# Vacation and feeder roaches?



## tarantulaholic (Jan 15, 2009)

Ill be going on vacation for 3 weeks in Aug., how do you guys take care of feeder roaches colony while being gone? 
Any tip is much appreciated.


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## recluse (Jan 15, 2009)

Just feed them really well before you go and make sure they have water gel or other water source, be sure to remove uneaten food before you go.


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## james (Jan 15, 2009)

*roaches*

What recluse said will work fine. Really you have very little to worry about as they can go quite a long time without food. The water crystals are simply and clean as well as any kind of dry food.
James


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## JDHuskey (Jan 15, 2009)

Just leave a load of dog food and some water crystals and you'll be good to go.  I've left mine like that for extended periods of time and they were fine.  They are roaches after all.  A couple days before you go load em up on veggies and such and remove it before you go.


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## tarantulaholic (Jan 15, 2009)

Thanks for replys guys, Now I'm not worried.


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## BestRoach (Jan 17, 2009)

I have left my colonies for around a week...and when I get back, they are begging for water. That said, my colonies are rather large!

#1. Reduce the temps to slow their metabolism
#2. Add as large a quantity of water crystals as you can
#3. Depending on their feed interval, you may want to triple their normal ration before going. If they can eat a cup of food in a day, give them at least a weeks worth...so they don't go too long without food.
#4. Remove all fresh food before leaving (fruit, vegg, etc).

Like others have said, water is key. They can go a month without food...but only a week without water. Around a week, they really start turning on each other (depending on species).


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## pinkfoot (Jan 17, 2009)

I'm with BR on this one. 

There is no way in hell I would leave a large colony without care for three weeks. No way. Joe Zay!

Here's why: Our temps are at around 25 centigrade at the moment, which means that even with large water gel bowls they are dry in 5 days absolute max.

Secondly, my colonies are large, and even if I filled every available inch with water bowls, that would not be enough to hydrate them all.

Check your ambient temps - chances are yours are way lower.

Decide whether or not you can get enough water in there to keep from evaporating or being consumed before your return.

I would take the colony or colonies to a pal or a pet store, and if necessary, pay for their care. But that's in MY situation...


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## BestRoach (Jan 17, 2009)

Pink brings up a good point....space may limit how much water and food you can add. Perhaps seperating the colony into multiple bins would allow you to add enough water per bin to keep them hydrated. Remember, if your gone for three weeks....you need a least 2 weeks worth of water. While that doesn't sound like much, it wouldn't be hard for a good sized colony to go through a gallon a week...if not more.

How big is your colony? If its 1-2 thousand, splitting it up into 3 20-30 gallon bins should allow you to add enough water per bin to make the time required. At really wouldn't worry about food...just dump as much as you can in there...water is much more important.


Since I depend on my colonies to supply a retail operation, I have limited travel directly because of my roaches. That said, I also have three bearded dragons...and I wouldn't even consider leaving them for a week....even if they would be sitting in the same spot the entire time I was gone (I have some lazy beardies). 

I wish you luck!


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## elportoed (Jan 17, 2009)

*water gel*

Thanks for asking the question, I have always wonder about how to take care of them in during a long absence.

Cheap water gel source

http://watergelcrystals.com/order.htm


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## brothaT (Jan 17, 2009)

I get a small bowl of water crystals to last about 10 days with a 1000 count lateralis colony by putting a 12 oz plastic bottle full of water in the crystals with a 1/2" diameter hole at the bottom.  Make sure the cap is on tight.  It slowly seeps out as the crystals are depleted and it makes it last a lot longer.  It's essentially a cheap homemade water dispenser.  Eventually the roaches stop eating the crystals and drink the water between them, so the risk of drowning is still minimal.  In your case you could use a bigger bowl/bottle and if your colony isn't too huge it should last for enough time.


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## pinkfoot (Jan 18, 2009)

Very interesting!

So the bottle is standing right side up? Why is the top on tight? To prevent drownings, I guess?

This might well be the way to go. Gotta nip off and try this out! :clap:


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## brothaT (Jan 18, 2009)

pinkfoot said:


> Very interesting!
> 
> So the bottle is standing right side up? Why is the top on tight? To prevent drownings, I guess?
> 
> This might well be the way to go. Gotta nip off and try this out! :clap:


Here are some pics of the setup.  It's really simple and makes your life a whole lot easier.  You need to put the cap on or else all the water will flow out of the bottle and overflow your bowl.  With the cap on, water will only seep out when the level gets below that of the 1/2" hole at the bottom.


