# Hissers (madagascan hissing roaches)



## Pheonixx (Feb 11, 2005)

i have been buying a few here and there for my T. Blondi.  He eats one a week and that keeps him pretty full.  I am wondering why these things start to stink after a day or two.  I am sure its the roaches because i only small this smell when i have them. I have kept them on bare plastic, topsoil and now they are on bed a beast with a nice piece of driftwood to hide under.  I have been feeding them lettuce, apple chunks and the occasional dorito or pop tart.  
any tips on these guys would be helpful.  I honestly have no idea what to do with them other than feed them to my 10 1/2" blondi.


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## c7me (Feb 11, 2005)

*Care Sheet*

Here is a care sheet. Hope this helps!


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## james (Feb 11, 2005)

*roaches*

Roaches generally do not smell. Sometimes when disturbed the will give off a defense smell, but other than that is mild to none. Sometimes if your feeding them fruits and veggies the food will actual be causing your smells. Try feeding them dry food and when you give the fruits and veggies make sure if its not gone by the next day or remove it.
James
www.blaberus.com


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## Digby Rigby (Feb 11, 2005)

*Hissers suck*

Hello,

Hissers suck as a food item they are slow breeders and glass climbers as well as being all shell and fat.  Hissers are for tourists not feeders.  There are several large roaches that dont climb and have a much better meat to shell ratio.  Such as Blaberus fusca and Blaberus parabolicus among others even Eublaberus distanti is better and breeds faster and doesnt climb glass.  Once again you wouldnt feed waxworms on any kind of regular basis dont feed hissers at all.  You can find out more about feeder roaches and other feeders at http://exoticfeeders.com  Where our feeders are cooler than most peoples pets.

Digby Rigby

http://exoticfeeders.com


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## Pheonixx (Feb 12, 2005)

well i get them cheap and my spider gobbles them up.  besides i dont want to order like 100 from a online breeder nor do i want to breed them.  I really dont like roaches, but my spider does.  i pay 5.00 for 3 of them at the pet shop.  perhaps a little expensive but it keeps someone local employed.


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## Digby Rigby (Feb 12, 2005)

Hello,

I understand what you are saying however hissers are all shell and fat they have not anything substantial to them in so far as anything nutrional they are all shell and fat. Its not the price thats the issue its the nutrional quality.  There is no point in feeding them there are other roaches tha are much better and you dont buy roaches to feed you buy them to breed and then feed what they breed.  Roaches other than hissers are much better in every way.  In fact I dont think there is a roach thats is anywhere near as worthless as far as food goes then hissers.  See you are just wasting money because they dont give the animal what it needs.  It is also not a matter of keeping people employed as it is doing whats best for the spider.  As Far as money goes your paying 50 dollars for 30 100 or even 50 of just about any othr roach would do you better.  Price isnt the issue doing whats best for the animal you are feeding is.

Digby Rigby


http://exoticfeeders.com


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## Pheonixx (Feb 12, 2005)

I am aware that i need to do whats best for the spider.  like i said i dont want to breed the <EDIT> roaches.  i am sure there are far better ones out there and someday i may try them.  but all i asked was for help with the ones i have, not which one is best.  c7me posted a care sheet and thats what i needed.  I dont need a bunch of people telling me i'm stupid for feeding hissers to my spider.  I do buy roaches to feed and not to breed.  I could care less about price.


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## dangerprone69 (Feb 12, 2005)

Pheonixx said:
			
		

> i have been buying a few here and there for my T. Blondi.  He eats one a week and that keeps him pretty full.  I am wondering why these things start to stink after a day or two.  I am sure its the roaches because i only small this smell when i have them. I have kept them on bare plastic, topsoil and now they are on bed a beast with a nice piece of driftwood to hide under.  I have been feeding them lettuce, apple chunks and the occasional dorito or pop tart.
> any tips on these guys would be helpful.  I honestly have no idea what to do with them other than feed them to my 10 1/2" blondi.


Some pointers:

I would stop giving them lettuce. This may be the source of your smell problem. Leafy vegetables tend to cause more gas in the animals who eat them (people+cabbage=???). Hissers just do not smell. I've had them forever, and they give off no odors, unless one dies and you don't remove it soon enough. The vegetables I give them and they absolutely love are carrots, apples and oranges. 

Lay off the junk food too! This gives your Goliath no nutrition. Try giving them some kind of protein: cricket feed works well, dog food is awesome. Just make sure the dog food contains a good % of crude protein. Hissers don't contain much themselves so they need to be gut-loaded just like a cricket for their predator to get as much out of them as possible.

Hope this helps!!!!!


