Happy Seedling's Critters, AGAIN

[A Happy Seedling]

I'm sure a lot of you know I have a bit of a reputation on here for catching and keeping all manner of creatures & critters. I now have another one. A praying mantis. She's a female Carolina mantis and will eat from our hands; she has a nice cage setup that my 10-year-old daughter built. I'll post photos of the cage soon.
Here's the thing:
She only eats when you hold her in your hand and dangle her live prey in front of her. She won't catch it herself
And, she favors moths and katydids that WE have to catch...while refusing $10.00 pet store crickets which we had to release.
Anyone know why she has these quirks?
AHS

[!potatoes!]

did you hatch her out yourself? is she an adult? she wouldn't have made it this far on her own if she refuses to hunt, and i doubt she'll starve to death if her choices are eating or dying. i've had 'pet' mantises a few times. they tend to be pretty efficient killing machines.

she has these quirks because they're being catered to: she's found that this way's easiest.

[ButterflyLady29]

We had some outdoor free range Chinese mantids that we fed quite regularly one year. We would swat flies and feed them to the mantids. The fly couldn't be dead, just stunned and still moving, but the mantids would never eat dead ones.

Maybe yours just didn't like the taste or looks of the pet store crickets. Although I am surprised that it eats katydids. Those are huge compared to a Carolina.

[A Happy Seedling]

We had some outdoor free range Chinese mantids that we fed quite regularly one year. We would swat flies and feed them to the mantids. The fly couldn't be dead, just stunned and still moving, but the mantids would never eat dead ones.

Maybe yours just didn't like the taste or looks of the pet store crickets. Although I am surprised that it eats katydids. Those are huge compared to a Carolina.

Cool! Yeah, mantids are picky about their insects...but I still don't understand why she will eat katydids, LOL. I still feed her on katydids.