#keep orbeez fed with water

[venoshock38]

jar o’ wet orbeez

[auckie]

Just curious what you typically feed your dubia? Or other roaches you may or may not use/keep?

We have red runners as our bread and butter, but also keep and sell dubia, lobsters, hissers, orange heads, and two small colonies of peppered and dead head roaches. We used to have lil black Kenyans and some sort of discoid too but they’re gone now.

All of them p much eat the same diet of organic chick starter feed mixed with dry cat or dog food, and occasionally a mix of things like bee pollen, fish flakes, dried mealworms, freeze dried peas, calcium powder, cornmeal, oats, repashy bug burger or similar, and even gecko powder. I only do that as a treat, or if we’re low on sometning else tho. In a bind I’ve even fed them yeast and spring tail powder.

They get water beads, very similar to non toxic orbeez, as their water source, as well as cut fruits and veggies. Ideally organic but that’s not always possible. I wash them in vingar, warm water, kosher salt, and baking soda mixed together, then they get brushed and rinsed. We used to peel them too but it takes too long.

The main veggies are carrot, sweet potato, zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, beets, and a chopped leafy green like collards or kale or beet greens. The fruits are apples and oranges, but pears also work well. I try to avoid wetter vegetables like. Well I guess it’s a fruit, like tomatoes, or squishy things like grapes and banana, but they do love them. Any squash, tuber, whatever will do. I mean. Honestly I don’t know of a grown food that’s not recommended save for the fly or mold issue. I would avoid anything too acidic obviously like lemon or even grapefruit but other than that, go crazy. They just tend to mold or garner flies. But if they’re on heat (90F is ideal for breeding for red runners) then the wet foods will dry and desiccate quickly.

In addition to all of this I add pellets of dried, rehydrated alfalfa to the wet food. The roaches go nuts for it and try to lay their ooths in it, which is great bc when it dries I can collect them and sift it all out easier, and then throw remaining chick feed and dried alfalfa get put into the bin that they’ll eventually hatch out into, so that they can eat it.

Some species are kept in closed but ventilated bins, like the hissers and lobsters. You have to line the tops of the bins with food grade lubricant otherwise they’ll climb on the lid or try to get out out. Lobsters mostly get dry food and water beads bc of this, otherwise it molds quickly and attracts fruit flies. The hissers love fruit and dry food but don’t get water beads. Usually I just mist their enclosure. Other species we keep in open bins, and they get the whole shebang. If they’re on substrate it helps to keep springtails and dwarf white isopods in there so they can clean up excess. I’d recommend keeping almost every species on substrate save maybe red runners, and depending on how you have your dubia set up, possibly them. But they do seem to benefit from it more than not. We have a ton of dermestid beetles that do this in the other bins, such as the red runners, but they’re annoying as fuck and can and will wipe out a colony bc they tend to feast on the hatchlings and teneral roaches, esp if the lid is kept on.

Orange heads are incredibly carnivorous and protein motivated to the point that they regularly eat their own newly molted roaches, or at least chew the wings off of each other. They’re a bitch to keep bc of how hardy and prolific they are so it’s difficult to avoid at a certain colony size. Culls aren’t even necessary bc they basically do it for you.

But, if you feed them enough they’ll continue to breed to the point of absurdity. They love wet cat food and literally anything I drop in there. They could clean a thawed frozen feeder rat in minutes, and never have dermestids or any hitchhiking red runners (who are great at sneaking into the other bins. Actually any climbing or flighted roach is, even those that flutter, because they’ll jump the gap. Red runner males instinctually want to wander, up to 20 ft from their colony to search for food and water. They bring it back to the females and young, but even when foods available they prefer to try and come and go for breeding purposes. Dubia are somewhat similar, bc the males are mildly territorial and the females bully the fuck out of them. Actually all females we keep bully the males. I think that’s sortve a standard in arthropods tbh but I could be wrong) .) bc they just fucking eat them. They’re insane and smell bad and I’m coming to hate them bc it’s a regular site to see a teneral, newly matured roach being fucked and eaten at the same time. I hate it. They also cannot be sated. Their thirst is literally unquenchable. They’re the TRUE cockroach of cockroaches in terms of being voracious, prolific, and difficult to kill via pesticides, disease, starvation, dehydration, etc etc. they love to bite and have barbed legs which will scare you, and secrete a gross smelling fluid when scared. They burrow too, and are hard, so idk why anyone keeps them as feeders, or pets. Mostly likely roach to fight back and hurt/kill whatever you’re feeding if it happens to be a wimp or molting. They also give ‘live births’ (read: the ootheca hatches inside them and the baby’s emerge internally) so if you drop a pregnant one into a spiders enclosure you might have a bunch of shithead baby orange heads appear, even if the spider manages to bite and hold onto the roach. At least with dubia they’re sad little baby cows and can’t really do much to harm your spider.

