Captive diet for roaches that naturally eat rotting wood?

[lychas]

Just wondering what to feed these? If the only thing is rotting wood where can i get it?

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Do you live near any forests where you could get oak, maple, or other hard woods? If so, you could just harvest it from the outdoors, though you should probably freeze it to kill any pests first. What species are you referring to? That might help for advice on captive diet.

 

[lychas]

panesthia species, i live in australia aswell.

 

[Gsc]

If you're collecting them, just take some of the wood that there found in.

I have a few panesthia nymphs... I keep them in a cage with ~8" rotten wood substrate. I've heard from a few prople that you can supplement their diet sometimes with some dry dog food. I offer it but don't know if they eat it... anyways- they are still alive after 6 months.

Look for logs in parks, forests, etc... I try to find wood that I can crumble by hand. Many of my roach species really like this...it's an awesome bedding/substrate too... holds moisture.

I usually microwave it (carefully) or freeze it for a month or so to kill any unwanted pests BEFORE I add it to the cages.

Hope that helps.

 

[loxoscelesfear]

baking wood in oven at 250 F for 3 hours works as well. i never had the guts to microwave ... interesting.

 

[dtknow]

How long does it take to decompose wood to that consistency? Maybe starting with a mix of collected wood, hardwood mulch, and some forest leafmold to jumpstart the process.