Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in the desert and have 100 hissers. They live in a 55 gallon long glass tank. How humid should their tank be? How many should be in a cage this size? How many males and how many females should be in a cage this size in order to have great reproduction? What are their favorite fruits and veggies? They don't seem to be eating the dry cat food. Is it ok to try moist, not canned, cat food? Tender Vittles type food. Thank you for any info you can provide.

>>I live in the desert and have 100 hissers. They live in a 55 gallon long glass tank. How humid should their tank be? How many should be in a cage this size? How many males and how many females should be in a cage this size in order to have great reproduction? What are their favorite fruits and veggies? They don't seem to be eating the dry cat food. Is it ok to try moist, not canned, cat food? Tender Vittles type food. Thank you for any info you can provide.

In order to have great production you just need a handful of adult males and females. I once started out with 1 male and 2 females and in about 9 months had over 600 roaches.

Cover about 85% of the top of the cage with a sheet of plexi glass to help hold in humidity. If you can cut the plexi to fit in the groove of the aquarium lip, then the cage top will not be impeded. If plexi is too hard to get, try cutting and taping plastic sheeting to fit the cage top.

As for diet, stay away from cat/dog food. I find using things like cichlid / goldfish pellets, turtle pellets, reptomin turtle sticks, powdered cricket food all work well. Sometimes with the pelleted food you may have to break them up a bit. Large roundish items are not always easy for the roaches to chew on. As for fruits and veggies.. I stay away from fruits. Attracts fruit flies and then you get overrun with the buggers throughout the house. Veggies - hard squashed like butternut are good. Carrots cut into chunks are great. Both of those are good. Butternut can be seasonal so sometimes hard to find. I usually use carrots as the staple veggie for moisture. Occasionally I also use cricket water for additional moisture.
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Wyvern

The Invert Collection:
* (1) Aphonopelma anax - Texas Tan
* (4) Avicularia geroldi - Brazilian Blue Pink-toe
* (1) Brachypelma auratum - Mexican Flameknee
* (1) Brachypelma emilia - Mexican Red-leg
* (1) Brachypelma smithi - Mexican Red-knee
* (1) Cyclosternum fasciatum - Costa Rican Tiger Rump
* (3) Grammostola pulchra - Brazilian Black

Thank you. I do have about 90% of the screen lid covered. One side of the tank has belly heat, the other side has a black heat light. There is about 3" of peat moss and 3 eggs flats in the cage. They have a feed bowl and "water" bowl. I give them cricket water and put a little bit of water in with it. The profssional roach breeders feed dry cat food so that is what I went with. They aren't really eating it so I crushed it up to see if they will like it better. I feed them apples. We don't have a problem with fruit flies in the desert. I have tried different kinds of greens but they don't like them. I will get some carrots today. I mist the cage daily. How long should it take before they are settled enough to have babies? Cricket breeders sell "cricket food" and all it is is chicken lay feed. I have 46 chickens so I'll try some lay today also. They seem to be doing well and are so cute. I had one die. I guess one out of one hundred is good? Poor guy. Thank you for your advice

Thought I'd add a little:

They like sliced oranges. Also, if you use chicken laying mash, make sure it's non-medicated. Various cereals; esp. vitamin enriched ones for babies (human), as well as oatmeal & other whole grain cereals are very good for them. I also provide cheap kitten food, called Special Kitty (blue bag)which is good for protein & has no added dyes.

In nature, the hissers typically feed on fungi, leaf debris and possibly some fallen fruits.

If you search this forum for "hissers", you'll find a lot of great info. There are some good articles, too. Takada has written some great info on hissers.

Misspelled his name, it is Takeshi....

He's posted some great Hisser info & I believe he still has a website with his articles. He's very knowledgable....

Click on the link (below)-- to his postings--he's included some xlnt website info, too.
Link