# What should I feed my isopods? Any tips on breeding them?



## jebbewocky (Oct 11, 2011)

I'm culturing a colony of isopods to use for cage maintenance, and I'm wondering what I should feed them?  They don't seem to like celery much.
I keep them in a kritter keeper with lots of ventilation, and I spray it down regularly.


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Oct 11, 2011)

My isopods like moist organic detritus,including plenty of moldering leaves,some waste paper products, and other vegetable remains in addition to much smaller  quantities of stale bread,eggshells, gristle,bones,connective tissue,pieces of waste fat,a few slightly "overaged" meat scraps,and poultry skin.


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## brotony101 (Oct 11, 2011)

I have found that my isopods and millies really like dried shrimp and krill. It's a good protein source, but also of chitin...which is used to make new shells when molting.


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## catfishrod69 (Oct 11, 2011)

i have never kept them, but i would imagine that since they are used to clean up dead food and poop, well give em some dead crickets/roaches/T poop...


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## zonbonzovi (Oct 11, 2011)

Virtually anything.  I have a massive colony that has been living on Anisomorpha buprestoides feces & rotting plant matter for a couple of years.  My giant canyons live on moldy, forgotten veggies & the rest eat centipede leftovers/'pede poo.  

All breed readily.


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## jebbewocky (Oct 11, 2011)

Would they eat snake poo?


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## Josh Perry (Oct 12, 2011)

I feed my what ever leafy greens I find in my Fridge and I have a Moldy piece of wood in the tank I also throw in any dead crickets I have or cricket parts I have left over after chopping them up for my slings.

not to be a thread jacker but how long does it take to see the first babies after setting up a colony?


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## jebbewocky (Oct 12, 2011)

Josh Perry said:


> I feed my what ever leafy greens I find in my Fridge and I have a Moldy piece of wood in the tank I also throw in any dead crickets I have or cricket parts I have left over after chopping them up for my slings.
> 
> not to be a thread jacker but how long does it take to see the first babies after setting up a colony?


Well, I saw some babies in there yesterday, and I got them 9/26--but they were from another user's established colony.

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jebbewocky said:


> Would they eat snake poo?


just remembered I keep my snake on pine currenlty, so not giving any poo to isopods (I'll remove the pine once it's used up--prior owner had him on pine).


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## belljar77 (Oct 12, 2011)

They grew up on veggie scraps and nice juicy boluses 
Err, boli?


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## jebbewocky (Oct 12, 2011)

belljar77 said:


> They grew up on veggie scraps and nice juicy boluses
> Err, boli?


Like spud and carrot peels? They didn't seem to care about the fresh celery I gave them--maybe, being detrivores, they only eat junk.


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## Josh Perry (Oct 12, 2011)

=o another Michigander 

also how often do you put food in/ take it out


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## jebbewocky (Oct 12, 2011)

Josh Perry said:


> =o another Michigander
> 
> also how often do you put food in/ take it out


I've been doing weekly and take it out the next day like my roaches so far.
Belljar sent me the isopods actually.  =D
EDIT: I bet they'd like parts of the chicken carcasses when I'm done making soup w/them.  Might have to try that sometime.


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## Josh Perry (Oct 12, 2011)

jebbewocky said:


> I've been doing weekly and take it out the next day like my roaches so far.
> Belljar sent me the isopods actually.  =D
> EDIT: I bet they'd like parts of the chicken carcasses when I'm done making soup w/them.  Might have to try that sometime.


That sounds like it would smell horrible after a few hours.


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## J Morningstar (Oct 12, 2011)

I think they would eat anything. Corn cobs they love, gold fish sticks/flakes, root vegetables and meat in small doses, (I'm not telling you to feed them meat I just know when it's dried the will chew on it) Any exoskeletal remains, poo and dead bodies,also green leaf veg. sometimes....yea. they consume. Rinse the parts of Carcas well scrub most of the remains off with a brush and dry it ..then give it to them, or he's right the smell will be , bad.


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## belljar77 (Oct 12, 2011)

Next time you guys swing out this way, we'll give you some nice rotting oak we have, and leaves, they love that. Pumpkin too, that's been a hit. Honestly, when you do clean up after the spiders, just toss the mess in with the isopods. And we keep them in a big plastic tote, helps keep the humidity up.


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Oct 18, 2011)

Celery has a distinctive odor.
Isopods might not like it...most of the animals that supposedly eat "everything" do have some dislikes.
If simply drying celery remains doesn't change their odor enough to make them acceptable to your isopods composting them will probably do it.
And simply burying the celery in the isopods' present bedding might facilitate sufficient composting to take care of it.
..However,if they do HATE celery sufficiently to avoid its location a small indoor composter can be improvised by adapting the bedding directions of "Worms Eat My Garbage" to a smaller space without any resident redworms.

Please let us know what works.

Thanks.


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## jebbewocky (Oct 18, 2011)

belljar77 said:


> Next time you guys swing out this way, we'll give you some nice rotting oak we have, and leaves, they love that. Pumpkin too, that's been a hit. Honestly, when you do clean up after the spiders, just toss the mess in with the isopods. And we keep them in a big plastic tote, helps keep the humidity up.


Sounds like a plan! 

--
I tried eggshells per some people I talked to elsewhere. They decided to use them as toilets.


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Oct 25, 2011)

Isopods might dislike celery...I notice that many of the animals that are said to eat "anything" do have some dislikes.

---------- Post added 10-25-2011 at 09:04 PM ----------

I noticed that my isopods prefer the "skin" inside eggshells to the true outer shells.
The "toileting" isopods might have eaten the inner skins before they did that...incidentally producing a better fertilizer for gardening use because the "skin" part is what might smell bad if a lot of fresh eggshells are employed in warm weather.


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