How often do you feed?

I have 3 large roach colonies (one spread across 3 boxes), which I feed dry food (mostly porridge oats, sometimes dry cat food) every couple of days, and fruit/veg once a week.

I used to feed them fruit and veg more often but with the number of insects I now have (stick insects as well as roaches) and working full time as well, I simply don't have the time to feed them all as often as I used to! ?

I am actively trying to reduce the numbers of my roaches (giving them away/selling them in bulk to dealers) and when the numbers are a bit more reasonable I hope I won't feel so bad about only feeding them fruit and veg once a week!

 
I do all maintenance once a week, feed, water, give fruits and veggies, hasn't slowed down a single one of my colonies. Most food is gone in a day or two, as long as they have access to some sort of moisture they are fine and in the wild they are t gonna be eating a lot of protein or even a lot of fruit for that matter every single day.

 
I also have a once a week schedule for roach feeding, misting and cleanup. I just make sure they have plenty of decomposing leaves and water crystals to last after the fresh stuff is gone. I do have a few species that I mist everyday or every other day. I've tried to time that with my arachnid feeding schedules so as not to get overwhelmed with hours of daily care. It's sometimes a balancing act though!

Now that my invertebrate collection includes about 60 species I'm starting to have to manage my care schedule like a part time job... A crazy fun part time job, but still a job. If any of the more experienced keepers have any tips, I'm all ears. 

 
I feed my 20 roach colonies about 2-3 times / week. It includes misting, replacing fruit/carrots, adding some water to corners if needed etc.  
Some I take a daily look at and do maintenance when needed (Pseudoglomeris magnifica and Schizopilia fissicollis for example due to their high investment costs and being hard to get). 
Others I tend to be more careless about, as they can deal better with scarcity, like the Polyphaga species I keep. 

 
Axolotl said:
Now that my invertebrate collection includes about 60 species I'm starting to have to manage my care schedule like a part time job... A crazy fun part time job, but still a job. If any of the more experienced keepers have any tips, I'm all ears. 
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I know exactly how you feel!

Having started with just three individual hissers two years ago I now have 11 stick insect species, 3 large colonies of three different hisser species, 8 millipedes (all the same species) and some blue death-feigning beetles, and their maintenance is getting pretty time consuming alongside a full time job ?, so I'd be interested in everyone's tips too.

 
BlattaAnglicana said:
I know exactly how you feel!

Having started with just three individual hissers two years ago I now have 11 stick insect species, 3 large colonies of three different hisser species, 8 millipedes (all the same species) and some blue death-feigning beetles, and their maintenance is getting pretty time consuming alongside a full time job ?, so I'd be interested in everyone's tips too.
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Of course it sounds insanely simple and why didn't I think of it sooner, but I'm going to start a detailed schedule with checklists and spread the work out across the week. That way I can power through quickly without a lot of thinking when needed. I hate to turn my hobby into a chore, but it might help me feel not so overwhelmed and ensure I don't overlook any care needs - especially now that I'm adding pricier and more demanding species. 

I've also seen a lot of tarantula keepers print out little care sheet cheat sheets and tape them to the enclosures. Another why didn't I think of that... 

 
I feed heavy once a week, but in between I keep my water Gel crystals hydrated and replenish food when a bowl is empty.  I'm growing out 10K babies, so they stay fed and watered always.

 
I feed ad libitum (dry leaves) and supplement with a veggie (often carrots or a piece of lettuce) and a piece of fruit (orange or apple) one a week.

The veggie and fruit are given to the colony on separate days and removed after 5 days if they have not eaten up, to avoid mold.

I also change my water daily as I use filled water tubes closed with cotton wool.

 
Old thread, (sorting through all my unread stuff) but I feed mine every three days, (twice a week), whether I have two colonies or a hundred. The air is quite dry here so I have to water a lot of my inverts that frequently anyways, and that's about how long it takes for excess food to mold over, so that's when I've found it convenient to add new food. :)

 
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