Fna's Pet Corner, For the Care and Enjoyment of your pets!

[FreeNatureArts]

Greatings to the First day of FNA's Pet Corner! This topic will be like the Mark Marone show on tv, in the fact that everyday I'll help answer your questions about your pet, pick a pet thats right for you, care for your pet and enjoy your every moment with them! However unlike Mark Marone we actualy use real facts and never ever put animals together that are natural Preditor and Pray. So please feel free to ask questions, ask for a Chapter to be about your favorite animal and for more information on past Chapters.

This Chapter is about the Reliance of the information you'll soon find here, and I wish to say that I'm not doing this for Popularity or any " Extra points" in the animal world. I'm just doing this to help you get the best out of your friendships without hurting eachothers goals, or eachother!

To Begin, I wont be just pulling this info out my backend, I'm known in indiana as a Petsitter and Caretaker of over 200 of my own in my lifetime, I have a vast knowledge on the protection and aid of your animals, from a fish with Dropsy to a rat with eyes slashed out. I've been through just about everything, so please take this information in consideration when choosing a new animal or helping one you currently tend to. At one time I Cared for my Aunt Tinas animals, my own animals and some of my sisters rats for a grand total of 157 animals in my care for 3 and a half weeks! This included:

3_Bettas
1_Catfish
8_Cats
1_Clowfish
6_Commets
1_Crested Geckos
3_Demestic Budgies
1_Dogs
1_Dragonfish
12_Flying Rouches
3_Goldfish
57_Guppies
1_Gray Parrots
13_Hissing Rouches
4_Kois
2_Louches
2_Millipieds
1_Moores
2_Plecos
22_Rats
4_Salty Tetras
1_Starfish
3_Sugar Gliders
4_Tetras
1_White Parrots

It's been a year since then and no one died! I even befriended the "Mean White parrot" and got him to kiss my fingur. Thats just how many I've taken care of as well, my sisters always buying exotics and sometimes she needs help or I know she will in time, for the fact that she's close to being a vet and I also learn about them from her vet knowledge. So I know how to take care of and mantain:\

*The animals in the above and below*
Angel Fish
Angler Fish
Ants
Blue Tongue Skink
BoxTurtle
Butterflies
Chiboas
Chickens
Chinchilas
CornSnakes
Cows
Danios
Dears
Dragonflies
Fat-Tailed Geckos
Fennic Foxes
Finches
Flying Lizards
Guinea Pigs
Hamsters* I learned I'm alergic!*
Hawks
HoneyBears
Leaf Snakes
Leapord Geckos
Moray eels
Ocalots
Parakeets
PencilFish
Piccaso's fish
Pigs
Praying Matises
Pufferfish
Rabbits
Resboras
Ringtails
Rock Doves( Pidgions)
Sharks
Shrimp
Snails
Stingrays
Teranchulas
Tetras
White Doves
And Much MUCH more.


With having all the names in Elphabetacle order, I hope that shows the care I want to have with information on all these animals.

And so ends the First Chapter, now be sure to do these with any animal before going to bed!:

" Depending on the animal"

Brush their coat
Brush their teath
Check for Fleas/Mite/Parasites
Check for illness
Check their eyes
Check their nails
Check their Tank Tempurater
Clean their bed
Clean their ears
Clean their Litter
Clean and Refill their Water Dish
Clean And refill their Food Dish
Close windows!
Cover Cage "For birds only"
Refill Dust Beds

And with this in mind your pet will stay forever healthy!

[Bluewing]

Wow you certainly do care deeply for animals of all shapes and sizes. Ive had alot of animals myself over the years so i know a thing or too about certain types.

