Cockroach Care for the Pet Roach

Cockroach Care for the species Pet Roach, and Feeder Roach Care Sheet for Reptiles and Amphibians

Cockroach Care for the Pet Roach as pets

Before you read to much further, hissing please keep in mind that any roach care sheet on the Internet will likely reflect the experiences of a cockroaches single person. While I like to think my credibility is high, due in part to the fact I co-moderate and maintain the hobby's most popular hissing cockroach pets Roach Forum (Roachforum.com), I still want to be very clear about the benefit of owning a good book on cockroach care. In truth, there is only one out there and I will not pretend that my roach caresheet even begins to cover what is available in the publication "Allpet Roaches: Treatment and Identification Handbook for your pet and Feeder Cockroaches", by Orin McMonigle and madagascar "Roachman" Willis. We sell this reserve through the website. The caresheet below should be enough to get you cockroach by if you're purchasing your first pet cockroach. While this is undoubtedly one of cockroaches the best and most extensive online treatment sheets on pets the subject, I make no effort here to write an entire book's worth of content. Please feel free to email me with specific questions or suggestions for this caresheet.

Introduction:

First, let's point out that less than 1% of roach species are pest species! Roaches are among the easiest pet insects to care for. A surprising array of patterns and bright colors are exhibited by many of the varieties in the hobby. A few pest types have given a bad name to an otherwise clean and safe animal. For the purposes of this caresheet, medium live and large species. Young roaches are referred to as nymphs. Adults as pets are simply known as adults. Cockroaches grow by shedding their hissing skin and cease dropping once they become adults. Before the final shed they are referred to as sub-adults. I'll discuss the benefits and requirements for keeping both in the various sections below.

Housing: 

While very few of the varieties available in the hobby are species capable of infesting homes, nearly all roach varieties are cockroaches escape artists. With this in mind, proper containment is essential. Obviously, choosing a container size is a first step. Roaches are very communal and will often cluster together even if they are offered a large cage. They spend most of the daylight hours hiding. These tend to be nocturnal bugs, however, Pieces of bark or wood work great, If you are raising small roaches of a glass/plastic climbing types, you will may want to rub a 2 inch layer of petroleum jelly around the pets upper area of the habitat. 

Display- A ten gallon aquarium seems to be the standard of measure that most people are familiar with. Everybody is always getting rid cockroach of their old stuff. You might also try craigslist. Some types are more prone to this than others and it should be noted that antennae are fragile anyway and are occasionally damaged during shipment.

For Breeding Feeder Roaches in as pets large numbers- I recommend a large plastic material bin. I prefer a transparent bin because it's easier to see when the hissing cockroaches food or water pets dish is getting low. However, ). Plastic buckets are also used by a handful of hobbyists because they have a tendency to be absolutely escape-proof.

Substrate is the term used to describe what you line the bottom of the habitat with. Dirt is live okay, Newspaper works, though it's far from attractive.

Ventilation:

All pets that are being housed in containers need fresh air. A little bit of air flow goes a long way in preventing the kind of habitat that promotes the growth of mold and even small mites that occasionally infest food that is left too long in roach cages. Ventilation is achieved simply by poking holes in a box or by cutting out a section of the lid and gluing a bit hissing of pets plastic or metal cockroaches screen over the opening.

Humidity: Humidity is doubly important for pet insects. Roaches like to drink drinking water and they need a little of environmental humidity in their habitat when the time comes for them to shed their pores and skin. Luckily, however, Otherwise, their wings will not dry properly, resulting in a wrinkled appearance. A small, shallow water dish is preferred. A deep drinking water dish may result in drown pests. If you don't want to spend the couple bucks for a nice looking water dish, Alternatively, you can just pour drinking water into one corner of the cage every few madagascar days. The substrate species will absorb pets the majority of it, but your roaches will still be able to drink from it and benefit from the moisture that it helps their habitat to maintain.

Temperature:

Room temperature is just find for hissing cockroach raising all pet roach species, adults of many species live require temperatures above 80 degrees to reproduce. Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, As with most bugs, warmer temps and a good food supply mean faster development. 

Food:

So they eat pretty much anything and everything. Some people even keep roaches exclusively to reduce the amount of garbage that would live otherwise end up in a landfill! Roaches can cockroaches definitely compost your leftover dinner scraps. just because of the potential bacterial growth that might hissing occur.

