my mantis

[lilswanwillow]

well, i named him george.... hes a cutie!!!
well, Ron has cursed me, and he decided to moult on me in the middle of my behavioral experiment, but i can still tell you something you might want to try... its AWSOME
i'm doing a small experiment, to see what happens with color/food association...
i use a (plastic) cheap paintbrush to feed him (stick the food up in the bristles, so somes sticking out)
well, i found on thing out... he LOVES to bash ORANGE!!!
been so interesting, i've just done behaviors based off of this....

[lilswanwillow]

well, he came out today, its been a little over a week, hes much redder than he was (maybe he is a she?)
is it possible that george/ette moulted within a week?

[technoshaman]

Sounds like a beauty eh. My peacock went off feed and started getting more secretive for about a week up the molt. I suspected as much so lowered the photo period to about 4 hours a day. Instead of grabbing food off the surface of the water (freeze dried krill) or off the tongs (squid or mussel) she just kind of ignored it. I tried placing some in her burrow and she threw it out on the sand and buried it.