# Praying mantis front leg bent



## AnEndlessCold (Jun 19, 2018)

One of my praying mantis's front legs (or arms?) is bent. I'm not sure if it had a bad molt or what. Is there anything I can do to help her?


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## Nir Avraham (Jun 20, 2018)

Maybe it will get better on the next molt. I don't think you can actually help her...


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## basin79 (Jun 20, 2018)

AnEndlessCold said:


> One of my praying mantis's front legs (or arms?) is bent. I'm not sure if it had a bad molt or what. Is there anything I can do to help her?


You could feed her prekilled food to make things easier for her. Just offer her the prey via tongs. Touching the mouth usually initiates them feeding. 

Fingers crossed she moults better next time. Mantids needs 3x their length in height to moult.


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## Sarkhan42 (Jun 20, 2018)

She’ll be absolutely fine after a molt. Ensure that you give her slightly smaller prey to compensate, but she should be able to hunt and eat with one functioning raptorial leg just fine. You can also hand feed as Basin said, I do this even with picky eaters that aren’t crippled. 

Just recently I had a mantis with a pronotum bent at a near 90 degree angle, no antennae, one damaged eye, and only one functioning raptorial leg,(all from a fall during a molt) recover to perfect health after a molt. As long as they’re able to hang upside down on their own, they’ll be fine.

Reactions: Like 1


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## AnEndlessCold (Jul 31, 2018)

Hey, I know this thread is from over a month ago but she molted a couple weeks back and is absolutely fine now. Thanks for all the advice!

Reactions: Like 2 | Love 1


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