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Tarantula Feeding and Feeder Insects
How To Start A Roach Colony
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<blockquote data-quote="Tortoise Tom" data-source="post: 134217" data-attributes="member: 27883"><p>I use 12x12" egg flats with cardboard dividers so the flats don't groove together and squish the roaches. These give them good traction and lots of space to occupy.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]31264[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]31265[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The food and water thing is another issue I've had with the care sheets. So many of them say so many different things. I bet all of them work. All those years I kept my hissers, I just gave them whatever leftovers I had. They ate everything. Even thawed pinkies that my snakes refused.</p><p></p><p>About "water crystals" and similar products: They are not needed and I found them to be more trouble than they are worth. They keep drying out all the time, and once the colony grows and you get a good frass layer going on the bottom, the crystals get buried and mixed in with the frass. When the colony is new, the water crystals stay clean and pristine for a while. After that, they make mold in the frass, and that is no good. If you want to use them, go for it. Just be aware that when they start getting buried, you'll have to figure something else out. I simply use a piece of fruit, carrot, potato, yam, celery, orange, cucumber, etc… over in one front corner for moisture.</p><p></p><p>I use plain old dry dog kibble by the handful in the other corner. This gives them balanced nutrition and enough protein to grow, molt and reproduce. You don't have to grind up the dog food, or mix up crazy concoctions. I tried all of that and it works no better than plain whole kibble by the handful. I like them to eat all of it in a day or two and not have a lot of extra laying around molding. I adjust how much they get by watching how much they eat. A large dubia colony will eat 2-3 cups of dog food a day, plus two oranges or 10 carrots. Its amazing watching how fast it disappears. A whole grapefruit gone in 2 hours.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]31266[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Next we have to add some roaches. Blatta lateralis, or red runners, in this case. I scooped up a bunch of lateralis off of one of the cardboard dividers for this demonstration.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]31267[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Now we wait and wait and wait for them to mature and begin reproducing. It takes several months for a colony to get up and running. For the longest time, it "seems" like nothing is happening. Once they get going, the population begins to explode.</p><p></p><p>Because of how many bins I had going, I developed ways to make everything more simple and efficient. I did a lot of side-by-side experiments to test all the different recommended food concoctions and water delivery systems. I found that none of it made much difference at all. As long as they had a source of moisture, and a variety of foods, they reproduced like **** roaches. I found it best to keep things simple. All of the feeders species and most of the other species don't need or get any benefit from using substrate. Most of my bins were bare bottomed.</p><p></p><p>All species reproduce better at warmer temps, but some species tolerate lower temps better than others. Dubia really slow down at room temp, but lateralis can keep growing. My bins are kept in my heated reptile room, but any warm spot on a high shelf should work for most people. I've never tried to artificially heat a bin, so I'm not the best person to advise on that. If reproduction is the goal, you'll get better results above 80 degrees.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tortoise Tom, post: 134217, member: 27883"] I use 12x12" egg flats with cardboard dividers so the flats don't groove together and squish the roaches. These give them good traction and lots of space to occupy. [ATTACH=full]31264[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]31265[/ATTACH] The food and water thing is another issue I've had with the care sheets. So many of them say so many different things. I bet all of them work. All those years I kept my hissers, I just gave them whatever leftovers I had. They ate everything. Even thawed pinkies that my snakes refused. About "water crystals" and similar products: They are not needed and I found them to be more trouble than they are worth. They keep drying out all the time, and once the colony grows and you get a good frass layer going on the bottom, the crystals get buried and mixed in with the frass. When the colony is new, the water crystals stay clean and pristine for a while. After that, they make mold in the frass, and that is no good. If you want to use them, go for it. Just be aware that when they start getting buried, you'll have to figure something else out. I simply use a piece of fruit, carrot, potato, yam, celery, orange, cucumber, etc… over in one front corner for moisture. I use plain old dry dog kibble by the handful in the other corner. This gives them balanced nutrition and enough protein to grow, molt and reproduce. You don't have to grind up the dog food, or mix up crazy concoctions. I tried all of that and it works no better than plain whole kibble by the handful. I like them to eat all of it in a day or two and not have a lot of extra laying around molding. I adjust how much they get by watching how much they eat. A large dubia colony will eat 2-3 cups of dog food a day, plus two oranges or 10 carrots. Its amazing watching how fast it disappears. A whole grapefruit gone in 2 hours. [ATTACH=full]31266[/ATTACH] Next we have to add some roaches. Blatta lateralis, or red runners, in this case. I scooped up a bunch of lateralis off of one of the cardboard dividers for this demonstration. [ATTACH=full]31267[/ATTACH] Now we wait and wait and wait for them to mature and begin reproducing. It takes several months for a colony to get up and running. For the longest time, it "seems" like nothing is happening. Once they get going, the population begins to explode. Because of how many bins I had going, I developed ways to make everything more simple and efficient. I did a lot of side-by-side experiments to test all the different recommended food concoctions and water delivery systems. I found that none of it made much difference at all. As long as they had a source of moisture, and a variety of foods, they reproduced like **** roaches. I found it best to keep things simple. All of the feeders species and most of the other species don't need or get any benefit from using substrate. Most of my bins were bare bottomed. All species reproduce better at warmer temps, but some species tolerate lower temps better than others. Dubia really slow down at room temp, but lateralis can keep growing. My bins are kept in my heated reptile room, but any warm spot on a high shelf should work for most people. I've never tried to artificially heat a bin, so I'm not the best person to advise on that. If reproduction is the goal, you'll get better results above 80 degrees. [/QUOTE]
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