Friday, August 1, 2008

Mannie is now Madaline

On the 25th of July Mannie refused food, batting at, but not snatching it? I found out this is what mantis do to prepare for molting their exoskeleton. This refusal of food lasted 7 days, I was a bit nervous, but was reassured by others who keep mantis, this is normal for a well fed mantis, which Mannie was. We fed Mannie daily one moth or grasshopper, now I find out it's best to feed them every other day. Anyway on the seventh day which was yesterday I checked in on her at 7:00am and still nothing. At 9:00 looked at her cage (I didn't have my glasses on) and I saw her laying on the bottom of her cage, my heart sank, she died...I lifted her cage and saw something on the lid of the cage move...
it was Mannie she had motled! I thought her exoskeleton was her...

This is what I saw...
I know it looks like a dead insect...
this is what Mannie looked like before her molt

And this is Madaline today (We call her Madaline because we found out he is a she...lol)

After she molted she grew about an inch or more...she is really getting big. When my girls found out she was female the said they want to mate her...we would have to find a male for that...I don't know if I could handle watching her eat her mate....I just don't know....lol

2 comments:

  1. Ewww ewww ewww ewww!!!! I saw this post and screamed when i saw you holding your bug! I literally got cold chills down my body. If i come over one day and visit you, you have GOT to put your Madaline away!

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  2. LOL, no worries Sis Bridget, she's dead and gone. They only live till the the end of Oct or early Nov, the cold kills them.

    We just saved a grasshopper from death today. It's a female and she would have froze to death along with the 90% of all the other bugs...but she was fortunate that my girls like to keep bugs...now she'll live in a plastic contain all winter sheltered fromt he cold, they eat oat meal and drink water. The girls will let her go come spring. We did this last year as an experiment to see how long grasshoppers would like, well they'll live as long as it warm and they have food and water, lol. I know Ewww eww eww!!, but you wait till yours get a little older the things you'll do because your a homeschooler...lol...you just wait!

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