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## gvfarns (Jan 18, 2009)

That looks like a plastic bowl.  Can the roaches climb it ok?


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## brothaT (Jan 18, 2009)

gvfarns said:


> That looks like a plastic bowl.  Can the roaches climb it ok?


The one in the picture is actually for my lobsters.  I have the same kind for the lateralis, but I rough up the sides with sandpaper so they can climb in or out.


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## gvfarns (Jan 18, 2009)

good idea.  I was actually thinking about using styrofoam in my next water/food dish situation for lateralis because I haven't had good luck roughing stuff up with sandpaper.  Any opinion/experience with this?

(OP: hope this is not too far off topic...it could be relevant if you are going on vacation I guess)


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## brothaT (Jan 18, 2009)

I find sanding the plastic only works well if the bowl doesn't have a completely vertical side.  When I used to use deli cups as water and food dishes I would just put a piece of egg carton next to it that the roaches could climb onto and get in.  I like the Styrofoam idea as it seems a little more fail safe and elegant.  How were you planning on implementing it?


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## gvfarns (Jan 18, 2009)

brothaT said:


> I find sanding the plastic only works well if the bowl doesn't have a completely vertical side.  When I used to use deli cups as water and food dishes I would just put a piece of egg carton next to it that the roaches could climb onto and get in.  I like the Styrofoam idea as it seems a little more fail safe and elegant.  How were you planning on implementing it?


Nothing fancy.  When I had lateralis before I tried several sanding things and sticking sand on there with glue and finally sticking some shelf liner on with epoxy.  Varrrying results.  The problem with the later was that it got nasty.  I think I'll just use a styrofoam cup, cut in half so it's not so tall, to hold food and maybe water. 

I got real annoyed with those water crystals since they were always drying out and getting rubbery and yellow.  They suck.  For my lobster enclosure I used a tupperware with a lid and cut a slit in it.  Then I poked a rope down in the slit to act as a wick.  It worked really nicely.  No significant evaporation, no crystals, and plenty of water.  The problem is that lateralis can't climb up on a tupperware.

I think I mentioned before that I'm planning on using substrate this time to help control the smell.  I'll put the water and food dishes down in the substrate so they protrude a half inch or so, let them be styrofoam and let the roaches have at it.   I'm going to go back to open water. That is how my B bolivensis enclosure is right now.

My concern was that roaches might try to eat the styrofoam or perhaps I would overestimate their ability to crawl up it.  The B bolivensis don't need it much since they are so big.

Oh here's a picture







The bottle head down in the water crystals sounds pretty good.  Though don't the roaches poo all over it and stuff and it get nasty?


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## gvfarns (Jan 18, 2009)

For your implementation, which is larger and looks to accommodate more roaches I think, perhaps using a styrofoam bowl would be better.  I've even been thinking about doggie bags and stuff from restaurants and fast food places.

I _really_ like the bottle idea.  I have on tarantula enclosure that i built an automatic waterer into that operates on the same principle.  It's so cool.  It would be great if I had a T that was scary or something so that I didn't want to open the lid.  As it is, I have a G aureostriata in it.  Kind of wasted ingenuity, really.  Though it is a zero effort situation.


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## brothaT (Jan 18, 2009)

I think the Styrofoam should work great.  I know for a fact that the lateralis will have no problem climbing it.  I've had to go through 3 different types of bins just to get one that was hard for them to climb up the sides.  I used a large amount of Styrofoam in a Dubia colony a few months ago when I attempted to make a super breeding colony with insulation and heat tape, but it became too complicated.  However, I never saw any ill effects from the foam.

I probably replace the crystals every month, for exactly the reason you mentioned.  The bottle never lets the crystals dry out, which is a real time saver because I used to have to add water every couple days.  At one point some time ago I tried to go crystal free and just use fruits/veggies, but that became way too much of a hassle.


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## gvfarns (Jan 19, 2009)

brothaT said:


> I probably replace the crystals every month, for exactly the reason you mentioned.  The bottle never lets the crystals dry out, which is a real time saver because I used to have to add water every couple days.  At one point some time ago I tried to go crystal free and just use fruits/veggies, but that became way too much of a hassle.


You might try some variation on the tupperware/rope combo.  It was a neat thing.