Incubation:

In either case, a minimum of 75 levels F and even ten degrees warmer are recommended for many varieties.

Cockroaches as pets at home - Just how to raise german cockroaches as pets

Cockroaches as pets at home - Just how to raise german cockroaches as pets

Cockroaches as pets at home

" They're members of the approximately 30 species out of 4, On the bright side, if you want to keep them as pets, easy to care for, and incredibly prolific.

Ceaseless Companions

German cockroaches are easy to find and this cockroaches can be pets at home. This introduced varieties has naturalized, , moisture and shelter. That means everywhere with a warm climate and in every other weather, too, provided there's heating during colder months. While you won't find them for sale in pet stores, so the ones you have your eye on won't be missed.

A Ritzy Apartment

Your new friends need their own room -- one with special security measures. Cockroaches can easily climb vertical surfaces, including a glass and plastic, can fit through openings you can barely see and are incredibly fast. You can house your domestic pets in a plastic tub covered in cheesecloth held in place with a large rubber band, or perhaps if you would rather be able to watch them, in a Five to ten gallon terrarium with a tight-fitting, sliding and locking, fine mesh lid. A petroleum jelly barrier smeared all the way around the tank's top inner 2 or 3 inches will discourage crawling out, because it's absolutely guaranteed some roaches will be able to fit around the lid, or through the mesh in the case of new hatchlings.

Proper Furnishings

Cockroaches like to hang out in groups, on vertical areas, in the dark. Line the tank with newspaper and remove it when it gets damp and stinky. You can add pretty much any other furnishings you want, as long as they provide dark spots for congregating. 

Roach Gourmet

Roaches will eat pretty much anything. Pet food, your leftovers -- it really doesn't matter. But so long as their diet is varied and abundant, They need constant access to water and some humidity. 

The Big Question

Why would anyone want to raise these pests as household pets? and it's very rare for them to be raised on purpose. A few hardcore ecologists raise them as part of indoor composting units, a few animal trainers in the film industry increase them as pet actors, and they're elevated as feeders for other animals. The danger of escapees infesting your home is very real and they are an invasive types. It's strongly suggested if you're interested in pet roaches, you choose a clean, pet-like species, such as the Madagascar hissing cockroach, instead.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches as pets and their content at home

Madagascar hissing cockroaches as pets and their content at home

≡ insects → types of cockroaches →

Gromphadorrhina portentous- Madagascar spitting cockroaches

Along with the Mexican naked dogs, the cats, with sphinxes and Vietnamese pigs folk Madagascar cockroach with confidence won the title and also extravagant, but many of the original favorite animal. It can hardly be called sweet friend or very sympathetic (even the term "four-legged" is not suitable for this!), but many of the characteristics of biology and a very original look makes it appealing to pet enthusiasts Exotic.

In addition, Madagascar cockroaches as pets are very convenient in content: Do not ruin the apartment and emit no odors, harmless and easy, and in most cases do not make it visible to guests.

However, some requirements for the Hiss content of the Madagascar cockroach still does. Therefore, for the successful breeding of these insects in the house, even before buying them, you should be well acquainted with the peculiarities of their biology and take into account the hardened Tarakanovodov experience.

The appearance of cockroaches and photos

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches – it's not a type, like a species of cockroaches that live exclusively on Madagascar and other countries around the world, is found only in terrarium lovers or random banana boxes.

Total Science note 20 species of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, the state of some of these systematic still disputes are long.

One feature of the Madagascar cockroaches as pets is their lack of wings in all stages of development. The vast majority of the other cockroaches are devoid of wings only individuals larvae and adults (Imago) have wings, and some also fly very well. In Madagascar the originals sometimes difficult to distinguish from nymph old adult insect.

Madagascar cockroaches hiss have a very characteristic look: a very powerful chitin dish on the cephalothorax, wide and quite thick belly. But the main feature is their size-adults of some species can reach a length of 9 cm! In the picture, you can easily estimate the size of a cockroach compared to the human hand:

Belly painting of these insects varies from light brown to almost black. As a general rule, their dark nymphs and adults have little physical tightness. In the top photo nymphs presented early on the ground-a larva in the advanced age:

Maggots(nimfa) Cafard Malagasi (early age)

Grown maggots

With this decoration Madagascar adult cockroach are particular prominence on the top of her breast carapace. These "horns" have only adult males, and it is thanks to them that some species are well distinguished males from females.

