't want to feed a sick insect to a healthy cham.


My question is: How do you gutload a mantis? They eat crickets too, so besides the fact that they're a different insect to eat, you're basically moving your cham down the food chain by feeding a gutloaded cricket to a mantis that uses the vitamins and nutrients, and then feeding mantis to the cham. Seems like it's not beneficial, besides possible flavor.



Unless you feed the mantis imidiately after it eats, but even then - what's the point?

 

[pohchunyee]

I kept Mantis for fun and not for feeding Chameleon. I don't think it is financially affordable to feed mantis to chameleon. Mantis are carnivour. They have to feed on other insect too. So, to keep mantis alive, they need fresh food like flies, roaches and cricket. Whats the point of using mantis as feeder when you need other feeder insect to keep mantis alive?? Given that you can gutload and feed the insect directly to your chameleon.

Unless you are having mantis nymph to feed on newly hatched/born baby chameleon.

 

[Michael]

I'm actually a mantis and insect hobbyist as well as a chameleon keeper.

My giant african recently became ill and I considered feeding him to my 6 month old veiled but he was way too big. Plus I don't want to feed a sick insect to a healthy cham.


My question is: How do you gutload a mantis? They eat crickets too, so besides the fact that they're a different insect to eat, you're basically moving your cham down the food chain by feeding a gutloaded cricket to a mantis that uses the vitamins and nutrients, and then feeding mantis to the cham. Seems like it's not beneficial, besides possible flavor.



Unless you feed the mantis imidiately after it eats, but even then - what's the point?

hi
just to make things clear, I have never feed mantis to my cham yet, because I didn't know where to get them. so I don't really know how to gutload them.
Like you said why feed cham mantis if they are not that nutritious(I personally don't think they are) I intend to feed them to my cham as treat, and not as stable food.

I currently feed my cham cricket and silkworm as stable food; mealworm, superworm, waxworm, butterworm as treats, and hopefully add mantis to the list.

I think various type of foods is important to chams' physical and "MENTAL" health. In the wild, chams have the access to different type of insects, however in captivity chams rely on us to provide them that.

I mean you don't want to eat steak everyday, do you? (I know I don't) so yeah hope this answer you Q

 

[royden]

I don't know about the whole "vartiety for varieties sake" idea. I bet crickets taste mighty different when you dust them, or when you vary their gutload betweeen greens.

Today I was hand feeding my veiled and he took a tongue stab at my wedding ring.

Last week he stabbed at my calcium dusty fingertip.


I really don't think these animals are driven by taste unless their body tells them that the taste may be dangerous or uneatable. I think variety in gutload must be more important than the the shape or subtle flavour of their prey.

But this is of course speculation.

 

[Heika]

I don't know about the whole "vartiety for varieties sake" idea. I bet crickets taste mighty different when you dust them, or when you vary their gutload betweeen greens.

Today I was hand feeding my veiled and he took a tongue stab at my wedding ring.

Last week he stabbed at my calcium dusty fingertip.


I really don't think these animals are driven by taste unless their body tells them that the taste may be dangerous or uneatable. I think variety in gutload must be more important than the the shape or subtle flavour of their prey.

But this is of course speculation.

You bring up a good point. The longer I keep chameleons, the more important the gutload becomes to me. I still believe that variety is important, but making every bug count regardless of what it is is even more important. A roach can carry a lot of chow in its guts to a hungry chameleon, but so can a cricket, a superworm, and even silkworms. Kinda like a cream filled doughnut.. only healthy!

I have a female veiled that starts lining up to shoot as soon as I open her cage. I wear glasses and she shot one of the lenses the other day.. gross. Glad it was my glasses and not my eyeball..

Heika

 

[nateboston78]

Hi all - dont forget that in addition to a healthy and nutritious food source for our cham's, chameleons always need a varied diet for personal well-being.

Although it may seem pointless to feed a mantid (a feeder that eats another feeder) the addition of such a feeder enhances the overall well being of the chameleon in captivity. I feed my chams mantids ocassionally and the flare up of interest generated from the inclusion of such a feeder lends me to believe that it is a worthwhile snack.

Nate

 

[nateboston78]

I don't know about the whole "vartiety for varieties sake" idea. I bet crickets taste mighty different when you dust them, or when you vary their gutload betweeen greens.

Today I was hand feeding my veiled and he took a tongue stab at my wedding ring.

Last week he stabbed at my calcium dusty fingertip.


I really don't think these animals are driven by taste unless their body tells them that the taste may be dangerous or uneatable. I think variety in gutload must be more important than the the shape or subtle flavour of their prey.

But this is of course speculation.

Royden,

You may want to read "The Chameleon Panther" by Fugerson, Murphy, Ramanamanjato, and Raselimanana. Turn to page 15, Behavioral Regulation of Nutrition. Although little is known about nutritional requirements in captivity, the experiment shown using senegals depicting prey preference by Perri Eason in the 90's is pretty compelling stuff.

Nate

 

[royden]

Thanks Nate. I am new to this hobby.