You said you,ve looked after Praying Mantids? all together ive had 3 in my life time but havent been sucsesful with any of them mostly because of the condition there were in at the pet shop. The first one i got was an Orcid Mantis and it grew to a fair size. the only reason i lost this one was because my dad over fed it while i was on holiday. My second one was a Budwing Mantis and when we bought he she already had a leg missing and 2 other legs that were damaged because the crickets in its tank were eating away at them. she wouldent eat anything we gave to her and soon after she died. The third one i got was also a Budwing and this one also had a leg missing too, after i brought her home i checked her over to see if anything else was wrong and found a strange black substance that was covering her mouth like she had been eating somthing she shouldent have, because of this she was unable to drink or eat. I careful removed it using water but she still couldent drink and died not long after.

a few days ago i went to the pet shop to get some crickets for my frog and gecko and just that day they got in some new Mantids one was a Gaint Indian Mantis which are one of the easyest to look after, it was very active, alert and had no phyical problems. Ive still got her and shes doing very well, shes shed her skin and is now twice the size with wings. If you can tell me anything about them that might help i would be glad to hear it =D

[FreeNatureArts]

Today's Pet Corner is made possable by Bluewing's Question, if it wasint for her post I would have started with something like Dogs and Cats, so thank you Bluewing, and I hope the information below will help the enjoyment and partnership of:

The Mantids and Mantises:.

In Reply to Bluewing and her Mantises:

Sorry to hear of your problem with past Mantises, they are a very fragile part of the Mantid family so it would have taken alot of work for them to stay healthy, and that black stuff sounds like someone gave it a Pinky insted an insect.
"Pinkies are Baby Rats and Mice, of which people at pet stores just feed to everything and anything when they house rodents together and suddenly theirs babies that need to be kulled."
In eating the "Pinky" The Mantis astablished a bacterial infection, which pops up as Black sludge on places such as it's neck,wingblades and abdomen. Sad to say she was doomed before the sludge was noticable, for that sludge you see on the outside had to be severly incrested in it's stomach and airways before it came out of the Matid's shell. Her non-eating and drinking abilities whernt only because she couldint get it past the sludge, but because that bacterial infection gives them Flu like symtoms, by having it on her mouth she was already trying to bring it up, but it's alot like tar in the fact that it's not removable from the bloodstream.
This could also happen if fed a Millipiede, but due to them being a easy sell at petstores for unsuspecting parents, thats highly unlikly due to the fact that they sell faster then they come in.
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Now I'm not sure what you know about Matids and the related but here is some info on taking care of them and keeping them from getting ill. This can also be for people who are thinking about buying Matises and keeping them as pets.
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Where do I get my pet Matis?

What Matis you get depends on the area you live in but I must advise that what I'm posting here is BASIC Matid and Matis care, to take care of yours to the best of it's health I suggest looking up the breed of your matis and doing proper research before adopting one. This is mainly for the fact that the basic instructions you see here is in the help of getting you started, while the research of your personal species and where to get it will help begin your friendship off right. As Bluewing already posted, the easiest to raise is the" Gaint Indian Mantis" Due to it's veriety of Temp contintions and low humidity needs. Other easily tended Matids inlcude the Sphodromantis belachowski, centralis, gastrica, vidiris and lineola for new hobbiests in the insect fields.

I live in a area that has wild mantises, for green and yellow Praying matises are Natives to Indiana and my house is often crawling with them in the early spring, late summer months due to the fact we have alot of pest insects such as boxelder beatles, hornworms,ants and waterbeatles. But alot of people can't go out and get their own wild mantis. To be honest I'm highly againced that for every mantis you take out of the wild makes one less egg sack to hatch in the spring, and if everybody whent out and grabed one up as a pet today, that would be a huge decline in the wild speciese, which is where the petstores get theirs from..
If you where to get a Matis I would suggest going to a fish expert store and buying the Matis egg, it's a brown Cask that looks like a bee hive but if left in a nice luke warm airtight container with only a few holes " Perferably a Deli Cup" in 9 weeks it'll hatch and you'll be abile to pick which baby to be your pet! Since we have so many wild ones I just hunt my backyard for a Caskid.

" One Mantis Egg "Caskid" Contains 500 to 700 babies, and in this, you pick your baby and release the rest into the wild if their native, or give to a petstore so they wont steal wild mantises. Thus making more matises for your future andevers."
But please don't keep all 500 babies, at this size they'll eat eachother, eat to much of your insect stock and maybe escape to infest your house for MANY years to come!
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What can their house be?