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## Digby Rigby (Feb 13, 2005)

*Hissers Suck*

Hello Again,

I am sorry if you felt I implied you were stupid I meant no such thing.  I was merely talking about using hissers as feeders.  I was not making any judgements on you as a person.  Now if you care for any roaches properly they will breed  .  Also if you want to get better James at http://blaberus.com will sell you small amounts in 10 lots of several suitable species for a reasonable price.  With such an option available to you there is no need to use hissers at all :clap:

Digby Rigby

http://exoticfeeders.com


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## reptillian (Feb 15, 2005)

hes right they suck as a food item as there shells are hard.


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## Viridis9 (Feb 17, 2005)

*Hissers as feeders*

Well hell, I guess i'll just throw my two cents in, I feed hissers to my monitors and they just love to crunch em, fat, hard shell and all!
Oh and www.roachdomain.com will sell hissers individually.
In the end its whatever makes you happy, and convienence does'nt hurt either.   :clap:


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## JohnxII (Feb 18, 2005)

Yeah dangerprone69 beat me to it. Drop the lettuce and you'll be fine!


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## Digby Rigby (Feb 18, 2005)

*They Still Suck*

Hello,

What you havent addressed is that although animals will eat them hissers are not nutritious at all.  They are all shell and fat and no substance.  Having said that if you want hissers or other roaches http://roachdoamin.com will do you right.  Hissers are okay as pets.  As food they are nothing of substance nutritionally speaking.  Go for blaberus species or eublaberus among others.  Like wax worms are gecko crack hissers can be monitor crack.  For more alternative feeder info check out http://exoticfeeders.com

Digby Rigby


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## james (Feb 19, 2005)

*roaches*

I think the easiest way to put it would be "variety, variety, variety". Instead of focusing on one roach you should feed a mixture of species and even further a mixture of different types of feeders. Ken has great roaches, I have great roaches, and so do others. Roaches are now available in smaller quantaties and lower prices than ever before. It will be years before they reach the lower prices of other feeders, but eventually suppliers will catch up to demand. Until then you pay a little more, but to me my animals are worth it. The best part about roaches are you can buy a few dozen, house them pretty easily, and they will live plenty long enough for you to feed them, or you can start your own colony.
James
www.blaberus.com


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## c7me (Feb 28, 2005)

*Care Sheets in pdf format*

Had a few people request care sheets in pdf format. :clap:


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## DR zuum (Mar 23, 2005)

Hi Digby Rigby went to your site wheres all the info on the roaches?I knew hissers were considered a bad choice for feeders because of the glass climbing and slow growth and reproduction.But ive never seen anythig on the nutritional value versus other roach species.I'd like to check that out as i was led to believe gutloading was the way to go with any roach species as far as nutritional value went.


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## Scythemantis (Mar 23, 2005)

I won't tip-toe around it - I _very_ strongly dislike when people use hissers for food. Not only because they're "junk food", but because I can't help but consider them strictly a pet species. As large, docile, unusual, and slow-breeding roaches with a more complex social life than other species (they even have a "language" of a couple different hisses), feeding hissers is comparable (to me) to using, say, flower mantids or rhinoceros beetles as feeders.


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## Dark Raptor (Mar 23, 2005)

I agree with you Scythemantis. I never use my hissers as food (I sell them).
It is also very hard for me, to use Blaberus species as food.

As you mentioned. I've found nice articles about social life of these roaches.

One, discribes how females protect newly hatched larvae:
Nalepa C.A., Perry J., 2003: A new mode of parental care in cocoraches. Insectes Socieux 50, 245 - 247.

Another paper shows connection of the social status of males and their hisses:
Clark D.C., Moore A.J., 1995: Variation and repeatability of male agonistic hiss characteristic and their relationship to social rank in Gromphadorhina portentosa. Animal Behaviour 50, 719 - 729.


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## DR zuum (Mar 23, 2005)

Scythemantis said:
			
		

> I won't tip-toe around it - I _very_ strongly dislike when people use hissers for food. Not only because they're "junk food", but because I can't help but consider them strictly a pet species. As large, docile, unusual, and slow-breeding roaches with a more complex social life than other species (they even have a "language" of a couple different hisses), feeding hissers is comparable (to me) to using, say, flower mantids or rhinoceros beetles as feeders.


No im just asking where the data is on thier nutritional value compared to other roach species,you say they are junk food,DigbyRigby says they are all fat i want to see the data on that.As gutloading is the way ive been using crix and whatever insect i use as feeders to insure nutrition for the invert consuming them.As to date ive not fed any roaches to my inverts,but im considering a switch perhaps to discos,or lobsters.

I try not to use any rare or special insect as a feeder,but lets say im breedig a rarer tarantula and i find out it requires a certain type of beetle as food  prior to  breeding,guess what? Rare or not its chow time.


