Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are mantids really worth the time u have to put into them. how big do they get. how big should they be to fed them to the cham.
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1.2 veiled chameleons(Rocket, Jenevive, and Sally)
soon to get a leo.

I was wondering this myself. Why buy a mantis instead of crickets? Are the better for the animal?(if so, i will start feeding them to my rose hair tarantula)

Mantids are very recognizable to a cham - its one of their natural prey items. They are good to have especially for chams on hunger strikes. Its always good to have as many different types of feeders on hand as possible. I am working on hatching about 8 egg cases now. Check out ebay to buy them and www.wildeyereptiles.com for care sheets on them.

-roo

that sorta hlped but it was a care sheet for the mantids. when do you feed tem to the cham( size) and cant they hurt the cham.
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1.2 veiled chameleons(Rocket, Jenevive, and Sally)
soon to get a leo.

There's a lot of work that goes into raising mantids. They need to be in individual containers (big plastic cups work great). But Chams go totally crazy for them. Some baby ones got loose and made their way into my cham's cage. Even though they were tiny, he went all over the cage hunting them (usualy doesn't like to move much for his food). The Mantis also make neat pets. I kept a female and she was lots of fun to have around. Just let her free roam in my room, stayed on a plant near the window. Mated her with a male and got second gen babies. Each female lays about 3 egg cases, 50-200 babies can hatch out of one egg case.

Why not try stick bugs ive got a little colony of those going ATM. Stick bugs are great cause they dont eat other insects like mantids and the females are A sexual. And for the size thing, could try almost any size thats reasonable. My Mellers eats about 4 inch long sticks.

where did you get stick bugs. where could i find a caresheet on them
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1.2 veiled chameleons(Rocket, Jenevive, and Sally)
soon to get a leo.

-roo
Sticks