Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It wasnt the most pleasant site to see 1000 lobsters quirming in little gladware. Icky. They will take some getting used to! They are quite fast too! While I was dumping them in their 60 quart rubbermaid with shavings, egg flats, food bowls etc, one started to crawl on my hand and I freaked out!LOL I think I worked myself up the whole time I waited for them to arrive that unpacking them was a little stressful. For my reptiles sake I can get used to them I am sure Just wanted to share my experience so far. For a water source does anyone know what lobsters prefer? Right now I have red delicious apples cut in slices for water and non medicated laying mash for food. Take care, Lindsay
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BC Dragons

1000 lobster roaches - that's a lot! They're quite prolific.

Apple slices are fine for moisture - they really seem to like orange slices. You can mist them too. Really, they seem to do great for me no matter what I use for water.

They aren't so bad to handle once you get used to them.

hth,

Joel Fish

For a few of the lobster roaches to die off the first couple days after they arrive? Maybe the stress from shipping?

Here is a photo of how I have them setup. Thanks Lindsay

The one plate has sliced red delicious apples, the other has non medicated egg laying mash which I ground slightly finer then it came in the bag. The substrate is pine shavings, which the breeder used. Is there a certain kind or brand of pine shavings that should be used?????

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BC Dragons

Yes, they also sometimes shed when they morph. This is why sometimes you will see white ones. I prefer the red bran or moss. If you use moss then you can spray them with some water. I would stick some orange slices and maybe add some drops of water next to the oranges. Keep them hot. Stick that tub above one of your beardie cages. They just probably need to get hydrated. I usually ship mine with some carrots. Thanks for the pictures of the beardies. I may have to buy a baby from you one of these days. Did you try and feed any to your beardies yet? Your babies will go nuts over them.
James

I will buy some oranges tonight and add some slices of oranges to the bin as well as apples etc. I havent tried to feed them to the babies yet, I did take a couple of adults and feed them to one of my adult dragons (the mom of the babies). She scarfed them right up! I am going to try and let the colony rest up, eat and start breeding a little before I pick from it to feed to my dragons. Plus I dont want to get the babies started on roaches because they are going to their new home this weekend where they will be fed crickets Thanks for the help. Lindsay
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BC Dragons

How are things going? Make sure to give them some dry cat or dog food. Usually loaded with protien and they will eat it up.
James

Things are going ok. I just find a couple things a little on the hard side. One they are fast!LOL If my dragons dont lunge at them right away they crawl all over my hand and the cages within seconds. I have only fed off maybe 8 or so and almost lost 2 in the house already. Second they pretty much stay in or under the egg flat condos I made making it very difficult to pick them out for eating without disturbing the whole colony. That kind of makes me nervous as I read not to disturb females giving birth. Problem is I cant see if any are giving birth inside or under the flats. Any suggestions?? I plan on getting a couple more species of roaches for variety. The next species I buy I want to be slower and unable to climb...hehe What is a slower moving, climbless, flightless species? Thanks, Lindsay
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I think I remember warning you about these lobsters. Although they breed great unless you can cover everything with bug stop they are very hard to contain. Your best bet may be it get a tall container with a bug barrier and feed you lizard inside it.(pain in the rear). I would just feed them off it get into the non-climbers. They are a little slower, but much much easier to deal with. I just stick a cup under the egg crate a knock some into it. They just use a spoon to scoop out the size ones I want to feed. They can't climb out of the cup or container so its very easy. Actually my new method works even better for me. These roaches as adults are much bigger than lobsters and easy to seperate. I just move my adults to a new container every month and let the hundreds of babies left behind grow. Once they reach my desired feeder size its chow time. By the way your lobsters lay egg sacks not live (which is why the reproduce so fast) so don't worry about disturbing them.
james

I didnt know lobsters didnt give live birth Its good to know I dont have to worry as much about disturbing them. For now I will keep them. If I find it too much a pain I will just feed them off. I am going to get into the non climbers anyways though, so it doesnt really matter, you know? I had planned to have 3-5 different roach species for variety. Thanks for all the help. Lindsay
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