New pets!!! (MY Roaches are here) - Page 2

Lankyrob · 01-15-11, 08:10 AM

Feeding them to these guys

Just want to bump my question again - how soon is it possible to tell males from females? I know it is blatantly obvious as adults because of the wings.......

bighog85 · 01-15-11, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Just want to bump my question again - how soon is it possible to tell males from females? I know it is blatantly obvious as adults because of the wings.......

It is tough with these guys because they will rarely evert or anything so it is kind of a crap shoot. You can look down by the vent and look for two bumps lined up parallel with the vent, but many times males and females have those and unless you can compare it with a known male or female then again, it is not really a very reliable way of doing it. I was able to guess correctly with my water monitor but it was most likely very lucky. I got him when he was about two weeks old and there were others there that I could compare him to so that probably helped. It has a pretty colorful hood for being young so I would guess male and it has a bigger head so that would also lead me to say that.

Lankyrob · 01-15-11, 12:00 PM

Lol - sorry for the confusion Brian - the question was with regard to the Dubias rather than the lizards

- i had asked earlier in the thread but with no answers.

radstusky · 01-15-11, 01:55 PM

This photo might help:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a74...ison2-phot.jpg

I'm not taking any credit for the photo of course. You don't need many adult males in your colony, maybe 1:5 or 1:10 to the females. My panther cham loves the adult males with wings for some reason, and of course any freshly molted are like a delicacy!

presspirate · 01-15-11, 02:25 PM

Gotta say Rob, Tilly is a doll. They have one at my local reptile store, but I just cannot afford it at the price.

Lankyrob · 01-15-11, 06:41 PM

They have a HUGE male frilly in our shop that we have our eye on but not having the space or money is a problem, how much do they sell for over there?? The one here is £200?

Reptile_Reptile · 01-15-11, 10:46 PM

^^^ whats conversion rate to usd on your currency

infernalis · 01-15-11, 11:30 PM

Female adult.....

Male adult and juvinile...

Lankyrob · 01-16-11, 04:23 AM

So males are generally duller in colour throughout life?
Rearranged their enclosure this morning, they seem to spen a lot of time in the dirt so moved the dirt so that it is sat on top of the heatmat. The are a LOT more in there than i originally thought. When we got them home i had a little dig through the dirt and thought there were probably thirty or so, now that they are mostlyout and a bout i would say there are mor like fiftyto sixty.

JR the USD equivalent would be about $300 i think.

Last question for now, brian says chuck anything in there for them to eat, is there anytng that they MUST NOT be fed?

infernalis · 01-16-11, 07:47 AM

Just look at it this way Rob, Your animals are eating the roaches, so whatever you feed the bugs, you feed your herps.

Further, anything that spoils quickly will stink up your roach colony.

A roach colony can be a disgusting box of bugs, or a colony of pets that you show off. Nice thing about roaches, they don't care either way.

A box of poo will make a roach just as happy as a well groomed enclosure would.

But it is YOU who has to live with this box in your home, so it's up to you.

Personally I toss the chicken bones in the bin and serve grains and fruit to my feeders.

Take thinks like fruit, squash and pumpkin out after a couple days, fruit flies will show up in your roach colony.

Lankyrob · 01-16-11, 07:58 AM

Cheers wayne, surprises me how quickly they are drawn to food! I was just off to bed and realised one of our banana's in the fruit bowl was past the point that any of us would eat it so peeeled it and put it in and within 10 seconds it was covered in cockroaches!! they just came from everywhere and descended on it - do you think they communicate where food is or just have a very good sense of "smell"?

infernalis · 01-16-11, 05:03 PM

It's the smell. Who knows they may communicate?

presspirate · 01-17-11, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

They have a HUGE male frilly in our shop that we have our eye on but not having the space or money is a problem, how much do they sell for over there?? The one here is £200?

The one I have been looking at is $200 but throw an enclosure and supplies on top of that, I just couldn't afford it right now.

infernalis · 01-17-11, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

Just want to bump my question again - how soon is it possible to tell males from females? I know it is blatantly obvious as adults because of the wings.......

Honestly Rob, I never gave it a thought, I just make sure there is always a number of males and females (obvious adults) and just feed the others to my lizards.

Since the monitor (Chomper) is so big, I feed him adults, I just make sure I leave enough adults behind in the colony so it can replenish itself.

Lankyrob · 01-18-11, 05:14 AM

Yeah, thats my plan too. I will feed off the adult males leaving enough for a 1:5 ratio males to females. If i get to the point of having too many then i may feed off a few of the females but 1:5 is what i am aiming for. Looking at the colony there are a number of "possible" males but no full adult males at the moment. Am not going to start feeding off until i am happy that the colony will replenish.