Many people perfer just keeping them in a shoe box but it's not the greatest home due to the fact they will not only outgrow it, but you can't check the temp and Humidity of your Matids home, making it hard for the insect to Shed, grow and produce healthy bacteria in their shell. Below are a few suggested homes you could make for your insect partner, this also works for millipieds by the way! Which are awesome pets as well, but often poisonis to many Matid species, so don't house them together!

For any age Matid and any species, please don't use plastic. These guys are good about chewing and theres not enough air getting in those, even see through gallon size. Get a Glass Aquarium, and since this is going to be a aquarium big enough for all it's stages, get a 10 to 15 gallon tank. This way you can apply later material to the tank as it grows, and gives it the access room they need for Molting.

" Molting is another word for shed, like a bird molting its feathers before learning how to fly, it's how a animal reastablishes it's bodily protection organ " The skin" and grow to it's mature size. We also Molt, but it's so small we don't see it, these are skin cells that we molt almost 5 pounds worth everyday!"
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Providing the Basic Home construction:

To begin, please don't put more then one Mantid/Matis in your tank at a time, they are highly taratorial and wont breed in your Captive home, only professionals know how to make a adaquit home for them, while yours may end up eating eachother.

The basic things you'll need for any stage is:
Tank thermomiter " The glass kind not those black strips that come with the tank, thats for fish!"
Tank Humidity Detector Again a Glass Dial/digital kind
Small undertank heating mat
Mesh Tank hood " No lights"
Pebbles
Short Flagstone dish

Basic construction:

For any age the basic items are needed.

Now pick a spot thats not in derect sunlight or draft, place the Small Undertank heating mat on the outside of the left Bottom of the tank, this way there is a cold area and a hot area for it to escape being to hot or cold, depending on your species this is very important. Normaly the heating mats come with a thermameter and a Temperature ajustment dial. But if it doesint come with a thermameter, please perchase a digital hard plastic or Dial hard glass Thermameter. Other types arn't very reliable for the slightest drafts can nock it's numbers off and make you think it's colder then it really is, now inless you like eating your pet for dinner, don't cook him with a cheep thermameter lol. Though the cold side of the tank is assential it's best to place the thermameter on the hotter part of the tank,like the heater, keep this thermameter on the outside. This way you can always know that it wont burn the Matid, and know when to turn it up if your keeping one in the wintertime.

Since you've astablished your Thermameter, the other thing that is used in combination for the perfict enviorment is a Humidity detector, they mainly come in a hard plastic dial, but if you can find the digital it would be more accurate. This Detector should be placed on the hood of the tank, loose and in the center, since like heat, humidity rises, and what it gets off the top of your tank is more then whats inside, so when it reaches your Matises ideal Humidity, try to keep it there by placing live plants or fact plants in the aquarium, and spritsing them from time to time, for many Matids, this is also the only way they drink! For what you spray on the plants, run off and turn into droplets, and these droplets have benificial bacteria and minerals that many mantid species love. however you can also place a Moist paper towell in a small deli cup with holes on the sides, and this will previde adaquit humidity for many speciese. However the tank looks better with some small tropicle plants as well, and your Mantises can climb them, just be sure it's a shade loving plantling, and that you don't overcrowed the tank with plants. One is more then enough if it's already 3 inches, or if their small bushes two would be ideal. If fake, well, three 6 inch ferns would be just find. Just don't overdue the spritsing for it could lead to mold or funguses growing in your tank, which can harm your matid and matises.

Some people can get Matids to drink from a Watering hole, so another suggestion would be a tiny flagstone dish, you can find these in lizard stores for geckos. And you can put a living sponge or Pebbles at the bottom so no matter what size your mantis wont drowned! If you can't get ether, only put three or four droplets of water in the dish at a time, if they drink it all, put three more in. but never let it measure to half the size of your matises head.
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Befor turning on your Small tank heater and befor placing your plants there are many substraits that different stages of the matis needs. After prepairing the heater, and before puting your plants in permenently, please make this substrait for every cleaning and for growing matises!

