Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have read that chameleons love green foods such as grasshoppers and praying mantids- I want to try to raise mantids from the eggs you can get at a garden shop to feed my vieleds occasionaly- has anyone heard of this practice? or maybe some other green feeders that are available? does anyone know how to go about raising mantids or where i can get some info?

This question was recently asked, and I believe there is at least one person on this forum doing JUST that right now. I've never raised mantid as food source, but I would think the best way to do it would be to place mantid eggs in a 22 gallon reptarium or all screen enclosure, with plenty of plastic vines and LOTS of little prey items, such as fruit flies or pinhead crickets. Just keep them all together, making sure they don't crowd too much, and adjust prey item size as they get bigger, moving to flies and larger crickets as they bigger.
Using this method, there will be some canabalism with the mantids, but the only way to avoid that would be to house them each individually (which would cost too much, IMHO).
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

I'm raising mantids from egg right now. Rather exciting. One egg case has hatched (I have 3 total), my best count of the mantids is about 75. You will need a LOT of fruit flies and pin heads. Also be sure to have a tiny mesh covering on what ever container you keep them in. I made that mistake and I'm still finding mantids around my house. lol Chameleons love them... one mantis found it's way into his cage and was promptly eaten. A brief run through of how to raise them is: They need lots of space as they grow up. They can be kept in the same cage untill their second shed or they'll start to eat each other. So far it doesn't seem like mine are eating each other. They need a good level of humidity to shed correctly. Otherwise they can die from failed shed. A shallow dish of water is needed for drinking. They will drink from standing water. They like perching areas, but it's not needed. They can climb right up glass. For online info, I couldn't find any for raising them as a food source. One with good info is www.mantiskingdom.com. The more they eat, the faster they will grow. Be sure not to give them insects too much bigger as they will try to eat them and could get hurt. If you're in a cold area, they enjoy a heat source but I've read that it's not needed. Hope this helps!

How large are the mantids after a 2nd shed? At what age(how long til)they are able to be fed out. How many of those 75 make it to the age that you could feed to the Cham? I'm considering doing this. Thanks-Maggie

Mine haven't shed yet, so not sure on the size. Mine are about 1/2 of an inch right now, maybe a bit smaller. Only about a week or so old. But my chameleon has eaten a few at this size. Not much of a meal though. Not much too the mantids at this point. But I'm probably going to feed off most of them before they reach full size, 3-4 inches. My chameleon isn't that big really. This is my first time raising mantids so don't have a figure on the survival rate. My other egg case hatched today, that one had about 120! So I'm a bit over run with mantids and I still have another egg case to hatch. I've put about 15 of them in seperate big cups so just in case they start to eat each other like mad, it won't be a total loss. I'm really having a lot of fun with raising the mantids. They're a lot of fun to watch. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Thanks FisherCham-It'd be something to be able to offer more delicious items. 1/2 inch could be a good starting point to start to offer, and then we wouldn't have to feed so much FF and small bugs. What do you feed your Mantids at this size? Thanks-Maggie