# Roaches



## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

How long should it take to get a good size feeding colony of roaches up to scratch? I still haven't taken a single one from my original 300, I think there is 100-200 babies in there now but they're not that big (I don't really feed them a lot).

Just wondering how many people recommend having in the colony before you start to pick out some of the adults.

I intend to let the babies that i've got grow up a bit first for the next generations breeders I suppose.

I actually went 3 weeks once and forgot I had them... if anyone is worrying about how hard they are to look after, I think they are near impossible to kill, they don't seem to starve anyway!


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

some people say up to 6 months.. i tried and after 12 weeks got bored and fed all the roaches to the beardies...


have u asked welshgaz i think he had a colony xx


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

sparkle said:


> some people say up to 6 months.. i tried and after 12 weeks got bored and fed all the roaches to the beardies...
> 
> 
> have u asked welshgaz i think he had a colony xx


He sold them! His did much better than mine though because he made them fat on cat food


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

Athravan said:


> He sold them! His did much better than mine though because he made them fat on cat food


 
cat food YUK.... and very expensive lol...

im imagining roaches turning their nose up at cod but devouring salmon LOL


do you know if he bought them wee diamonte collars at all?


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## HABU (Mar 21, 2007)

hissing roaches?


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## odyssey (Oct 23, 2006)

lobster roaches. ive had mine about 7mths now. i feed them on dog biscuits and mist them twice a week. i reckon i have about 2000 (i started with 300) and feed my beardies on them once a week. although will start to feed them twice a week as there breeding faster now i have them on top of my viv stack above the heatlight for my royal.


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## bosshogg (Nov 19, 2006)

i got 100 lobster roaches and with in a month i had doubled that number!! Now have around 300 but just ordered some more so i can get feeding quicker.

i feed mine on greens, bran and crushed up wheat a bix and porridge oats


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## markhill (Sep 22, 2006)

Athravan said:


> He sold them! His did much better than mine though because he made them fat on cat food


tinned or dried?
thats a serious question too.


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

Ah my roaches... I do miss them 

I started off with 300 and in 3 months ended up with well over 1000 I reckon with the little babies, that dude gotta bargin !

The amount you have and intend to feed will surely depend on how many you need ? Also the amount you feed them so they will breed will help :Na_Na_Na_Na:. What I did was half a pouch of cat food each week, wetabix as a substrate and I lightly sprayed them once a day. 

From birth the maturaity I think was around 3 months... so do the math

If you have say 20 females each giving out an average of 25 babies per month. Then you can use those babies once grown as feed and have a constant supply, so...

20*25 = 500 roaches per month as feed

but you'll need to grow them on first so they are big enough. Call this 2 months. Therefore with your original colony of 300 you'd need to wait 3 months to reach sexual maturity of the oringinal batch, 1 month for them to breed and make babies, and 2 months to reach a decent size equalling 6 months before you can feed 500 per month with 20 fenale breeders.

Easy !


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

markhill said:


> tinned or dried?
> thats a serious question too.


I went to Aldi or Lidle, bought a box of pouches of cheap cat food (about £2) and fed half per week...


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## andie (Sep 23, 2007)

I was wondering about dry cat or dog food or canned food at the mo, my roaches are on tetramin flake fish food and vegies and do really well at about 90f


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## scotty123 (Sep 16, 2007)

im thinknig about starting a colony too as i like the idea of cheap/free food for my WD's! 

just a quick one tho can anyone show me pics of your breeding setups??

i was literally gonna get a big plastic tub and put some stuff in there for them to sit on etc and leave it at that??


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

scotty123 said:


> just a quick one tho can anyone show me pics of your breeding setups??
> 
> i was literally gonna get a big plastic tub and put some stuff in there for them to sit on etc and leave it at that??


Don't think I got any pictures of what my setup was but it was basically a large flat plastic storage box with vasilene around the top, wetabix for a substrate and egg cartons for the to hide under... They don't need much.

Oh there was a heat mat under one of the egg cartons which they did seam to colonise under mainly...


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## scotty123 (Sep 16, 2007)

cool, thanks for the info! 

the main worry for me is them escaping! 

will have a scout around for a big container i can use!

take it you have to clean the container regularly??