For a baby Mantids " 1 day to 3 months old"
They are still to small for the Teen mix or adult mix, while in this period they need more humidity then ever, so here are the following things you will need.

Paper Towels
Small Deli Cup
Hidy house

After you get all but the plants in your basic construction astablished, put a double layor of paper towells on the ground of your tank, punch some small holes in the bottom sides of your Small Deli Cup" About the size of a pencil lead" then bunch up some Paper Towells, wet them in warm water, put them in, and close. Place this on the hot part of the Tank, where your heater is. Once your done, if you bought a hidy house for your matis now would be the time to place it in, if it's not a store bought hidy House, you can make one out of another Deli cup! Just take the lid off, cut along the side and make a square hole about twice the size of your baby mantis, then replace the lid and put the cup lid side down into your tank. For geckos this is considered a humid house, and when your Matis grows a little more it'll use it to be a Molting room, so clean it often.
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For the Teen Mix "3 Months To 6 Months":
It's big enough that sand wont choke it but it's legs are still to small for vermiculite so this is for the still growing, almost adult stage of the Mantid/Mantis.

Peat soil " Not Peat Moss"
Sand

When you buy them you should get a therd of a bag more Peat Soil then Sand, but mix it all together, you'll only use a inch and a half of this in your tank setup but this is for three months. So save the rest in a airtight container or storage size ziplock. With this you can sink your real plants into the soil and actualy produce healthy plants with your Matis, which would be very interesting when you Insect isint in clear sight.
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Final Mix "6 months to 6 years", Adult home!
Ahh Your Matid/matis has it's longest wings yet and you've not only astablished a great home but a wonderful friendship as well, adult matises are known to live for 6 months to 6 years at this stage, so enjoy your full sized buddy and show off your great habitat!. All you need to do is put a two inch layor of Vermiculite at the bottom of the tank. Oh by the way, remove that ever shrinking hidy Home and place a new hangout branch in it for that trophy winner, you and your Matid/Matis Deserve it!
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That took longer then I expected! Tomorrow we will talk more about the Matids/Matises and cover the Basis of What they eat, How you feed them, how to help them when sick and other information on things like Leg injeries and wing breakage.

I hope the information relating to your black sludge problem helped abit Blue Wing, specialy in the fact that overall it wasint your fault and at least you gave her a good home before deth, thanks for picking her up ^^.

And that ends the first part of our second Chapter, now be sure to do these with any animal before going to bed!:

" Depending on the animal"

Brush their coat
Brush their teath
Check for Fleas/Mite/Parasites
Check for illness
Check their eyes
Check their nails
Check their Tank Tempurater
Clean their bed
Clean their ears
Clean their Litter
Clean and Refill their Water Dish
Clean And refill their Food Dish
Close windows!
Cover Cage "For birds only"
Refill Dust Beds

And with this in mind your pet will stay forever healthy!

[Bluewing]

Thank you so much Didi i cant tell you how helpfull all this info is and im so glad that someone finally knew what that black sludge was. The problem with our pet shop is that because i live on an island we dont have many experianced pet carers and most people just go to work there because they get paid alot. Half of the staff there are scared of the animals there, like the 2nd Mantis i got, the person couldent even take it out of its main tank into the carry case o-0

Well im sure ill have much better luck with this Mantis and that she'll have a good long life ahead of her.

And one more question if i may add. You said that every night before you go to sleep you must "brush their teeth" this is obviously for dogs but i find it rather difficult to brush my dogs teeth since she is a Greyhound her neck mucles are very powerful and make it easy for her to pull away. do you know of anyway that might make it easyer for me to brush her teeth or am i just going to have to chase her around ever night for the rest of her life? xD

[FreeNatureArts]

Todays Continuation of The Mantids and Mantises has been made possable by:

www.mantiskingdom.com. With a wide veriety of Indavidual Speciese related caresheets, you can't go wrong with Mantis Kingdom!
Schundler. The Horticulyeral Vermiculite, a clean Recyclable sorce for your Adult Mantises
Zoo Med's Small Repti-Therm UTH, The Under Tank Heater trusted by Lizard and Insect owners alike
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Sorry for the mistypes in the first part, my N button was on the frits, but now it's all fixed up after I found a tabbaco leaf was in it.. So back to:

The Mantids and Mantises Part2:.

