Nymph keeps falling on its back?

[Wolfie]

I've got two hisser nymphs left from my original litter of six, one has moulted (first moult since hatching) and seems strong, the other hadn't moulted was fine until today, and now it seems to be going downhill.

It keeps flipping onto its back and being unable to get back up, and when it is on its legs it moves very slowly and unsteadily, as if it's about to fall over again. This is basically what the others did before they died.

I'm about to try and paintbrush-feed it some water and maybe try giving it some apple sauce. I remember being told to put food on the antennae so it eats it when it cleans itself, but I'm not sure if it's even cleaning itself now.

The other seems okay, but is moving rather more slowly compared to how it normally seems. They haven't eaten anything unusual, as far as I know, they've had some apple and a few morsels of plain biscuit in the last two days, but in the past week have eaten fish food flakes, lettuce, dog food, ferret food and carrot. I haven't changed their temperature and spray them regularly to keep the humidity high.

After I noticed this one looking ill, I immediately cleaned out their tub and changed the food in case there was any tiny bits that had gone bad.

Any ideas what is it/what to do?

This litter has been super problematic for me, the mother died giving birth, there were only six nymphs and four have since died, and only one has moulted since they were born in September...

[Kaddock]

Hi!

My first thought would be what is the environment like? In my experience arthropods don't behave like that unless they are nearly dead. How is the humidity? What is their diet? Another factor would definitely be contaminates. Is there anything around (chemicals, etc) that may be drifting into your enclosure?

[Keith]

You can try applesauce on a toothpick but the food must be wiped on its mouth so it eats. While its on your finger and the toothpick has food on it carefully try to wipe some food on the nymphs mouth, chances are it will move away but eventually you should be able to get some on and if it eats keep putting more on you should slowly see its stomach get fatter. I should have done a YouTube video on this as it really works well but explaining it to someone who never did it before it can sound confusing.

You could mash up the fish flakes into tiny particles, buy mango or banana baby food. Mix a small amount of both with warm water until it forms a paste, this would be a better food to feed on the toothpick as it has protein and fruit in it.

Do your nymphs have access to rotting leaves and wood, hissers are big leaf and wood eaters and really benefit from having it in their diet. Oak leaves are the best.

Your new photo of the nymphs was never posted it would help to see them since I just finished raising hissers mabye I can tell by looking if something was wrong I've seen plenty of oddities and health issues.

If you didn't want the last nymph I could of raised it with mine in my 20 gallon setup just raised 40+ Hisser babies to adulthood so I have time to focus on a special needs nymph I would keep it as a pet. now only thing is if shipped you must use a heat pack.

[Wolfie]

I've given it some apple sauce and some water and it took a little of both, it's now wedged itself between their moisture sponge and the side of the tank, where it's nice and humid, so presumably that's what it wants.

Kaddock - Their enclosure has two ends, the end where their drinking sponge is is kept fairly moist, and the other end relatively dry, generally they chill in the middle. I keep them warm enough to maintain a small amount of condensation on the wall, but not wet. I'm fairly strict about not using chemicals near them, I insist all deodorants and perfumes and stuff are only used in the bathroom.

Their diet is pretty varied, it's usually bits of whatever I happen to have to hand, apples, ferret or dog biscuits, breakfast cereal, lettuce and carrots feature heavily.

Keith - Thanks, I did give it a little apple sauce and it did eat and drink (from a clean paintbrush) on its own. They did have access to dead oak leaves until about two weeks ago, when I went home and didn't have any oak trees nearby, I was intending on picking up more tomorrow, now I'm back at university, even if this one hasn't got a lot of hope, the stronger one seems fine and will benefit.

Thanks for the offer, I'm hoping to hang on to the stronger nymph anyway, since it seems to have perked up since this afternoon, but I think it might be a little bit too far to ship one nymph to you from England! I'll try to get a picture of them both, one thing I will say is that since it's moulted, the bigger nymph is a lot shinier and far faster-moving than the sick nymph, even when the sick nymph seemed normal.

[Keith]

Oh England ha ha yes that would of been too far anyway.

Sounds like your doing all you can hope it pays off and would be nice if both survived for you.

[Wolfie]

We lost the little one last night I've gone out and got some more leaves and a bit of bark for the surviving nymph, which is behaving totally normally again. Will it be okay on its own? I know they're relatively social...?

[Blattodea313]

We lost the little one last night I've gone out and got some more leaves and a bit of bark for the surviving nymph, which is behaving totally normally again. Will it be okay on its own? I know they're relatively social...?

Sorry for your loss. The other nymph should be fine on his own. I think hissers usually live longer when they are alone.

[Keith]

We lost the little one last night I've gone out and got some more leaves and a bit of bark for the surviving nymph, which is behaving totally normally again. Will it be okay on its own? I know they're relatively social...?

Sorry to hear that

The nymph should be fine on its own, being its your last you wouldn't want to risk injury from larger adults.

[Wolfie]

Thanks It's doing fine at the moment, very active and eating plenty today, doesn't seem bothered that it's an only child now!

I got some photos of it waiting to be put back in its home while I was cleaning it out.

Is it possible to sex nymphs? I'm half-convinced this little dude is a female just looking at it, but I'm happy to stand corrected if anybody can tell different.

[Keith]

It looks healthy to me.

If you turn it over the last segment on the abdomen is how to sex them, though it might be too young yet.

Here is a guide to help, scroll halfway and it will show abdomen photos. http://users.usachoice.net/~swb/pet_arthropod/hiss.htm

[Wolfie]

I did have a look, and yeah, I think it might be a bit young, as it didn't really look like either, still, just means I have to wait patiently until it moults again to see if there's any difference! Judging by how long it took it to moult the first time, that could be months!!