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

I had mine around 3 months and cleaned them out once...

What your better of doing is not using a substrate but just put a bowl of wetabic in there. I fed mine left over veg and cat food as well for protien. They grew very quickly then.

If your worried about them escaping make sure the leather on teh vasaline and make it at least 2 inches thick. Also don't get it wet else they will climb over it ! 

I never hada lid or anything and didn't ahve any escape... they are not as jumpy as crickets either and are much easier to contain


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## jo (Jun 29, 2006)

What roaches are you talking about? I have dubia roaches... any tips on getting them to brede fast would be good.
Also some of male adults have like wingy things but they dont fly, and others dont? What are they lol


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

Mine were all Lobster roaches... They had wings as well but didn't fly. The males had shorter wings as well which made it easy to pick out males & females. 

I think in order for roaches to breed quick you have to supply them with protien and water. I used to spray my box with water each day (I was doing my snakes anyway) and put half a tin of cat food in each week... that coupled with random amounts of veg and salad made mine grow very quick


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## scotty123 (Sep 16, 2007)

jo said:


> What roaches are you talking about? I have dubia roaches... any tips on getting them to brede fast would be good.
> Also some of male adults have like wingy things but they dont fly, and others dont? What are they lol


 
any really, i know theres a few different types that get to different sizes and have different attributes (i.e climbers, flyers etc).

dubia is one of the ones i was looking at, they seem to be a good middle ground and pretty easy to keep! 

from reading up abit the warmer it is in there the quicker they breed, they need temps above 85F iirc.

found a good link that gives loads of info:

Feeder Roaches from New York Worms:Roaches

hope that helps.


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## jo (Jun 29, 2006)

welshgaz said:


> Mine were all Lobster roaches... They had wings as well but didn't fly. The males had shorter wings as well which made it easy to pick out males & females.
> 
> I think in order for roaches to breed quick you have to supply them with protien and water. I used to spray my box with water each day (I was doing my snakes anyway) and put half a tin of cat food in each week... that coupled with random amounts of veg and salad made mine grow very quick


Thanks for that, ive been given dry dog food and salad when ive had it lol

im going to try your way and see if that gets the buggers doing any more. They have been breeding but very very slow and i only get a few babies at a time so ill try your way lol Thanks


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

no problemo.. wish I could have kept mine, I was strangly addicted to rearing these even though I have no lizards left to feed them to 

Scotty hit the nail on the head as well, heat. Keep a hot spot there of 100f ish and mine would all happily sit under that. They like cubby holes and such so they can group together which I guess means better breeding ?

My roaches also seamed to prefer carrot over anything else that I gave...

Another tip is look at the antenna of the roaches. If you see loads broken you have to many in one box and time to seperate a few !


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## jo (Jun 29, 2006)

welshgaz said:


> no problemo.. wish I could have kept mine, I was strangly addicted to rearing these even though I have no lizards left to feed them to
> 
> Scotty hit the nail on the head as well, heat. Keep a hot spot there of 100f ish and mine would all happily sit under that. They like cubby holes and such so they can group together which I guess means better breeding ?
> 
> ...


Thank you, they are currently on top of my viv by the basking light... ill move them onto a heat mat as it doesnt reach them temps atall there now.
They have a huge tub at the minute, as soon as i get more ill watch out for the antenies, its overly big now as i spend more time lifting up each egg carton hoping to find some and theres none, they all squash into 1... must be the hottest part so ill make my adjustments tonight and hope for more babies Wooohooo


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## andie (Sep 23, 2007)

Im so worried about the lobsters escaping i only hand feed them but they excrete a horrid substance over you very much like locusts, they are also quite strong little critters. My dubia roaches are just turning into adults and havent bred yet but are easy to sex as the females have liitle or no wings i heard 1 male to 3 females is a good breeding ratio so any spare can be food. Surprisingly though you do get attached to them. Apple seems their favourite. I keep em in big pots with snap on lids with a tennis ball size hole cut in the top with that plastic screen mesh you get from garden centres celotaped ove the hole. Sorry no pic.


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