What do Mantises eat?

The best thing to keep in mind is the fact that Mantises are Carnivors, and in many places their Canibles too! But I hope you don't feed your adult matises Baby Matises " Nyhms" because that just defeats the purpose of owning them, it's like owning a pet rabbit and eating a pet rabbit. Not only unethicle and inhumain, but sick. Specialy when Mantids and Mantises can eat a veriety of other things. The list below is a list of insects They love to eat and other critters that are open on the menu for older, larger Mantids/Mantises:

Ants " Perferably Black"
Cabbadge beatles
Fruitflies
Grasshoppers
Gecko babies
Hornworms
Mealworms
Mealworm Beatles
Non-Poisonis Newts " Brown, green"
Rouches " Black"

*Spiders*
Bannana
Brown house
Daddy Longleg
Orb

Now though your Mantids/Mantises can eat alot of awefule looking bugs, these are the ones that are very bad for them, not only in looks but they could cause black sludge and even make your Mantid/Mantis Lunch. This is some but not all the bugs and creatures Poisonis to Mantids/ Mantises, and that is because all Mantises are poisoned to different bugs, but these are the basic seven dinners that have been known to kill all species. And if you get your food from the wild that can make the good bugs just as poisonis as the ones below, so be sure the good ones are gut loaded and bred in the store!

Poisonis Creatures.

Crickets
Millipiedes
Pinkies" Baby Rats, Mice and Hamsters"
Poisonis newts " Bluetongues, Redbacks and Ink"
Poisonis Spiders " Black Widdows,Reckloose,Wolf"
Silkworms
Small Snakes

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How do I feed my Mantis?

Before feeding or even purchasing your Mantid/Mantis dinners, be sure to check if they've been gut loaded. Which is when the Insects have been fed with a high vitamin diet, for those Vit's go into the Mantis when they eat the bug.

Sometimes they have those " Love bugz" Dried bug mixes, this is the best way to feed your Mantid/Mantis and keep the critters from escaping and endulging in home carpet infestations, but for some reason mantises rarely eat dead bugs, so if you live with a family that hates large flying bugs and jumping critters, your best choice would have to be sticking with Mealies,Wingless Beatles,Crickets and Grasshoppers with their back legs removed and cliped Horse flies. That is because Mantises need a veriesy of foods, just keeping it with one or the other will make them board of it after a few weeks and they'll stop eating just because it doesint interets them. How would you like eating Icecream as dinner every night? And thats how you have to think of it when feeding your Mantid/Mantis, for just like us, they can't stand just one or two foods. And for the live ones the easiest way to feed them is put three small, two medium or one large bug "small lizard for the big Mantises" in the tank, close the lid and let nature take it's cource once a day.

Like us they start as babies with small food amounts, for young ones they can pretty much stick with fruite flies and baby Meal Worms. Teen Mantids/Matises eat a wide range of bugs from the above list, even small spiders, the adultes eat EVERYTHING on the list, this includes baby Geckos and Hornworms!
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Is my Mantis Ill?

Though it's rare if you take great care of your Mantid/Mantis, it is possable for them to get ill and keal over, so watch for early warning signs. There arn't alot of illnesses that Mantises suffer from but many of them happen from being poisoned, to much humidity, to little, to much heat and even from old age alone, only the Mildew " Manty Ich" and Stress Problems are curable, the rest arnt so please tend to your Mantid/ Mantis carefuly.

Manty Ich
If you have your tank to humid it can cause a mildew or residue to grow on your Mantid/Mantis, this is pretty harmless but if left to grow on a older, slow shedding adult, you have a chance of it being so entangled by this ich that it just topples over and wont eat. So at the first sign of white fuz growing on your Mantis, double check your heater and humidity, remove any Hidy house and paper, then wait for it to desolve from lack of moisture before returning your Mantises hidy home.

