Here's some of the things I tried out and discarded: leaves, ground corncob, shredded newspaper, office paper that had been run through a strip shredder, sand, potting soil, shredded coconut hull, wood chips, bark, and no bedding at all.
The hissers loved the leaves, loved the paper, thought the wood chips were fine, seemed to do ok with the bark, were not impressed by the ground corncob, potting soil, sand, shredded coconut hull and were less than thrilled with no substrate.
I, on the other hand, found that when cleaning time came round, the paper, leaves, wood chips, and bark, were almost impossible to get the nymphs out of. Additionally, all of these materials held water, compacted, stuck to the container, and got moldy and/or smelly. The ground corncob compacts, which is very hard on nymphs when the material is removed during cleaning, it holds water, and molds very easily and quickly if it gets the least bit damp. The shredded coconut fiber has to be removed one fiber at a time to get the baby roaches out of it. Sand is too heavy, sharp, or dirty. It has to be sterilized before use and damages nymphs at cleaning time. Potting soil is a nightmare...
Bear with me just a little longer as I explore the benificial qualities of good hisser substrate. Most important to me is not causing harm to the nymphs and providing them with a safe haven. They must be able to burrow in to hide from possible danger, like a larger roach that would like to snack on them. The bedding needs to be non-toxic, not prone to absorbing water from the air, and when a spill occurs, it needs to ball up, catching the water and containing it in a hard lump (like some brands of kitty litter) it should dry out quickly in spill cases and not readily become moldy. The ideal bedding must be soft, without a propensity to compact, it must be easily seperatable from the nymphs during cleaning times and finally, it should not be either expensive or hard to obtain. Hey! That sounds like really good stuff! Well it is, and you can get it right here in the "products" section of the Topline website. For those of you that have lots of storage space and/or need bigger quantities of substrate, head on over to your handy feed store and pick up a 50 or 100 pound bag of 'red bran'.1.5 to 2 inches in the bottom of the box is plenty. Change the bedding when it has become about 50% roach droppings. If there are water spills, remove the lumps that are formed to avoid mold. Hisser substrate should be kept bone dry at all times.
Food and Feeding
Into every Hisser life there should be introduced a little bliss...
Have you ever seen a picture of an otter floating on its back in the water, a nice crab or shellfish on its chest, all four feet and mouth, full happy attention on the morsel as otter and dinner consume the existance of the momment? The other day, while I was out in the roach room doing regular maintence on the various colonies, I removed the lid from a colony box and saw one of my super-males curled up around a piece of carot. He was cradled in his territory near the top of the egg flats like a hammock, on his back, all six legs and face working that piece of carrot. It was 2 or 3 minutes into the cleaning when he finally realized that something was going on!
Food is the door to Hisser Heaven!
OR NOT!
First lets look at the items that I have found that they realy like. Orange slices, are high on the list; if you put orange slices in the food bowl, on a 'once-in-a-while' basis, the colony seems to get an energy boost. Females will often go ahead and have their nymphs within a day or two after being fed orange slices and general activity in the colony picks up. If you feed them the orange slices as a steady part of their diet, they seem to loose intrest after a few days. The constant addition of fruit to the colony's dinner plate also tends to draw flies.
Apple slices; again, the fruit is appriciated by the Hissers, but again, they tend to loose interest if they get it all the time. As with all fruit, small flies seem to zero in on it from great distances. With apples, one should be sure to remove the core and anything that looks like it could be bug infested or bruised. The clean up of fruit is not for the roaches sake (they like it all) but to keep down unwanted pests.
Bananas; nice and well accepted by the roaches. They tend to not eat all of the fruit at one sitting and the resulting goo is sticky enough to be classed a glue. Nymphs sometimes get stuck and die. I think it better to feed the peel to the roaches and then to remove the blackened, dried out leftovers. Cut the peels into something like 1 inch chunks to avoid loosing nymphs to hidy-holes created as the peels dry.
Fresh tomatoes, celery, romaine lettuce, pea pods, squash; all are on the menu! I am sure that there are lots of other fruits and vegetables that are equally appreciated.
Oh Yes! Carrots; ambrosia! The food of the gods! Something that can be fed to Hissers that will never be refused, snubbed, or spat upon. Carrots are a good choice just about any time. Easy to prepare, no mess, tend to dry out rather than rot, clean up easily, and seem to aid in reducing any unplesent smelliness in the colony.
In passing, I would like to mention that cucumbers are not a good idea. The plant produces in the fruit of that vine, a toxic and noxious substance which is not good for roaches. My wife, when we were first married and living in a small and ancient appartment, discovered that there were roaches in the kitchen area. Her answer to the problem was to leave cucumber peels and slices on saucers in the cabinets. The roaches moved to places unknown and never came back! Hey! I just tell it like it is...
