I remember a bit of what you went through when you were living at home. It wasn't very positive, and then to lose Rogue before you left, that was just the last straw I think. I'm glad you're doing better health wise, keep it that way, too. AJ sounds as if he's just meant for you
Well, I don't do what others do for their roach colonies. First my colony is in a regular 20 gallon tank with a mesh lid. I don't use heat, my living room is always warm because I have 2 geckos, so it's always 74F in here. I have no way of attaching a heating pad to the colony, as it's kept in the bottom of a credenza, underneath Nathaniel's tank (I live in a large one bedroom, all the tanks are in the living room). I was lucky, a few years ago, someone on here who lived an hour away had a roach colony they didn't want & sold it to me for $60 (there had to be 2000 roaches in total!). I already had one but let one of my dragons eat all the adult females so that laid waste to that colony. With the new one I was able to divide it into 5 other colonies (I had way too many for me!) and I have 2 that I'm keeping with me, one in a 10 gallon tank because my friend Joanne is allergic to them and the other because Jolene's male Fizz won't eat them anymore. So I have them until he wants them again, then she'll get them back.
Most people have them in a large rubbermaid container with a bit hole in the top that is covered in mesh. And a heating pad underneath. I've always found that's just too hot for them. I've been told that they do better at 86F heat, but I'm not doing that, ever.
You can buy kits on Facebook, but it's just easier to buy a 20 gallon tank with the mesh lid, they need alot of air, so to store them you'll need to be sure they're in a dark space that's warm enough. They eat oranges quartered, clear water crystals and collard greens. They love grains, but that can bring mice into your house, as it did mine, even though I did manage to catch the little buggers. So now I can feed them grains again. What I feed them as a treat, that they love, is my cereal, don't even mush it up, just pour it in the tanks so they can enjoy it. You need 1 male for every 3 females and you should start with 100 adult females and 30 adult males. That will get the breeding going. If we lived closer I'd give you some of mine, as I have so many, that's my I feed my dragons supers and roaches. Plus because I have Joanne's colony, I go over to her place at least once a week and feed her dragons roaches, too.
The females lay about 40 babies every 40 days or so. The babies take about 6 mo to grow into adults, but it's worth the wait. If you're going to get what I use and buy enough to start a colony, get about 200 1/2" roaches to start Mushu off, but you should just get a few before even thinking about a colony to make sure he'll eat them. Nothing worse than having a colony and your dragon just won't eat roaches! Roaches are nocturnal, so they will make soft noise at night as they're inactive during the day. Night time is their eating time. They don't smell, they live about 2 years as adults. Some don't like to handle them, I don't have that issue with any bugs, but you can use long tweezers to handle them, if necessary. They aren't like crickets if they escape, they pretty well fine a hiding place and just stay there until they die. I find them very easy to keep, unlike crickets, I hate crickets, only have them because of my two geckos.
So that's it, I keep it simple. The places I store the roaches have doors, so I leave a door 1/2 open. The big one Jolene gave me is in a huge rubber container with the lid 1/2 off to give them lots of air. It's just on my living room floor...takes up lots of room, but then I have lots of roaches to feed my 4.
So let me know if there's anything else about them you need to know.
) and some blueberry mush.