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## elportoed (Jan 19, 2009)

brothaT said:


> I get a small bowl of water crystals to last about 10 days with a 1000 count lateralis colony by putting a 12 oz plastic bottle full of water in the crystals with a 1/2" diameter hole at the bottom.  Make sure the cap is on tight.  It slowly seeps out as the crystals are depleted and it makes it last a lot longer.  It's essentially a cheap homemade water dispenser.  Eventually the roaches stop eating the crystals and drink the water between them, so the risk of drowning is still minimal.  In your case you could use a bigger bowl/bottle and if your colony isn't too huge it should last for enough time.


I have actually never use water crystal before, do they actually get consumed by the roaches?  I thought they just suck the water out of it, so you just keep adding water.


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## gvfarns (Jan 19, 2009)

elportoed said:


> I have actually never use water crystal before, do they actually get consumed by the roaches?  I thought they just suck the water out of it, so you just keep adding water.


Actually they eat it.  Those polymers are crazy about retaining their water...there's no way to get the water out of the polymer except evaporation.  

It's actually great stuff except that you have to remember to make it up all the time...and when it gets dry it gets gummy and yellow and shrinks a lot, then you have to try and rehydrate it.  

Not sure if my house is dryer than others or what, but they are always drying out really fast.


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## brothaT (Jan 19, 2009)

gvfarns said:


> You might try some variation on the tupperware/rope combo.  It was a neat thing.


That was really clever, I'll try it in my hisser colony and see what happens.


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## pinkfoot (Jan 27, 2009)

brothaT said:


> Here are some pics of the setup.  It's really simple and makes your life a whole lot easier.  You need to put the cap on or else all the water will flow out of the bottle and overflow your bowl.  With the cap on, water will only seep out when the level gets below that of the 1/2" hole at the bottom.


Great pics, thanks!

Yep, that should work nicely. I'll change mine today, now that I understand completely. :worship:


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## eelnoob (Jan 27, 2009)

If you're worried I would also go with the dry dog food, wouldn't want to leave anything that can go bad, such as veggies in there. You might come home to find your place infested with fruitflies or whatever.


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## Rochelle (Jan 27, 2009)

This is how we water our huge colonies every day...it seems to cut down on the hassle of keeping water crystals on hand and clean; while preventing drownings, at the same time. We've used these for years and have never had a problem with them. The dishes are coarse, so every type of roach we keep has easy access.  (my husband is brilliant.)  

Hope you find this helpful!


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## pinkfoot (Feb 15, 2009)

That looks great, Rochelle!

I tried the upside-down-bottle-in-gel, but all I got was...well flooded!

What prevents your water from pouring out, out of control? :?


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## Pacmaster (Feb 18, 2009)

brothaT said:


> Here are some pics of the setup.  It's really simple and makes your life a whole lot easier.  You need to put the cap on or else all the water will flow out of the bottle and overflow your bowl.  With the cap on, water will only seep out when the level gets below that of the 1/2" hole at the bottom.



Wow, while the vacume waterer principal is not new in any way, I never thought to utilize it in my roach colony like that.
When I had my reeftank, I called it a top-off system . . .
Absolutely brilliant !!! :worship: 
Those crystals would last for weeks like that as Im sure you are right- the roaches would go for the easier-to-drink water between the crystals.
And the double food/water bowl w/sandpapered-sides, oohhhh I been doing it wrong, all wrong :wall: 

Now, vacations are only limited to the size of your water jug . . .  
Thankyou for posting those pics!

PS- in my head I see one of those upside-down 5g alhambra-jug type waterbowls for dogs, with the bottom fuul of crystals and some kinda ramp up to it.
Maybe even a piece of plastic eggcrate that sits on top the bowl part for the roaches to climb on . . .


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## Pacmaster (Feb 18, 2009)

pinkfoot said:


> That looks great, Rochelle!
> 
> I tried the upside-down-bottle-in-gel, but all I got was...well flooded!
> 
> What prevents your water from pouring out, out of control? :?


The small hole in the tightly sealed cap that sits just below the waterline, Id say!


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## pinkfoot (Feb 18, 2009)

Tried that, mate - ;P 

I guess my level dropped too much and my hole was exposed...lousy when your holes is exposed...:razz:


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## Pacmaster (Feb 19, 2009)

pinkfoot said:


> Tried that, mate - ;P
> 
> I guess my level dropped too much and my hole was exposed...lousy when your holes is exposed...:razz:




Especially if its leakin . . .


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