In the picture above-the male, from the lower-female species Gromphadorhina portentous-the most popular Madagascar cockroach:

Those types of Madagascar cockroaches where males do not have prominence on the back, sexual dimorphism is less clear. However, you distinguish males from females can be for other reasons:

• As the mustache-the males are almost always broken and crooked, as the insects are actively using in the fight for the feminine. The females, however, Vine and flat whole. Photography clearly visible differences between the sexes; Male is a female of Madagascar cockroach The last two segments of the belly: the females are both black, the black male, only the last. And in general, at the abdominal female level is slightly wider. In the picture is clearly visible.

• Distinguish nymphs plants visually impossible. Same nymphs are very similar to adult insects, but their golovogrudny shield is not as well-developed as that of their parents.

Cockroaches as pets and cockroach care sheet

Cockroaches as pets and cockroach care sheet

Cockroaches as pets, Feeding

Points to remember when feeding your hissing cockroach:

clean, Fresh, chlorine-free water should be available at all times.

Cockroaches as pets, Diet

A well-balanced hissing cockroach diet consists of:

Romaine lettuce, carrots, apples, and occasional overripe fruits, 

Cockroaches as pets, Housing

• Lighting - Cockroaches |will be nocturnal and have no special lighting needs, to view cockroaches at night, use a nocturnal or infrared light.
• Water - Use a shallow water bowl; and place stones in the bowl to prevent roaches from drowning. 
• Substrate - Mulch-type commercial material such as coconut fiber bedding, dampened sphagnum moss and reptile bark.
• Temperature between 75 and 85°F; use under-tank heater.
• Habitat-provides hiding places that use non-toxic plants, twigs or bark logs wet Cork; maintain high humidity with daily Misting.
• Adult Home cockroaches together but not to the House with different species of cockroaches together.

• The right area and shape of habitat to accommodate normal behavior as well as exercises, with the CAP securely.

Normal Behavior

• Male cockroaches have large horns behind their heads while females have very small horns.
• Cockroaches are nocturnal (active during the night).
• Handle cockroaches gently; while they don't bite, they do have sharp spines on their legs.
• Juveniles molt several times before reaching adulthood; once grown, they do not molt again.

Habitat Maintenance

Replace the subst.rate every two weeks, change water daily.

Grooming & Hygiene

 Always wash your hands before and after touching your cockroaches, and avoid getting the coating into cuts and scratches.

Signs of a Healthy Animal

• Body is rounded and full
• Healthy exoskeleton
• Eats regularly
• Active and alert

Red Flags

• Bumps, sores or abrasions
• Abnormal feces
• Swollen limbs
• Lethargic
• Dull exoskeleton
• Weight loss
• Discharge in mouth or eyes
• If you notice any of these signs, contact your veterinarian.

Shopping list for needed supplies:

• substrate
• plantsbook about hissing cockroach
• appropriately sized habitat
• undertank heater
• moss
• food & water dishes
• hideaway place
• climbing décor

Benefits of hissing madagascar cockroaches as pets at home

Benefits of hissing madagascar cockroaches as pets at home

Just say that the Madagascar cockroaches hiss are bred in the house, not just for fun, but also as a comfortable feed for terrarium animals-lizards, amphibians, snakes, spiders. They harmless calories to the animals, they do not emit an unpleasant odor and, as a result, very attractive as feed.

Madagascar ciders of cockroaches is easy to maintain at home.

It is Madagascar's cockroaches are used as cross-country bug beetle Racing-a very popular pastime in many countries around the world. In addition, they are also used in food as it would be as terrible as it seems-the adult insect is a great source of protein calories, overcoming in many aspects of bovine food chicken. And today, even extravagant design used Malagasy lives to make necklaces, but this zhivoderstvo unlikely to be widespread.

Regardless of the targets, Madagascar cockroaches contained in the house is usually performed in large plastic cages where:

There's a bed of sawdust. It is not desirable to use a soft essence, but the coconut trash or regular filing litter will fit perfectly. You can combine sawdust and sand. Bedding should be changed once a month to prevent tick infections.

