u/AtroposMortaMoirai

Tilly has had moult troubles since her very first moult with me. She fell during her moult, hadn’t freed her raptorals, and by the time I found her and intervened she had a bend to the side and her reptorals were damaged to the point she couldn’t catch food. I hand fed her until her next moult, where she decided to start moulting at the bottom of a branch less than 2 inches from the bottom of the enclosure. She hit the ground, panicked, got stuck in her moult and fucked up her raptors *and* one back leg, which she later self-amputated. I put her in a hospital style enclosure with just a mesh ceiling, a bark outcrop mid-way (she found that easier to hold on to) and some moss for humidity. She moulted again a couple of days ago, and fell again mid-moult. Her remaining back leg is bent in a way that makes me sure she can’t use it to climb or grasp. One of her raptorals is almost fixed but the other is stuck out sideways and stiff. The regrowth of her amputated back leg is minimal. She effectively has two functioning legs and one functioning arm.

She isn’t going to be able to hold herself upside down for a new moult. She’s i5/i6 so not much time to regrow limbs, even if she could moult successfully. The bend in her remaining back leg is significant. I can’t just glue her in position until she moults again, she’ll rip her own limbs off trying to escape.

The fact she survived this long is remarkable. She still wants to eat, she’s trying to grasp food, but she hasn’t been enjoying a happy mantis life for a while now. She’s my first mantis, I have a couple of creobroter gemmatus and a giant dead leaf now too who have all had issue-free successful moults with me. I’m just not sure why things keep going wrong for Tilly, I feel guilty, but I’m not sure keeping her going is compassionate any more or just me trying to assuage my guilt.

Just got an ad for “Organised” whole cow protein powder. Fess up Bonjo, this has B&DN all over it. Who else is out there smoothie-ing a whole powdered cow?

ETA: not spon, not an ad, I’m just absolutely bewildered by an ad telling me to put powdered cow organs in my morning smoothie and I needed someone to share this with.

A medley of mlems.

Freyja the Friesian enjoys some snacks on her stroll around the paddock.

Tilly clearly moulted again last night, when I found her she was on a heap on the bottom of the enclosure still tangled in her old moult. It was soft and came away easily, I don’t know if she just moulted too close to the floor and ran out of room or if she lost her grip.

One of her back legs is shot, she’s not going to be able to use that, she still had a bit of a twist, her arms are both more forward at least but honestly I had really hoped for improvement with this moult. I’ve been on top her her care, monitoring humidity, keeping a close eye on her. My dead leaf moulted perfectly.

I’m not sure what to do. It took a while to get her to grip that leaf, I’m just hoping she stays there until she’s properly hardened up, but how compassionate is it to try to hand feed her through to another potentially disastrous moult? And why do they keep going wrong?

Since her previous bad moult I’ve been hand feeding Tilly on little shreds of housefly and locust every couple of days for the last few weeks. She takes food from tweezers well, and can eat almost two houseflies or a whole i4 locust in one meal. The last couple of days she hasn’t been as interested in food, she nibbles but pushes it away quickly. She’s also been stretching her back legs out behind her and wiggling herself. In the last hour she did something she hasn’t done in weeks, and she made her way towards the bottom half of her enclosure to hide behind some leaves, where she’s stretching and cleaning herself. I think she might be in pre-moult. I’m not sure she’s giving herself enough hight clearance if she starts moulting in her current spot, but I don’t want to fuss with her now and make things worse.

What do you think? Pre-moult behaviour? I misted this morning but should I just leave her be now?

Just wanted to share some of my recent new pods with some people who could be as excited about them as I am.

A few all-time classics

Ardentiella Ember Bee

Trogladillio Vex

Armadillidium espanyoli marblized

Nesodillio archangeli Yellow Tiger

Cubaris Pak Chong Cherry Blossom.

Tilly is my first mantis (female Timor Shield should be I4 I think as shield is developing), and due to my inexperience she had a bad moult that has caused her arms to be twisted. I acted as fast as I could but they hardened in a bad position and she can’t grab food. Her back legs were alright and she seemed enthusiastic about eating so I’ve been hand-feeding her to give her the chance to recover next moult.

We’ve come to a good understanding about the feeding process recently, she comes to the front of the enclosure when she’s hungry and wiggles at me when she sees me to let me know she wants her dinner. I had tried holding parts of the fly still for her but she kept pulling them off of the tweezers then dropping them, so now I rip it into tiny manageable portions for her to eat a piece at a time. If she’s still hungry she wiggles and when she’s full she tucks her head to the side. It was funny watching her slurp down a leg like a piece of spaghetti, but when she’s full had another one the knee was bent and it touched her which made her very upset. I think she isn’t going to like having to catch her own again food if/when her arms recover.

She eats enthusiastically, I’ve only had one day the last week where she’s refused food, which is encouraging for her recovery. She spends pretty much all of her time at the top of the tank, I think because she’s still struggling with movement on vertical surfaces with her arms like that. I have a macro lense on the way so I’m hoping I’ll be able to take some better pictures of her (it was super cheap though so it might be crap).

In need of some advice, Matilda is a Timor Shield, my first mantis, she just had her first moult with me and it has not gone well. She still appears to be hardening up but her front limbs are held in an awkward position, and her face plate is stuck to her antenna. She’s clearly panicking about that part and keeps trying to scrape it off. I don’t want to disturb her and cause her any further issues but I’m worried about her.

Should I leave her to try to remove the face plate or should I try to intervene? I’m worried if she keeps rubbing at her antenna she might scrape her eyes but I’m not sure how to help safely.

Her limbs seem relatively well shaped, but I’m worried she came down from the lid too soon and I’m not sure she’ll have great use of her raptors to grab food. Will she be able to recover on a subsequent moult if I hand-feed her?

I’m aware that the deli cup is no longer large enough for her, I have an enclosure and the silicone arrived for it today so I was all ready to get her upgraded but she caught me by surprise with the moult.