Hissing Cockroach Colony Help

[R.W.]

I really need to start a feeder roach colony. I decided on hissers instead of some other species just be cause I like them more. Crickets are just getting too expensive and they smell terrible. Problem is, none of the store around my house have any for sale. Does anyone know where I can get some to start a colony with? Site or company or something?

I'm going to start the colony in a large sterilite container and keep it in my dark closet where it stays nice and warm. As the colony grows I will get bigger containers if needed. As far as substrate goes, besides the egg crate and a few toilet paper tubes, do I need anything or can I just leave the bottom uncovered? I figured I would put the food straight down onto the plastic or in some little feeding dish, but what about water? Do I need a water dish or can I just put in water gel or some cricket water pillows? Can I also feed them those Fluker's Orange Cubes?

 

[REAL]

Have u tried the for sale section of the forum or searching for it? Hissers are pretty common and should be commonly sold in lots of places.

Hissing cockroaches are nice but I would advise getting another species if ur planning to feed because hissers have a rather hard shell compared to many others and that might deter some of ur pets from eating them as I've had tarantulas that would attack it, but give up after the first attack and end up cowarding from it there forward, you can try it out if u want.

You don't really have to get them any substrate, but it'll help some bit in the humidity and it'll give them something to crawl on so maybe sprinkle some bit of coco/peat moss? They get most of their water from their food, feed them stuff like oranges, its said to get them into the breeding mode more too, it gives them both water and food and it doesn't hurt. Water crystals are cool if U want, but its not a must have. I bought mines from watersorb.com and wow they shipped it ASAP haha. Buy the 2lb large size one if u do or you can go into hardware stores and look for water crystal solid form with Polyacrylamide and no additives. Soil Moist I heard is very good. Long Dugs over here has a 1pounder for $12 so I went with watersorb which was 2lb for $18shipped. No water dish or the babies will drown.

Btw, some of the sellers have websites, such as swift's, botar, to name a few. Should click on their names and see if they have a link to their websites. Later!