Oh boy!

[Norse Princess]

So, my guinea pig, sadly died while my boyfriend was back from Afghanistan.

But, my mom saw an add in the paper for a husky, and we are going on Tuesday to look at him. We might get him, he is a rescue and two years old, solid white.

But if we get him or not, I'm thinking about getting another pet. Now, I love having animals that no one else has, like my hedgehog and my gecko. But I'm thinking about getting another one. I wanna get a praying mantis. Not sure what kind specifically yet, but I was wondering if there was anyone here that knew anything about caring for mantids?  

[Vanilla eXee]

Luckily we have a few mantis owners here. Might wanna put that in the title so they know to look here. And please listen to what they say for care advice before you get one. I know it's probably not your fault she died, but you did not listen to us about GP care.  

[Norse Princess]

He got a really bad infection and I did everything the vet told me but we caught it too late and he died.  

[Vanilla eXee]

That is very sad and I'm sorry to hear about it.  

[Krissim Klaw]

I'm sorry to hear about your guinea pig. When my boy passed he went unexpectedly quick too. The little ones can crash so fast.



I've been keeping mantises for years now. They are for the most part an easy to keep critter and very fun to watch. Is there anything specific you are hoping to learn about?

As far as species, it really depends what you are looking for. Most of the species are all fine for even the beginner mantis owner to tackle. It really depends what you are looking for size and shape wise? How much you want to spend? What you prefer feeding as prey, and if you are going to be interested in handling them or not?  

[Norse Princess]

I'm looking into getting either a wide armed mantis, Egyptian mantis, or a European mantis. I found a site that sells them. I'll feed them anything that I'm able to get a hold of easily and locally, I will have to ask the guy I get my crickets from for my gecko if he can get smaller prey in case I have nymphs.

I would love to get them used to me so they can be handled easily. I'm prepared to get cut a few times during that process.

I have a 10-gallon tank for it, so it will have lots of room for climbing and hiding.

I just want to know general care. Feeding, substrates, housing. That sort of thing. The site I will order it from has care sheets for various species, but they are a little broad.  

[Krissim Klaw]

All three of those species are nice and hardy, so great choices there. Only thing I would point out is the Egyptian mantises stay pretty tiny so it depends if you want to get one that will be able to tackle larger prey items. The European is a staple beginner species in the hobby. Then the wide arms, though I have never owned one I have heard are absolute beasts when it comes to hunting. I saw a photo someone took of one holding a stick probably five times its size in one of its claws.

I handle mine all the time, but have never been attacked so hopefully there will be no cuts for you. The trick is to never try to corner or grip the mantis but instead let them crawl up onto your hand and guide them with very gentle puffs of air or a little tap to a back leg if needed.

I usually bring up handling versus species because I feel some species are easier to handle than others. Generally it tends to be if you have one of the more active bold species or the more timid species that prefer to move less and hide amongst the leaves more. All the species you mentioned are what I would consider to be bold and active species so they should be fairly confident and easy to handle. I imagine though the wide arms could give a nastier pinch than most though if they had a mind to.

When it comes to housing, simpler often proves to be easier. You will want to get a number of sticks of varying sizes and angles for larger set ups. At the same time you want to take care not to make it too cluttered because they need to have room when molting. A lot of people like to use sphagnum moss for substrate because it holds moisture well. Personally, I don't use any substrate because my mantises are never down there and it makes it harder to clean since fecal matter and uneaten prey items drop into it. Instead I merely use a moist paper towel to hold in the moisture. It is cheap and easy to clean.

Initially you might want to start out with a deli cup or smaller critter keeper to house your nymph. Larger containers can make it harder to make sure your prey items and mantis are meeting. That, or you can do what I do and feed your mantis when out or in a smaller feeding cage before releasing back into their big set ups. Lol lately I've gotten in the habit of hand feeding my girls out of cups. I will drop a cricket in, hold the little plastic cup up to them, and they will reach right in and take it out. I guess you could say I serve breakfast in bed. xd

Although a ten gallon tank can make a nice set up, I am more a fan of the net cages such as the one you can find at Live Monarch. They are cheap, provide a lot of room, and are the easiest material for most species to cling to.

If you are getting a nymph your best bet is to order some fruit flies with it to feed. Fruit flies are very easy to culture and pretty inexpensive. You can pick them up at Petco and some specialty pet stores too, but the ones at Petco come in a tiny tube so you will need to mix your own culture up to get them properly reproducing and going.  

[Norse Princess]

Well, the site is sold out of the wide arm and the egyptian and the european are available as adults only at the moment. I would prefer to have an adult or juvenile rather than a nymph for starting off so then I can get used to caring for them.

I will probably use paper towel. I have substrate in my gecko's cage and I know how much of a pain in the neck it is for cleaning. I'm not overly concerned about getting cut or pinched, it happens when you have a new pet. I know how many times I've been bit and scratched by my other animals.

I won't go apeshit for decorating the cage. My gecko's set up is pretty simple, so I'll go with the same idea for the mantis. I have a smaller size critter keeper already for when I would take my gecko places, it doesn't get used much because he hates it.

It's so cute that they will just take it from your directly. The only thing I fear about fruit flies is them getting out and buzzing all around my room.  

[Krissim Klaw]

The fruitflies you get for feeding are wingless fruit flies, so generally they aren't too bad unless you culture them for many generations and they start to get their ability to fly back.

If you go with an adult you have more wiggle room with decorating since you don't have to worry about shedding.

Do you mind me asking who you are ordering from? I am curious to see if I know the seller.  

[Norse Princess]

The site is mantisplace.com.  

[Krissim Klaw]

Ahh she is one of my friends. A great person to order from. She packages her mantises with love and will make sure your stuff gets to you alive. =3  

[Norse Princess]

Yay! Haha. That's good that she's a trusted seller. Makes me feel a lot better about buying from her.  

[LittleMissMich]

Here's a link if you'd like to get interested in culturing your own fruitflies. I like getting started before my new critter comes so I know I have enough to feed it. And to work the kinks out of the process a bit.
Culturing Fruit Flies
hope this helps^^