Roach feeding day

mmfh

Arachnobaron
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Jun 14, 2010
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I love feeding day for my roaches. This week the staple food is grape nut cereal. But once a week I'll throw some of my dog's food in, this is where the fun begins. He eats lamb and rice food and boy do my roaches love this! As soon as they smell/sense it they are charging and a free-for-all begins. They will grab pieces and run with them, curl around them with their body and legs, and others then roll them and try to rip the piece of dog food free. They look like dung beetles fighting over prime realistate lol. I can sit for a good half hour just watching them. Tonight one even came right out into the open and nearly took a piece from my fingers. At which point, I had a thought about roach circus training with dog food, rofl, for an instant, then sanity took over again.
 

pannaking22

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Very nice! What roach species do you have? I've found that oats work well as roach food too :)
 

mmfh

Arachnobaron
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Just run of the meal B. dubia. They are actually feeders for my T's but I'm amazed at how fascinating I find them. Actually thinking of getting another species. I like the look of the question mark roaches, but they might require more attention and care. Yes oatmeal is great and cheaper lol but I try to mix it up. Gave them a hugh piece of zucchini last night and there is no evidence of it today. The only food they act all crazy about though is the dog food.
 
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pannaking22

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Roaches are actually a lot of fun to keep. I started off with just dubia, but my collection expanded quite a bit from there. Question marks actually aren't that much harder to keep than dubia. All they really need is a mixed substrate and for the lower portion of the substrate to have higher humidity than the top. That's about it :) That's good hat you give them a mixed diet. I try to mix it up with all my roaches too. If you want any different species, let me know and I can get you a few neat ones ;)
 

pannaking22

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Agreed, I feed my dubia oats a lot along with fresh veggies and occasional fruit. They devour it all!
That's a definite perk of roaches, they tend not to be picky when it comes to what we feed them!
 

mmfh

Arachnobaron
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Pannaking22, what is one of the more interesting species to keep, not just color wise but behaviorally?
 

pannaking22

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Pannaking22, what is one of the more interesting species to keep, not just color wise but behaviorally?
I've always been a fan of my Gyna lurida, the porcelain roach. There are all sorts of colors with these guys and the nymphs are super cute! It's entertaining to watch the adults run around in the evenings too. Pseudomops septentrionalis, the pale bordered field roach, is starting to grow on me as the nymphs get larger and I start getting some gorgeous adults. The adults behave like wasps and their color probably serves as a warning to potential predators as well. Elliptorhina javanica, the Halloween hissing cockroach, is a gorgeous hisser that's a little smaller than the usual G. portentosa. Probably my favorite though is Corydidarum pygmaea, the roly poly roach. I only have a female right now and I don't think any of the males were still alive when she matured, so I'm hoping to find another male so that I can get some nymphs. The behavior on those is fascinating because the mother actually nourishes the nymphs through the first couple molts and then they go off on their own.
 
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