Reptile & Amphibian Forums

the ones I am caring for over the summer are provided water using the wet sea sponge. When I had my tarantula I know that was a preferred way but I read so much about bacteria that I never used it. I just gave her a dish of water that was the right depth. Can I do this with the hissers? They are big so I doubt drowning would be a probelm with the right depth. My other roaches only got their water via food (fruit & veggies)

Also - do they have any favorite foods?

tahnks,
lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

I know we discussed polymer crystals (water crystals) before, and the possible effect of long term use of crystals in feeder roaches on the animals they are fed off to. Being you're not going to feed these roaches off, you may want to consider using them for your roaches. Or agar agar. The sponge thing is just too icky. Roaches poop everywhere and the frass (is this the proper word?) is usually dry. If they use the sponge as a toilet though, it could get messy.
Food- if they're merely pets, no need to gut load. A simple diet of chicken lay mash or crumbled pet food (dry dog or cat food, use no kibble with red dye!) supplemented with the occassional vegie or fruit (they love orange slices!!!!!) should work fine.
One thing about hissers though- they almost always have mites. Dunno which type of mites these are, they don't seem to bother the hissers though. Spoke to someone at my favorite cricket ranch. Tried raising hissers, but suspended that project because of the mites. I guess the mites were 'bothering' the crickets. Don't know what was meant by that remark, didn't elaborate. That was the first and only time I heard of Hisser mites being anything buy benign.
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Victor Gomez
gomezvi.tripod.com/sdchamkeepers/
gomezvi@yahoo.com

I have ~200 hissers right now, half of which are babies or subadults. I tired the sponge thing and cotton ball thing and neither went well. I use the water crystals from Topline-Roaches and use R.O. water to hydrate. Those seem to be much better than the ones from Fluker, or some of the others I've tried. I also use the roach food from Topline to feed.

Topline says they like carrots, but mine don't seem to care much for them. Mine LOVE oranges though, and eat an entire orange in one night.

Also like stated in the previous post, they do have mites. They don't seem to bother roaches at all, the mites mainly just crawl around in the bedding and on the egg grates. I've tried several times to get rid of the mites but can't.

thanks for the input. i just gave them some oranges so we shall see!

are these mites something I need to worrry about transferring to Luna or other feeders? Should I wash my hand if I handle them (probably not a bad idea anyway, huh?)

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

Lele,
I was gonna suggest using baby food in the little 2 oz bottles of whatever they are. I gave my hissers a shot at the banana kind my kid grew out of and they tore into it big time. It's gotta be great for them, and they loved it. They also like regular bananas alot. Both of these are food and moisture source, so give them a shot. I know of people also using the other flavors of baby food, but the banana kind worked suprisingly well for me. I have about 30 bottles in all flavors left over, I volunteered to get rid of them instead of throwing them away.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

I would agree with the banana, mine absolutely loved it. We also used to feed them just regular fish food.

Lele,
I've kept hissers and several other roach species for over 5 years and have never given them water, crystals, agar or any of the other items mentioned.
All my roach species get moisture from the fresh fruit and vegetables I give them.
Hissers like cantalope and watermelon rind and just about any fruit or veggie you want to give them. Just take the stuff out before it molds. If you have a large enough colony they will normally eat it all before it has a chance.
They also need a constant supply of protein ie: dog food which curiously has about the same nutritional analysis of most of the commercial roach diets offered. Just buy the cheapest dog food you can find and blend it if you want to. Not necessary though. I also keep ours in the dark and a heat gradient from 75-95F. I keep alot of egg crate furniture in with em.
I've got thousands of em.

Hope this helps!!