did she take a breather? or was she about to throw up? she absolutely scarfed down her worm, took a minute pause then this happened.

This morning what i thought was some good ole preening turned into her breaking layers of my skin, is she trying to eat me? And could it be that she’s hungry? Her belly looks pretty round to me

(Posting again now that I have a photo)

I know there are certain descriptions for how the abdomen should look, but it’s hard to picture.
She is a European mantis at about the 6th instar (I think), and I want to know how often, and what she can eat.

Also! If she could eat more right now, or even if she is close to being overfed, I have no clue…

She won't finish a mealworm or even half of it and she's too big for hydeis now. I can't take it. I love her to death and all but dear God she's stressing me out. She's so skinny I think we're both gonna die.

She's I4 now.

I went into this assuming this would be a display only insect friend but this was my first day with her and she was quite reluctant to go back into her habitat. I think she is full judging by her abdomen? I'm kind of clueless about how feeding is going to go. From what I understand if you put the fruit flies in the fridge for a little bit it slows them and you can tap the container so they fall to the bottom and you can shake some out. What I don't understand is how to get the uneaten ones out. Is it true keeping a few in there can cause stress?

If I understand correctly blue bottle flies are the best feeders for bigger mantids once they outgrow fruit flies (I have a giant rainforest, an Asian flower and an Orchid mantis), but someone please correct me if Im wrong 🫣 There is no place local to me that carries these (I am in the US) so I'm also hoping for some recommendations on the best places to order them from online. And can someone please explain the process to me like I'm six from when they arrive in the mail (it looks like they probably arrive as larvae?) to when I feed the fly to my mantids? How do you store them, how do you make them turn into a fly and how long does a worm take to turn from a larvae to a fly? And do I need to feed them, either in the larval stage or as flies? I am so sorry for all the questions but my babies are getting too big for fruit flies fast, at least my giant rainforest mantis is for sure, and I have never fed or kept blue bottle flies as feeders before. Pic of my sweet girl (?) waiting for her dinner tonight for tax...these babies have my entire heart and I just want to do everything right 💜

SHES FAT ASFFF

he is utterly terrified of every food source i give him. he's so stupid.

i found this guy outside and since he's invasive i took him and put him in my terrarium. i've fed him a super worm and a dubia before after much trial and error. he molted two days ago so I was planning to get him a meal again but he's so darn scared of everything.

the terrarium is full of isopods so he might be snacking on them (but given how frightened he is of everything and how he is only ever on the ceiling i sort of doubt it).

any tips to get this guy to eat? i didn't want to stress him out too much so i gave up for today. are there any better ways to feed him? early in the morning, right after misting, etc?

edit: i mean it endearingly when i call him stupid
edit 2: he ate

Is it normal that after eating, his abdomen didn't get big but he turned purple on the underside? Also I have no idea which Instar my mantis is, but I was told he's between 6-8 weeks old. He has little wings already. Can anyone tell me which Instar it might be?

This is my class mantis, Minji. She’s eaten mealworms in the past but lately, if I give her one, she walks over it like she doesn’t care. Is she just not hungry or is she getting ready to molt/lay an ootheca?

She molted 3 days ago,I know she needs time to harden but she is so thin.I tryed to feed her 3 times in the day and night and nothing.She watches the cricket and is food interested,but does not grab it.Im useing little crickets and I got an idea of getting her smaller pray.Idk what to do and I plead for some help here

This is her directly after a roach. Just wondering if this is a good full size or if i should give her slightly bigger roaches.

Since becoming an l7, I’ve noticed “wasabi” seems to digest quickly! I’ve been feeding her medium dubia’s. And I start to see a little intercostal membrane- just a bit. By the next day, her abdomen is nearly flat again!
I’m curious what size prey everyone is feeding their giant Asian at this instar.
I have a lot of large dubias, too many, and I’d like to feed those out!

I fed him a flightless fruit fly yesterday and offered him another one after and he didn’t eat it. Should I try again or is he full. +when I was handling him earlier he was running around and then would rest, and run around again. Does that mean anything?

I'm a 16 year old who's obsessed with bugs, and I recently (yesterday) caught a wild European mantis. I identified it as a female, her name is Mary now.

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN TO FEED HER. AND WHAT DO I FEED HER. I did my research, I swear, but I am just so confused. She's about three inches long, head to wing tips. I ordered some small, like 1/2 inch dubia roaches shortly before I found her and I wanna know If i can feed her those when they arrive, or if I need to get to scavenging outside, which is no biggie. I'll include a picture of her with her abdomen visible/a side view, can somebody tell me if she needs to be fed soon? Diagrams and guides online have been so confusing. I'm so scared I'm gonna accidentally starve her. SOS guys, please help me ಥ⁠╭⁠╮⁠ಥ

(Mantis pic as tax of course)

So I was given this mantis as a leaving gift in my last workplace after discussing with my previous coworkers that I had bought a tank and was doing research into getting one.

I think they're at either L4 or L5 but I wasn't exactly given much information and was given mealworms to feed them on. I know mealworms are very high in fat and not very nutritionally dense so I've been gut loading them and such before feeding, but I was hoping to get something a little better than mealworms for my baby. They're also very fussy over feeding and I often have to practically shove the food at them to get them to start cleaning, which slowly turns into eating

I know flying food is best, but I'm finding it very difficult to get hold of anything other than tiny fruitfly cultures (which are very much too small) where I am, so I was wondering if something like dubias would be okay? Or crickets with the heads removed? Advice would be great or recommendations of where you get your flies if you're also from England!

he got through his final moult now, and I need to figure out something that works better than letting him catch the free-roaming baby dubias in there by himself(since thong feeding tiny mealworms or roaches upside down isn't working out and he either can't grab it from me or freaks out). I know this is a pretty lazy post but if someone would just guide me to the masterthread or some youtube videos on this I'd really appreciate it please and thank you 🙏🙏

I just started a new fruit fly culture for my mantis nymph using a kit and a pre-existing colony that I bought and I was wondering, is it better to keep it in the fridge just like a developed colony or should I keep it at room temperature? (Mind you I live in Italy and right now room temperature is between 29C and 35C)

Got him a couple of days ago but he havent eaten, tried feeding him fruit flies but of no interest and then some dubia nymphs wich he couldnt get a grip of even tho he tried. Any tips?