Roach Tips

[osbain]

So My Dubai roaches will be here Thursday, I have read up on them an feel rather confident i can get them breeding in a stable colony in no time. My only questions are:

1- What Methods do people use for heating there tubs
2- Will making Jello and mashing it up substitute water crystals?
3- How many breeding pairs should i have to sustain a large tokay and a large male Leopard gecko. (I no it depends on how much they eat, but im lookin for a rough estimate)?
4- What homemade diets to people use?

 

[Wreptile]

Free Bump, I'll be watching this thread. I might be getting some also, and you have some good questions.

 

[Riyo]

1. I use a mini heat pad on the bottom of their tub.

2. Never tried that, but as long as it doesn't have sugar or other additives in it it might work

3. Not sure how to answer that. I keep my ration of males to females about 1:2 or 1:3 though.

4. I use dry cat food, different fruits and veggies, and roach chow from The Roach Guy

 

[hoppslover]

I use a heat pad taped to the bottom of the tub also. Never tried the jello. for the food I use the roach chow with dry dog food, water crystals, also carrots, apples bananas. Thats pretty much it. It took me awhile to get my colony going. I think they really just needed to be left alone for awhile to get used to thier new home. They are doing pretty well now.

 

[Norrad]

1. I use 3” Flex watt heat tape on the shelf where my roaches are set up. I have both Blaptica Dubia and Blatta Lateralis.

2. For water I take a small deli cup and use sand paper on the inside and outside to rough up the edges so the roaches can climb it, then fill half full and put a “pinch” of water crystals in. I used to use a chicken waterer with water crystals in the pan but found it will mold and makes a mess when you do anything with the tub.

3. There isn’t much of a way to answer this, only for the fact we are dealing with “mother nature” different animals breed at different paces etc. BUT if I had to give an estimate I would say 6 males and 18 females. You can adjust up and down from there.

4. I use cat food and rodent feed. I’ve found that if I feed more rodent food the colony gets a kind of sweet smell almost like doughnuts or brownies, no joke here. :main_laugh:

 

[Kristi23]

We use an UTH on our roach tubs. They weren't breeding at first and he had to increase the temp. After that, they took off. My best tip will be to make sure you don't feed for your colony for at least 4 months. We were feeding from ours too soon and kept having to buy more. We left them alone for a few months and now we have more than we need.

We keep more females than males for adults and use roach chow plus fresh veggies and fruits plus water crystals.

 

[osbain]

thanks for the tips everyone. I have them in there setup. just gonna leave them alone and hope for the best. there were no adults in my shipment. a couple large sub adults i think. How long does it normally take for them to mature to adults?

 

[Kristi23]

I'm not positive how long it will take, but they will mature faster with the warmer temps. Good luck!

 

[Shadraak]

can anyone post some pics of their roach motels? lol i got an idea off of tarantulaguy on youtube with egg crates and such looks pretty cool but i wont need tons of adults unless i get a beardie, only reason i'm stickign to mealies right now cause i need small stuff hehe..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW8O5FIJmIg

 

[newbietoreptiles]

im terrified of roaches well all insects really.i rather see a bear in the woods then see a spider near me.

 

[LeapinLizards]

im terrified of roaches well all insects really.i rather see a bear in the woods then see a spider near me.

It's all a mind set. I was raised to be TERRIFIED of anything that was not furry and cute. I was scared of reptiles until I was a teenager! I am JUST now getting over my fear of spiders and insects because I WANT to, and I understand it was my mother than made me that way :main_yes:

Here is a picture of my setup as well. On the right you can see the egg crates set up vertically, and on the left the red lid is where I put the water crystals, and the other bowl is the roach chow...I just hadn't quite gotten around to filling them up. I love these bugs...they don't stink, and you don't have to clean their enclosure. How much easier can you get!?? You can see the roaches looooove their fruits and veggies There ARE apples in there, but they definitely go after the sweet stuff before the vegetables.

 

[newbietoreptiles]

i would totaly freak out if i saw ya setup in person kinda silly i guess .a week or so ago i had a spider on my counter top and instead of running from me it raised up like it was going to bite me i almost fainted

 

[GeckoHut]

Roaches take 3 MONTHS to reach sexual maturity!! It then takes almost a month for them to give birth to their live babies. It is a slow process in the begining and takes quite some time, but it will be worth the invesment in the end.

 

[LizMarie]

Try to keep your water source away from your crates. I had an issue a few days ago were the water crystals spilled over or something and somehow soaked the egg crates and the humidity seemed to be really high and it had this moldy smell to it. Thankfully i was able to get some mesh and egg crates and will be changing them out today and cleaning out their bin.

 

[LizMarie]

I almost forgot to answer your questions...

1- I use a ZooMed UTH rated for a 10-20gallon tank. It stays around 95*F.

2- I've never heard of jello being used as water crystals but might not be the best idea because all the additives, sugars, etc. I use water crystals but have also heard that flukers blue water gels are good too.

3- I dunno about how many pairs but I have one leo and I order 117 roaches that came with about 4adult pairs.

4- As for their diet I use a mix of cat and dog food with fruits or veggies. I've used carrots, cantalope, honey dew melon, etc.

 

[leoman777]

where do you all get your roaches from im thinking about getting them but i dont know where to get them??

 

[LizMarie]

I once got sample from Nigels and then I bought my breeding colony from theroachguy.com because there was a big sale. Both were great to deal with.. Even though shipping methods were different, lol