One last point on the fruit and veggie feeding, wash everything carefully, cut away suspicious areas of the item. Growers of the produce tend to use various chemicals during the growth process, some are added after the item is picked or even after it is packaged, you don't want to feed those substances to your roaches. So much for fruits and vegetables.
Onnivore!
Serious Protein!
GimmieGimmieGimmieGimmie!
Signed your Hissers.
Hissers like, No let me rephrase that, Hissers DEMAND a high protein diet that needs to have a substantial amount of animal body parts in it. Veggie protein is good, but if you do not supply animal fats and proteins, your hissers will get their fix from their neighbor or from nymphs. Rampant cannibalism in the colony is a sure sign that their diet is not cutting it protein wise. Part of what almost everyone, that cares to comment on the subject, has to say is, to feed hissers dog or cat food. Read the labels. If you are raising your colony as feeder insects, you must decide if that is what you want inside your carnivore or not. As far as the roaches are concerned, most dog or cat foods have good fat levels, and cat food usually offers very high protein. Again, read the labels carefully. As an aside; Crickets are protein fiends too. Your hissers need protein, the kind and quality of that protein counts. They need a certain amount of fats in their diet. The kinds and quality of those fats count. One must give a grudging nod to the higher end dog, and particularly cat, foods. They have been the staple diet of many a roach over the years, but now there is something substantially better!
Allow me to insert this shameless plug for Topline's Roach and Cricket Diet. Rather than give all the particulars here, when they are already up on another spot in the website, I'll just put in this handy picture link.
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Water:
Availablity is a must! (bad odor is not)
Hissers without a sanitary, constant, and safe water supply are as good as dead.
Some other kinds of roaches or crickets, are a little more able to cope with intermittent or less sanitary water supplies, but hissers will not fare well. Nymphs in particular are easily killed by intermitent watering. In the colony, drowning, and bacterial and fungal blooms that occur when the water becomes fowl or spilled, account for many dead adults as well. In an containerized, captive environment, inappropriate watering is the single most common cause of colony failure.
In the past, Topline's colonies were given fresh, clean water every day. As time passed, the frequency of watering was extended to once per week. Weekly watering was pushing the limits of hisser survivability and the indurance of those who have to deal with what's leftover in the water bowl! After just a few days, the water bowls become a culture of dead hissers, leftover shed skins, fecal material, massive amounts of bacteria, and a smell that no living thing should have to deal with muchless drink! This type of contamination is dangerous to the hissers and to the keepers as well!
Until very recient times, water changing was a really nasty task; but not anymore!
No More Water Problems!Our hisser colonys, and their care takers, have finally gotten rid of the disgusting water problems!
- No more drowned nymphs
- No more nasty, smelly, bacterial growth
- No more fungus growing spills
- No more water bowl clean up hell
Our caretakers for the hisser colonies report:
"Our colonies are healther, nymph survivability has been significantly increased, mom and pop hissers seem pleased not to have to drink the nasty brew that was their lot before.
Over all, deaths in the colonies have been reduced and we are very happy to not have to deal with the truly UCKY conditions in the water bottles / bowls at clean up time. Giving the hissers water is no longer the nasty chore it used to be."
That's a lot of seriously excellent results!
What did we do to improve conditions so dramatically? The same thing you will when you get Topline's New "OASIS Water Gel Crystals"!
Here's some good points about 'Oasis Water Gel Crystals':
- Easy to use
- Easy to mix (just add water)
- Inexpensive
(Oasis's low cost makes it affordable for everyone!)
- Clean, sanitary, odorless
- Environmentally friendly
- Non-toxic
- Not harmful to your insects
- Requires no clean up
- Does not drown insects
- Does not require refrigeration
- Has a shelf life of 1 year
(after crystals are hydrated into gel)
- Properly stored, the crystal form remains good for many years.
- Does not promote bacterial growth
- Topline ships 'Oasis' for free!
Do I seem a little excited about the New "Oasis Roach and Cricket Water Gel Crystals"?
Well, I am!
It isn't often that I get to introduce a teriffic product, that does so much, for you. Better yet, Topline can deliver it at prices so low that you'll be astonished! On top of everything else, I have a limited time special introductory offer that'll knock your socks off! Click on over to the Topline 'Oasis Water Gel Crystals' page now to learn more and get in on Topline's limited introductory offer!
Click here for your "OASIS Water Crystals"
(you'll be glad you did!)
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