They hide, The practical cockroaches fans prove that the shelters are ideal trays out of the eggs laid each other.

Sustained by high temperature in the range 25-30 °c. Cockroaches normally transferred by lowering the temperature to 18 °c and increasing to 35 °c, but to such extremes cease to reproduce.

Wet-All the tub should be sprayed with water from a spray can, at least once a week. In the ideal case-the hot water, which turns immediately into fog, ideal for cockroaches. Avoid constant absorbent substrate-can rot or moldy.

Cockroaches constantly need water. In Nature , you pull it out of juicy fruit or dew. The cage must be installed trough, which fits wadding and filled with water. Insects should not be able to choke, but they must have access to the water.

Cure Madagascar Cockroaches hissing cage consists of spraying with water, regular supplying them food and water is added to the trough. Knowing how to take care of Madagascar cockroaches, we can guarantee that they will breed very active and live long enough.

It goes without breaking the head on what to feed the cockroaches of Madagascar. They are excellent to eat any fruit (particularly fond-bananas), cooked cereals, vegetables, dry food for the fish, bread. The main thing that food was constantly in their cages and had different, different insects may be cannibalism, or be involved in self-mutilation.

Cockroach buys Madagascar in Moscow and other large Russian cities is not difficult: today they are sold to many markets of birds and zoos. Know where to buy the Madagascar cockroach, many terrariums do not go without crop forage for its reptiles, buying in constant beetle larvae size desired.

Today, cockroaches can also buy on the Internet. The only important thing to keep in mind that in insect packed sending can travel no more than 3-4 days, so the online store will be selected by those who are close to home.

Today nymphs' cockroach Madagascar are about 100-150 rubles, depending on age, the price of adult cockroach is about 400-500 rubles. Given the simplicity of the content of these insects can also satisfy nature lovers who can not afford the maintenance of a cat or dog, but want to have in the house a little wild world.

Lifestyle and ecology of Madagascar cockroaches hissing as pets

Lifestyle and ecology of Madagascar cockroaches hissing as pets

Madagascar cockroaches hissing as pets

Hiss of Madagascar cockroaches-insects are very shy and reserved. In Nature, they live in the jungles of Madagascar, in the afternoon hideout in the soil of the forest, and at night crawling on its surface and eating a variety of decaying plants and remnants of animals. Do not sting and can not induce a person any harm.

To save from predators, these insects have chosen guerrilla tactics: they are trying as little as possible to give you the movement, and if a lemur or a bird finds them, they are pressed against the surface of difficulty.

Thanks to the good back of the animal can not grab a cockroach on the top and hook it underneath is also a big problem. Then cockroach launches his winning card, for which he has, in fact, been called.

Madagascar cockroaches are able to very loud and shrill hiss. The daunting hissing recalls some beneficial snakes and cockroaches because it can help them get rid of annoying pursuers. This can also frighten hissing terrarium experienced as insects have produced very quickly.

The Madagascar cockroaches are able to hiss

Hissing cockroaches are all adults, with a special body-the stigmata-on the surface of the body. Cockroach quite abruptly bend the body and reduce the light to emit a hiss in some species looks like a whistle.

Cockroach females hiss only in case of danger, and repel the enemies that play. The males use hissing further during the courtship and the female during the fights with other males.

It is interesting to note that the colony of Madagascar cockroaches hisses precise hierarchy is established among males. During the fight, the male pushed his horns, and weaker than male was instead transmuted on his back, showing his defeat. 

Most males are on the body or that the damage received during the fights.

Many are wondering how many cockroaches live Madagascar. As a general rule, the nature of the average life span of insects is 1-1.5 years in captivity-about 3 years. Very rarely, some individuals survive at 5 or even 6 years. At the end of life are usually a little lighter.

Another equally interesting question-what to eat Madagascar cockroaches as pets. In this sense they are not different from most other species, eat the remnants in decomposition of fruits, berries, green parts of the plants.

Is interesting

Hiss of Madagascar cockroaches on a species of ticks constantly lives, they are not found in any other living being. Once it is assumed that these mites are parasitic insects by perforating chitin skin and feeding on the lymph or blood. But the research from a colored liquid that gave the drinks cockroaches, have shown that this is not so: the mites feed on the same food that it consumes and cockroaches-fruits and green parts of the plants, and the cockroaches themselves are used only as a vehicle.