Red runners aren’t as bad but will also occasionally resort to eating their own if they’re really hungry, and have been known to eat spiders if they’re larger than them, or if the spider is premolt/molting.

Lobsters will eat carboard given the chance. Dubia as well, but they love the veggies and dry food. They all love oranges but esp orange heads, dubia, and hissers. Dubia actually become more prolific on oranges and afaik we don’t know why. I’d hazard other species do as well honestly.

Sorry that was a long answer but I’m always delighted to talk about my roach husbandry, or just how I care for insects in general!

[falcqns]

okay i know no one really asked for this but its a follow up to my post about Winter getting his own body, and how he is now that he is truly his own person!!

so he now has a body that he can actually use, but he is still super clumsy! i think this has to do with the fact that he was never taught how to walk, but i've seen Bucky straight up trip over air and face plant onto the ground, so he might get it from him.

im going to keep the format relatively the same as this post, so people can see what has changed, and what has stayed the same.

the bolded things are what has changed!

what he calls people:

me: Mama

Bucky: Dada

Steve: Papa

Tony: Uncle Tony (Tony isa pronounced like 'Ony, he can't say the T at the beginning of Tony's name for some reason.)

Natasha: Auntie Tasha (Auntie is pronounced Annie, again he cant say the t in auntie, but can say Tasha, makes no sense lol)

Wanda: Wana

Clint: Uncle Tint

Maria: Ria

Bruce: Uncle Bucey

Fury: Fuwy

Pepper: Annie Peppa (sometimes he calls her Peppa Pig)

favourite foods:

- popsicles (if given by Tony, he won’t take them from anyone else. Bucky hates him being given those)

- oatmeal

- toast

- spaghetti

- pancakes

- cheerios (plain cherrios, but plain cherrios are delicious so im not shaming him)

- poptarts (he screamed at Thor because he took a bite of his poptarts 😳)

- pizza with no sauce (honestly same)

- hotdogs (only boiled, and they have to be boiled by Papa [Steve] or he won't eat it)

- carrots and nutella (ok i have NO idea why he likes this so much, but it makes Bucky gag so hard when he has it. i've tried it and its okay, but not the best lmao)

favourite words:

- papa no

- dada no

- mama yes (hehe)

- i say no

- no ni ni

- nuggles/nuggies (snuggles)

- poop ( and i mean anything to do with poop. i asked him what he wanted for lunch and he told me poop on a stick)

-s'ime (slime)

favourite toys:

- teddy bear

- slime

- yogibo (Bucky likes this too)

- lava lamp (Bucky loves this)

- puzzles

- kinetic sand

- play dough

- perplexus (Both Bucky and Steve play with this lol)

- orbeez (these make Steve and Tony gag)

- fibre optic glacier light

- uncooked beans in a container

- chew toys (i find Bucky chewing on these too)

- squishmallows

- cold water

- his iPad

favourite thing to do with each person:

me: cuddles and reading/watching tv, sensory play, learning

Steve: playing outside

Bucky: playing, colouring, reading, sensory play, swimming, soccer practise (Bucky's his coach), playing outside.

Tony: sitting w him in the lab and playing with Dum E

Natasha: speech practise

Wanda: playing with her magic (likes to be flown around)

Clint: learning sign language (he’s teaching Bucky too)

Bruce: learning about medical things

Pepper: playing puppets, playing with Morgan

Peter: talking about movies he's seen, playing with stuffies, really loves it when Peter sticks him to the wall with his webs.

sensory things he loves:

- when his hair is half wet and half dry

- his hair being played with

- putting his hands in water (the sink, the pool, one time i found him with his hands in a freshly cleaned toilet)

- soft clothing

- squishy things

- nature textures (grass, bark, leaves)

- white noise

- Steve’s silk bedsheets that Tony made him buy (he nuzzles his face into it and falls asleep)

- slime and orbeez mixed together

- slime with foam beads

- knitted blankets

sensory things he HATES:

- leather

- jeans

- cold weather

- cold water (drinking water must be lukewarm or room temperature)

- meat (other than chicken)

- protein smoothies (all HYDRA fed him and Bucky)

- loud noises (he shrieks when Thor comes to earth)

if you have any questions about Winter, send me an ask and i’ll answer it!!