Another New Member

[Tom]

Hello all. I discovered your forum at the Pomona Reptile Show today. I've been looking for you people. So glad I found you. I'm excited about learning from you all and sharing what I've learned.

I got my first chelonian, a Western Box Turtle (Tommy Turtle), when I was seven years old in 1979. I've had lots of others since then. In my teens and early twenties I was the reptile guy at several pet stores.

Right now I've got 4 sulcattas. Scooter and Bert are both males that hatched from different clutches at Walter Allen's "Casa De Tortuga" in 1998. I raised them from hatchlings. For those who didn't have the pleasure of meeting/knowing Walter he was fantastic human being. I miss him dearly.

Delores was given to me by a friend when she was three years old. She was hatched in 2000.

Daisy is almost one year old. I got her from a friend, who is another legendary reptile guy, to test my pyramiding theory, but more on that in another post.

I love them all. Burt, Scooter and Delores all share a 6000 square foot outdoor pen with two heated retreats. Daisy lives in an indoor horse trough set-up, but has a 450 square foot outdoor pen for warm days, which is most of the year here in Southern CA. Their pens will get bigger as soon as I get some more slumpstone blocks.

I've also got:
Leopold, a 16 year old female Green Iguana
Ginger, an Argentine Red Tegu (hatched in Summer '09, unsexed, currently hibernating)
seven CB/CH baby Black-throated Monitors, no names yet, but I'm working on it
several species of feeder and pet cockroaches(I know, I know... but I love 'em)
Zelda and Kitten, two housecats
Bullet, Brownie and Sophie, Belgian Malinois
Hank, Dutch Shepard
Emma, Jack Russel Terrier/winter foot warmer

I look forward to getting to know you all.

 

[Isa]

Welcome to the forum! Wow, you have a nice reptile/animals family .
I am curious, I did not know you could have pet cockroaches, in what kind of enclosure do they live, and what kind of personality do they have
I am sure you will love this forum as much as we do!

 

[egyptiandan]

Welcome to the forum

Danny

 

[Tom]

Welcome to the forum! Wow, you have a nice reptile/animals family .
I am curious, I did not know you could have pet cockroaches, in what kind of enclosure do they live, and what kind of personality do they have
I am sure you will love this forum as much as we do!

Hello Isa. Thanks for the welcome. I'm soooo glad you asked about the roaches. I'm always dying to talk about them, but it just doesn't seem appropriate... unless someone asks. I started with three Madagascar Giant Hissing Roaches back in the early nineties. I never thought of them as a "cockroach". They were just another big 'ole, interesting, 3 inch long critter. Well, 3 became three thousand after a couple of years. That was my only species up until September of '09. Then, all "heck" broke loose...

There are about 4000 species of roach worldwide. Only about six of them are considered pests. Interestingly, they are the most hated/feared insect in the world, but they are closely related to the most respected/admired insects, the Mantids. Like most roach enthusiasts, I became interested in them primarily as a feeder insect, as crickets(the mainstay of the hobby) have a host of undesirable characteristics. As I did research to learn how to raise and take care of healthy roach colonies to feed to my reptiles, I started to learn about and appreciate how amazing, interesting and beautiful some of them are. Many of them don't look like a roach. They mimic other species of insects and are quite pretty(well, for a bug).

Just like our beloved tortoises, each species is different and has different housing, feeding and care needs. Each species also has a unique personality. Some of them are high strung and flighty, while others are calm and handleable. My two year old little girl loves them. They are not "dirty", unless you house them on dirt and they don't spread disease. In fact, as natures clean up crew(detrivores), they help prevent the spread of disease.

They are housed many ways. Some of the more common are glass, "aquarium" style, naturalistic display tanks, 5 gallon, screened, bucket cages, and 18 gallon plastic tub style cages. Most of the PET species are very tropical in their origins and will not survive for very long outside of their enclosure. They require heat and humidity. So infestation of ones home is impossible, unless you live in Southernmost Florida or the tropics. Also, most of the pet species cannot climb glass or plastic walls or fly, so escape is very improbable anyway. I keep a mix of "feeder" species and "pet" species. For anybody out there with box turtles or any of the aquatic turtle species, roaches are a great way to add nutritious variety to their diet and they absolutely love them.