Like all the Madagascar hissing cockroaches gravitate to places with a strong smell of wood, or with the presence of wood rot and sawdust. Therefore, the nature of the easiest to find in rotten stumps and under blanket in the forest.

Playing Madagascar Cockroaches hissing

Madagascar hissing cockroaches as pets are live species bearing. After fertilization, the eggs in the abdomen of the females attack together and form a special room-ootheca. Most of the time Ootheca is located in the abdomen of the female, but she has the opportunity to appoint her through the anus to ventilate the eggs.

Is interesting

The species of cockroaches that reproduce live births, OOTHECA has a light-white or white-yellow-the color looks soft. Others have the same species, the dumped females' ootheca long before the larvae from the eggs, Ootheca solid and has a protective coloration. The photo shows Ootheca Malagasy and Ootheca black brownie beetle:

Egg development lasts about 50-70 days. This time depends on the ambient temperature-the colder air, the longer the type of pregnancy.

The nymphs emerge from the eggs in the cavity of the female body, and then immediately moved outward along with the residues Ootheca. Newborn larvae are small-only a few millimeters long-and have white soft shell. They diligently eat ootheca and within a few hours they darken, becoming a small copy of the mother.

The birth of the Madagascar sparkling cockroach

Maggots come out of the female

Originally, maggots have white color

Some time after childbirth, maggots hold near mother is not crawl

is interesting

Malagasy-one of the few cockroaches, the females who show concern for the nymphs. While the larvae themselves are not raspolzutsya in different directions, the mother hisses angrily at all insects and animals, approaching her and sinks towards a potential enemy.

In a litter of cockroaches there are usually 20-25 larvae. A few days after birth, they keep with her mother, and then crawl.

The chitin covers the larvae can not grow in terms of size, and because the insect grows inside of him as the clothing. Several times during his childhood mute Nymph-his broken shell on the back, halves to the sides and out scans the light, the adult nymph. Its new shell is soft and bright, but it is an insect eats its previous small shell body covers harden, and the nymph becomes a dark brown ordinary.

Larval stage from hatching to the last hard wet suit depending on the environmental conditions and the power of 6 to 12 months. During this time the nymph Mutes 6 times.

As a result, as a pet madagascar will satisfy its owner for about 4-5 years. But for an insect such joy still need to create the right conditions...

Madagascar hissing cockroaches as pets

Madagascar hissing cockroaches as pets

Appearance

Cockroach Hissing Madagascar's hissing cockroaches of Madagascar are often simply called hissing cockroaches. Some refer to them by calling them giant cockroaches. These insects are native to Madagascar and live in forests and regions with a humid and tropical climate.

Growing up to 19 cm, Madagascar's hissing cockroaches are one of the largest species.

Behavior, nutrition and habits

The cockroaches hissing  of Madagascar as pets hissing when disturbed or in alarm. They produce this sound by expelling air through crevices in the abdomen. The hissing is very strong and plays an important role in the colony organized hierarchically, during courtship and to communicate.

The hissing cockroaches are omnivores, and they mainly feed on vegetables and other rotting organic matter.
They live on the soil of forests and under rotten strains. They feed on fallen fruits and rotting organic materials, managing to live up to five years. This species of cockroaches differs from others due to the presence of horns and the lack of wings.

Playback
The young hissing cockroaches of Madagascar live in close contact with the females for a long period after birth. The water Lily Stadium lasts from six to seven months. Both nymphs and adults are free of wings, even if they are skilled climbers. The males of the species have larger horns and more hairy antennas than females. They are also extremely aggressive and it is easy to see them fight with other males of the species.

Signs of an infestation of Madagascar's hissing cockroaches
The hissing cockroach of Madagascar is the only known insect species capable of hissing. While other insects create sounds by rubbing together parts of the body, this cockroach hissing by releasing air from the abdominal vents. This species of cockroaches produces two types of hissing: hissing of disturbance, that all specimens of the species are able to emit, even before reaching a certain stage of development, and of the combat hissing, which only the males produce. The males of the species are very territorial and use their horns in combat.