My Poor Hisser

Do you have any Madagascar Hissing Cockroach???

  • Yes

  • No


Results are only viewable after voting.

SolFeliz

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
100
I hadn't checked on my two Madagascar hissing cockroaches and when I did, one was curled up on his back. I thought he was dead, but when picking him up, he began to move. Now he's back in his box, they have food and water, but he doesn't really move too much. In a day he might just turn around or move a few millimetres. If you touch him, he bunches himself up even more so than usual.
Do I have to be worried, and do something, or should I just wait? I don't really know what age he is because he was from a reptile centre and we weren't told the age.
 

WeightedAbyss75

Arachnoangel
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
921
Any pics of him or his enclosure? Sounds like it might be dehydrated or just getting old. Never seen that with my G. oblongata, but they are still juvies.
 

SolFeliz

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
100
*Update
Today we were out for a walk and when we came back I checked on them and he had moved quite a lot (a couple of centimetres maybe).
I'm guessing this is good?
 

SolFeliz

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
100
I heard somewhere that you could hold a wet cotton bud to their mouths to 'hydrate' them or something. Should I try this?
 

Hisserdude

Arachnoking
Joined
Apr 18, 2015
Messages
2,453
Sounds like dehydration to me, or if not that, then just old age like @WeightedAbyss75 said. Either way, sounds like he's dying to me, sorry. :(

You can try that cotton ball thing, but if he's just dying of old age, then that won't help much. Ate his antennae short and his tibia missing?
 

SolFeliz

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
100
Another update:
I think that all it is is he has a stiff back. I don't know if this is possible, but I think if you were lying curled up on your back, legs in the air and unable to right yourself, you'd have a stiff back for a while. I think he's been eating and drinking and when he was on my hand he was stumbling around. Stiff, but alive.
 

Hisserdude

Arachnoking
Joined
Apr 18, 2015
Messages
2,453
Another update:
I think that all it is is he has a stiff back. I don't know if this is possible, but I think if you were lying curled up on your back, legs in the air and unable to right yourself, you'd have a stiff back for a while. I think he's been eating and drinking and when he was on my hand he was stumbling around. Stiff, but alive.
With roaches, that's not really a thing, the exoskeleton doesn't change much at all in shape unless severely damaged. They do tend to kind of shrivel up a bit when dehydrated, so that could be it. Would really help to see pictures of him, or a video of his behavior.
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
I have 1000s of hissers and have seen countless die of old age. Does it look pretty beat up?, broken antennae, weight loss, broken legs, things like that?
 

SolFeliz

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
100
Sounds like dehydration to me, or if not that, then just old age like @WeightedAbyss75 said. Either way, sounds like he's dying to me, sorry. :(

You can try that cotton ball thing, but if he's just dying of old age, then that won't help much. Ate his antennae short and his tibia missing?
His antenna has always been small, I actually think they were cut before we got him. He's never moulted in my care so I wouldn't know about his tibia.
 

SolFeliz

Arachnosquire
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
100
I have 1000s of hissers and have seen countless die of old age. Does it look pretty beat up? broken antennae, weight loss, broken legs, things like that?
Nah he looks the same as always. His antennae, as I said before, have always been small, and they look as if they've been cut. He's also never moulted in my care.
 

Hisserdude

Arachnoking
Joined
Apr 18, 2015
Messages
2,453
Nah he looks the same as always. His antennae, as I said before, have always been small, and they look as if they've been cut. He's also never moulted in my care.
Yeah, shortened antennae are a sign of old age, they start losing bits of their limbs as they get older.
 
Top