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## james (Mar 23, 2005)

*roaches*

I would like to find an entomologist that could determine the nutritional value of a roach and I would be willing to pay for it. Hissers do have a harder exo-skeloton than other roaches and I don't consider them to be the best feeder. With that being said they are not any more special than any other roach and still can be used as feeders. Everyday in Madagascar a reptile is munching on hissers. It's part of the food chain and saying you wouldn't feed them because their more advanced is like saying you wouldn't eat a cow because it's smarter than a chicken. Anyway, I got into roaches because I'm a reptile person. I think they main purpose is as feeders, but keeping them as pets is fun too.
James
www.blaberus.com


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## Scythemantis (Mar 23, 2005)

Actually, I do hold all animals in an equal light, haven't kept any predators in years, and quite literally don't even enjoy killing fleas. But I'd never put a personal qualm before the needs of an animal, predatory or otherwise. It's just that if it's gotta be done, I'd prefer to use smaller, more prolific species as feeders.

And yes, they get eaten in the wild, but so do the reptiles, too...and _their_ hunters

Reactions: Agree 1


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## james (Mar 23, 2005)

*hissers.*

It's been years since I've kept normal hissers, but a freind just sent me 14 pounds of them today and it didn't even make a dent in his colony. I think they breed as well as any other roach with exception to the lobsters and species considered PESTS (B. germania, orientalis, etc...).
James


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## Drosera123 (Mar 23, 2005)

How exactly do you know that they are mostly fat? Have you taken a bite recently? I'd love to see some evidence to prove that your statement isn't completely false, so tell me, how do you know they're all fatty besides saying they look fat?


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## Scythemantis (Mar 24, 2005)

Who said it was because of how they _look?_ They don't get love handles or beer bellies.

I imagine the nutritional value of different roaches has been worked out through years of trial and error......or just dissecting them.


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## DR zuum (Mar 24, 2005)

Scythemantis said:
			
		

> Who said it was because of how they _look?_ They don't get love handles or beer bellies.
> 
> I imagine the nutritional value of different roaches has been worked out through years of trial and error......or just dissecting them.


I've never seen anything on that,crix yes but ive never seen one done on roach species or a comparison of nuritional value between said species.Which is why i wanted to look at that info as im thinking of going over to roaches the more nutritional the better,which would be super with my gutload which i make myself.

But just because somebody says they are all fat,doesnt make it so without some form of backup.I went to that site he listed and perused it,i found nothing of value there concerning this topic.I picked up some hissers today pretty big ones 8 of them 1.00 each.Ive got them in high humidity on a combination of flukers feed and my gutload just to see how they breed.I've found sources that say slow,i found sources that say medium to fast.Im going to see,temps 85 degrees,good humidity peat/potting soil substrate.


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## Wade (Mar 24, 2005)

The reason they know hissers are high in fat is that all those people on "fear factor" put on like ten pounds after taping the show.

Seriously, I'd also like to see the data on the relative nutrative value of various cockroaches. I'm not disputing it, but I am curious to see who actually did this research.

Weather or not they're high in fat, I agree that hissers don't make good feeders. The thick, chitonous exsoskeleton makes them difficult for many animals to eat, and some tarantulas actually seem repelled by them (although I doubt a really hungry one would turn it down) the glass climbing becomes a pain when transporting them for feeding a large collection, and in some cages they wedge themselves into an inaccessable corner where the spider can't get to them. 

I like them just as captives, though, and they are one of the stars of my educational programs. Always a big hit with the kids!

Wade


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## Digby Rigby (Mar 24, 2005)

*Hisser Fat!*

Hello some hissers were dissected by a professor at UC Berkely.  She was looking for suitible replacwnts for P americana.  When sahe dissected the hissers she found them to be shell and fat.  Also post the question at http://exoticfeeders.com  a question can not be answered if it is not posted :?


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## DR zuum (Mar 26, 2005)

Is there a link to that info?Id like to see her method of determining this,before i'll just accept it as fact.So far theres been nothing provided by you to support your position in the slightest,except your assertion that it is so. :? And not to sound arrogant or anything along those lines,but if such info existed i think it probably would have been posted here.  I contacted a friend who is a entomologist and he's never heard that before either.So please if you have the link to that data it would be appreciated.Because it's certainly not at your site.


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## Wade (Mar 26, 2005)

I couldn't find it there either. I guess we're supposed to join that forum and post the question there? Unfortunately, I barely have time to keep up with the forums/lists I already belong to.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned so far is where is it written that high-fat prey is bad for tarantulas? The original query was about feeding hissers to tarantulas, and I don't think there's any evidence that a high-fat diet makes any difference to them. Who knows, a high-fat snack now and then might actually be bennificial.