If you want to learn more you can:
1. Google " allpet roaches"
2. Go to "roachforum.com". I'm roachman26 there too.
3. Feel free to PM me anytime.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Roachman26:

(May we know your name?)

to the forum!!

 

[sammi]

Interesting! [about the roaches]. Can you post pictures of them and their enclosures? I've never heard of anything like that before..

 

[Isa]

I googled the species of the roaches you talked about, and they are huge (well they look) . Thanks for the info, it is really interesting

 

[dmmj]

What's funny is if someone had a house with over 4000 roaches it would prob be declared unihabitable but to each their own I am glad you enjoy roaches so much, and welcoem to the forum.

 

[BethyB1022]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you have a very interesting collection Looking forward to seeing pictures!

 

[Andy_Panda]

Welcome to the forum!!

wow Roaches .. thats pretty neat. I have always thought of them as pests as well but those links you posted are pretty neat were glad to have you here

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Ugh! I think you are very brave and daring to have such lively creatures as pets...and I am talking about the monitors as well as the cockroaches, about which I will simply take your word!

You have a lot of animals to care for; I am sure they keep you busy and are loved and well cared for.

Now for the serious stuff...photos! Even though I love cats and dogs, and find lizards interesting, and cockroaches, well, like I said...but I LOVE tortoises, especially Sulcata, which I would love to keep but cannot properly house, so bring on the pictures of Delores, Daisy, Scooter and Bert!

 

[Tom]

Ugh! I think you are very brave and daring to have such lively creatures as pets...and I am talking about the monitors as well as the cockroaches, about which I will simply take your word!

You have a lot of animals to care for; I am sure they keep you busy and are loved and well cared for.

Now for the serious stuff...photos! Even though I love cats and dogs, and find lizards interesting, and cockroaches, well, like I said...but I LOVE tortoises, especially Sulcata, which I would love to keep but cannot properly house, so bring on the pictures of Delores, Daisy, Scooter and Bert!

Hello Stephanie. Thanks for the welcome. Until I figured out who Taco was from some of your previous posts, I was very perplexed about your signature line. I feel better now. That's Scooter as my avatar. I'll take some current pics and post them as soon as I get a chance. My Mulberry tree fell over in the wind in their enclosure, so I'm building up the motivation to get out the chain saw and remove it. Pics won't look very nice with a big dead tree in the middle of the pen. In the meantime they've been enjoying some fresh mulberry leaves.

 

[Stephanie Logan]

If they're like most Sulcatas, you could take some pictures of them plowing through or over the mulberry obstacles in their yard...

 

[Tom]

Interesting! [about the roaches]. Can you post pictures of them and their enclosures? I've never heard of anything like that before..

I change them all the time, but here's one enclosure. This one holds my Blaberus craniifer colony. They are called the "Death's Head Roach" because they've got an evil looking little face on the black spot on the back of their heads. I'll try to post some more later.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/4229970294_dc7eba3079_b.jpg[hr]

If they're like most Sulcatas, you could take some pictures of them plowing through or over the mulberry obstacles in their yard...

Yes, the plowing commenced immediately. I'll take some before and after pics.

 

[spikethebest]

Welcome! Glad to see another neighbor here at Tortoiseforum.org!

 

[dreadyA]

Hey roachman! I saw some roaches this past weekend at the Pomona reptile expo. They're kinda cool. (Kiiinda)

Oh, and how did you manage to manipulate the tub with the screen like that??

 

[Tom]

Hey roachman! I saw some roaches this past weekend at the Pomona reptile expo. They're kinda cool. (Kiiinda)

Oh, and how did you manage to manipulate the tub with the screen like that??

Its just an 18 gallon plastic tub. You can get them all over the place. I mark out a 3x6" rectangle and then use a Dremmel tool with a cutting wheel to cut it out. The screen is regular aluminum window screen from OSH. I cut the screen slightly larger than the hole and glue it in place with a hot glue gun. Roaches are great gecko food BTW. It would be very easy for you to set up a colony. Some people use 5 gallon buckets instead of tubs. It works great for the smaller species, like Blatta lateralis, and is also more secure.

I hope this is what you were asking.

 

[Isa]

Nice enclosures! WOW they are huge
Thanks for sharing!