One of my mantises, Xia Lang, had an accident and mismolted. She was lying on the floor of her enclosure with her legs all tangled up in the old skin and i thought she was dead until she waved her little raptor claws at me like “help me wtf”
So I put her on a moist paper towel and distracted her with a cricket while I soaked her back legs in water and then pulled the old skin off like pantyhose. So yay, old skin gone, but boo, her back legs were all janked up now
Now she had a couple molts left and either this would fix the problem, or kill her dead because her fucked-up legs wouldn’t let her complete her next molt either. I ended up hand-feeding her crickets for the next couple of weeks and she flailed awkwardly around her enclosure unable to understand why her legs didn’t move how she wanted. I didn’t have much hope for her until I came home to find a fresh skin on her enclosure floor and
BOOM BEAUTIFUL BACK LEGS LOOK AT THEM. I’m so proud of my babbu, extra crickets for you
