mad' hissing 'roach

P

palegothicangel

First Instar
hi, i'm new so this is my first post. my names eva i'm from england.

i just got myself some hissing cockroaches, i first looked online for info on keeping them, as you do before getting a pet, and thought i'd got it all down. i got my babies the otherday, they still have a lot of growing to do.

i read that they are truely herbivores, only eating fruit and vedge and either cuttlefish or egg shell for calcium.

but i've tried apple pinapple peach pear bannana sweet potato and cucumber over the last week and they seem to have only had a small nibble at the apple. on here there's people saying feed them dry dog food, but surely they wouldn't eat anything like this in the wild especialy if they are not meat eaters? it was suggested i get some of the insect feeder fruit jelly crystals.

if anyone on here has found what they like best it'd be greatly apreciated. i don't want to kill them before they're full grown.

 
palegothicangel said:
hi, i'm new so this is my first post. my names eva i'm from england.i just got myself some hissing cockroaches, i first looked online for info on keeping them, as you do before getting a pet, and thought i'd got it all down. i got my babies the otherday, they still have a lot of growing to do.

i read that they are truely herbivores, only eating fruit and vedge and either cuttlefish or egg shell for calcium.

but i've tried apple pinapple peach pear bannana sweet potato and cucumber over the last week and they seem to have only had a small nibble at the apple. on here there's people saying feed them dry dog food, but surely they wouldn't eat anything like this in the wild especialy if they are not meat eaters? it was suggested i get some of the insect feeder fruit jelly crystals.

if anyone on here has found what they like best it'd be greatly apreciated. i don't want to kill them before they're full grown.
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I have sustained my colony for about four years now on almost nothing but carrot and unmedicated chick mash.

 
I have large colonies of many types of hisser roaches, and they all get fed the same things:

Apple, carrot, mixed green leafy vegetables, pellet fish food, and occasional other fruits or squash.

If you only have a few they will not seem to eat very much at first. Make sure thier enclosure is not too large for the number of roaches you have as they like to be a little on the crowded side. There should be a water supply by either misting them periodically or from direct application. Temps should be (upper 70's to low 80's 'F) which is (26 or 28'C ??).

Roaches also enjoy some ventilation....

 
thank you for your replies :)

there's 6 of them (each is 1"- 1 1/2" ) in a 15" by 8" 10" clear plastic box with about 80 2.5mm holes drilled round the top edge filles with 1/2 cm of grit then 3" of a mix of composts and molched oak/bramble/birch/elder leaves and a few grass seeds in the corner for hiding in with a 4" by 10" rotted (not mouldy just soft with the bark comming off) apple branch and a 8" by 2" birch branch at the back and some cork bark in the corner. they also have a natural sponge in a small 2" dish that's damp and i've been spreying them once every 2 days to keep it moist because it's been so hot here. it stays fairy humid in there because of the soil. i've been leaving the food in for 3 days because it's so hot this summer it goes of after that. but i've been leaving it in the same place so they know where it is. like i said they have been eating it just doesn't seem like that much. carp pellets are mostly plancton and very small creatures dried and powdered aren't they? i'll try them with it and see if they like it :)

 
I have kept hissers successfully since 1980 and have used dog food as the primary diet. The guy I got them from used Monkey Chow.

Nice to have you aboard!

 
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I haven't raised any hissers yet but I do have quite a few dogs. If you read the ingredients on most of the less expensive brands of dry dog food you will find various grains listed as the primary ingredients it isn't unusual for roaches to do well eating dog food as a big part of their diet.

 
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abroad sound so odd... lol! ooo exotic england where you get mugged by passing hedgehogs :) england or at lest the bit of it where i live is bland....

this is my photography page....

me

where i live:

harlow

harlow

don't have any pics of my new pets yet but here's some of my other ones:

stick insect:

stick

me and rats taken by a mate:

ratties

my rosy boa (hdr) :

rosy boa

me and my royal (ball) python taken by chiledcoder:

royal python

 
My roaches live in a bin. On the bottom is about 5cm of bark bits. Then there are egg cartons for them to climb on or hide under. All that soil and branches seem to get messy over the long run, but it can be made to look nice and less utilitarian.

;)

 
Matt K said:
My roaches live in a bin. On the bottom is about 5cm of bark bits. Then there are egg cartons for them to climb on or hide under. All that soil and branches seem to get messy over the long run, but it can be made to look nice and less utilitarian. ;)
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i had to make it look fairy nice because they are in out living room with all our other pets. :)

 
palegothicangel said:
i had to make it look fairy nice because they are in out living room with all our other pets. :)
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I keep my hissers in an aquarium in my living room, too. The are in the space of my

'entertainment center' precisely where the TV should be. ha HA I love them.

Hissers are nocturnal and this can make it seem like they never eat--------especially if you have a small amount of them.

 
Do you cut up the carrots? What about the cheerios - do those get mashed up? My dwarf hissers don't seem to care for the carrot chunk I threw in there, but they did take nicely to romaine lettuce, dried leaves from the yard, and apple.

 
Hell-Spawn said:
Do you cut up the carrots? What about the cheerios - do those get mashed up? My dwarf hissers don't seem to care for the carrot chunk I threw in there, but they did take nicely to romaine lettuce, dried leaves from the yard, and apple.
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Wanna see them pig out? Put in some Honeycomb cereal!

 
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