Wade


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## davegrimm1 (Jul 4, 2005)

*hissers as food*

fat or not my theraphosa apophasis (related to blondi) relishes the hisser,and not one complaint. I also fed an adult hisser to my hatian brown 3" spider and he slammed that hisser hard. the only thing left is his little helmet and a pile of goo in the corner. Dave  :}


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## JustBugs (Jul 6, 2005)

*Variety a key to captive husbandry.*

After 30+ years of captive husbandry of a myriad of insectivorous animals, I would have to agree with James. It's not which insect or item has what nutritional value but feeding a variety of items is the key to successful husbandry. Monocultural diets incur a risk of nutritional deficiencies and dietary imbalances.
I'm sure that if you watched any of a number of animals in their natural habitats, with exceptions of course, it would be determined that most are opportunistic feeders and eat whichever prey happens to come along. It's always best to vary your pets diet unless it contains a formula to address most of the nutritional requirements for that animal. Insects simply, do not provide this formula.
It's also proven that many insects assimilate whichever food items they are fed prior to feeding your pets. It's best to give your feeders just as nutritional of a diet as you would want to feed your pet. Organic fruits and vegetables and a good protein source is essential. You are what you eat is the case with your feeder insects. Proper gutloading formula, like that available on the Adcham website, has been utilized by many professionals and has been proven to ensure proper nutrition for your pet. It has worked quite well for us and our animals. 
It is available at http://www.adcham.com/html/husbandry/gutload.html

I hope this helps in some small way.

Kenn Mease
Admin
www.justbugs.com


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## Gsc (Jul 6, 2005)

Completely agree... If you are NOT raising your own feeder insects (like roaches) please remember to feed your "pet store" crickets for a few days before you feed them to your animals... you'll have alot happier/healthier animals by doing this...

JustBugs- Great link!  The bee pollen at my local healthfood store is WAY overpriced...I'll have to look at the online sources!


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## NiGHTS (Jul 6, 2005)

Not to change the subject too much...  but I have heard that the coloration of Hissers can be determined by the type of food that they are fed.  It seems like they can range from orange banded to completely black, depending on their diet.  Has anyone experimented with this to see what types of foods yield which colorations?


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## Gsc (Jul 6, 2005)

I think thats BS NiGHTS...I say this because I have a colony of hissers that has both regular colored individuals and black morphs living in it alongside each other.... both eating the same stuff.... In tropical fish, you can modify their coloration through diet, but I don't think you can do much with roaches by offering a certain "color enhancing/changing" food.

I could be completely wrong... there are some really good roach people on this board that could give you another opinion.

Good luck


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## cacoseraph (Jul 6, 2005)

Gsc said:
			
		

> I think thats BS NiGHTS...I say this because I have a colony of hissers that has both regular colored individuals and black morphs living in it alongside each other.... both eating the same stuff.... In tropical fish, you can modify their coloration through diet, but I don't think you can do much with roaches by offering a certain "color enhancing/changing" food.
> 
> I could be completely wrong... there are some really good roach people on this board that could give you another opinion.
> 
> Good luck


i thought most invertebrate coloration was from refraction of light on cuticle etc, not reflection from pigments... so for one thing, food affecting coloration would only be noticeable after a molt.


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## NiGHTS (Jul 7, 2005)

I have to admit that I'm a roach noob (I actually just ordered my first ones from James today =).  I read about the color changing on a few different web sites.  Here's a quote from the Allpet Roaches site:  

(http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/Roaches/)  "Adult coloration is variable and can be determined more by food than genetics. Roach cultures tend to shift color --over time-- depending on what their owner's feed them. Feeding only affects coloration when still nymphs; adults will never change to another color because they do not molt."

So, that said... is it B.S., or has anyone experienced this?  I'd just like to know so I can figure out what to feed my new babies when they arrive.


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## Gsc (Jul 7, 2005)

Hey NiGHTS- If Orin & Roachman Willis says it in the Allpet Roach book then I'd say its true and I stand corrected... I've never seen it in any of my colonies, but I respect Orin and Willis...they are both Roach Kings!  

I'm going to check into this...now you got me thinking...


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## jtablerd (Jul 7, 2005)

digby - i'm sorry man, i understand that youre trying to promote your site and all, but if youre going to incessantly plug by finding a way to put exoticfeeders.com in each and every post (and yes, it really is in every post he's made) ... maybe youd consider putting the address in your signature and stop finding ways to make me read a paragraph just to tell me to go to your site...i know i'm not a mod, and im sorry if im flaming, but come on, i have no problem reading a post on how roaches are so great....but ..

that being said, i think that hissers certainly cant be any worse than the crickets that most people feed their t's and other insect/carnivores...

sorry if i sound b!tchy...

Reactions: Like 1


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