Red spots/ stripes
Okay this is something that sadly happends quite often, it is caused by a heater that was to hot, not only can you see the Manty ich, but your Mantid/Mantis has red boils! This is TO HOT!!! Quickly lower your heater, Sprits the tank, put and fan over it and hope for the best! many times if it's spotty and not Stripy there is a chance you saved your Mantis from internal damage, however the outside won't look the same for at least 5 sheddings.. Many times they even keep a black pigment where the scare tissue formed, so never ever let this happen.

Black Sludge
The signs of Black Sludge is a brown or black fluid comming out of the leg joins,endtrails" Manty Poop" and them actualy spitting out the substance like Bluewing's Mantis. This happends from a poisoning of your Mantid/Mantis and is sadly incurable, if you feed them the poisoned list above and " Road side snacks" This is inevetable, you have anywhere from three to five days to say a loving fairwell to your Mantid/Mantis and take a few final pictures. For this black Sludge, has crusted up everything within your Mantis, and it's only a matter of time... Your only hope is to learn from your experiance and move on, trust me, your Mantis would have liked you to do that. And if you didint their deth would be meaningless.

Other illnesses like Drooping Antenne and not eating can be caused by stress, if their handled to often, to hot, you put in another Mantid/Mantis or you bought a normal aquarium hood with lights insted of a mesh hood with no lights, your Mantid/Mantis is pretty pissed! Some species even change to a boiling red eye pigment! I wouldint put my hand in if I where you, but be sure you take away the lights, don't touch them and keep your lights dim. If all this doesint work cool the heater down a few points and have the room as quiet as possable, doing these will help keep your Mantid/Mantis out of the stress zone, thus prolonging it's life as us humans would if we whernt in a day and night money war.

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Missing BodyParts ?!

Its very common for Mantises to loose legs, this can happen from harsh abrasives in the tank like plastic plant stems and puting baby Matises in Vermeculight or other large bolder like substraits. They can also loose a leg due to the shedding prosses and having a tank that isint humid enough for the molting hours causing it's leg to get sufficated by a piece of shed skin that tangled its leg so it shrivils and eventualy drop off. Fear not though! Even if the prosses is painful at the time, the Mantid/Mantis will learn to live without it's leg, if it's a front leg " The claws" they can even grow back, just raise the humidity a smudge to help in the healing and return to normal life when it begins eating again.

Other broken Body parts happen as well like wings and shell pieces, but as long as you raise the humidity and lower it acordingly it'll heal over and hopefuly regrow in time with the next sheding. This is Extreamly possable with wings, so if they break it's not even a consern.
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In conclution:

Yeah people think hissing rouches are awesome but now your the coolest around with a Mantis in your Mits, keep your new friend happy and healthy so you both live a long calm life. Some people may think their gross, but Mantids/Mantises are the Natural Organic Warrior, so no matter what they think! By protecting this Mantid/Mantis your protecting a small bit of nature that should never be lost! Again, Never get your Mantid/Mantis from the wild, don't give them wild Food, keep them warm and humid, and show em off with a great home decore!

This ends the Second Chapter of FNA's Pets Courner, information from many places on the net and my families own experiance will bring the best out of your pets and Yourself. Don't just have a great life, Have a Natural life!
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.: In the Next Chapter:.

I'll be Answering Bluewing's last question about brushing her dogs teath, no matter how big or small all dogs need to get their teath brushed once a day to keep good dental health, which can lead to very little problems in there older life. This is due to the fact that whatever happends with the animals teath, happends with the rest of their body. If their teeth go bad, more then likely so is their liver, heart and kidneys, so please stick around for.

Helpful Petcare Tips:.

On the Next FNA's Pet Corner.

[Lunawolf]

I have to ask. Some of the animals you mentioned are not usual pets, and more or less wild animals not domesticated by man(like hawk, ocelot, ect.). What is your take on these pets and how to they usually act? Do they're instincts overpower how they are "trained"?