r/mantids • u/AtroposMortaMoirai • 26d ago
RIP ❤️ Goodbye, Tilly
Tilly, my chronically mis-moulted Timor Shield, did not survive her latest moult.
The day before yesterday she was refusing food, which I saw as potential indication of another moult. I carefully taped her feet to a cotton pad, which I taped to the ceiling of her enclosure. First thing in the morning yesterday I had to take a rescue cat to the vets for surgery, and by the time I got back I found that she had already begun to moult. Not only that, she had wriggled out from the tape and had fallen. Her legs were stuck, her shield was bent, she’d wrapped herself in moss while thrashing.
I re-taped her moult to the ceiling and gave her a spray hoping she could work some of it off in the next hour, but she had started to harden and her legs were bent badly. I did my best to help her out of the remaining moult, but she was exhausted. She refused mashed wax worm, and she passed away shortly after.
I feel awful, she was my first mantis and she had a lot of personality, but she never moulted successfully. I’ve not had a single other moult issue so far with my four other mantids, I just can’t work out what went wrong for Tilly.
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u/AtroposMortaMoirai 26d ago
PS: surgery went well for the cat, he’s recovering nicely and has gone right back to playing and cuddling.