Private breeder feeder & pet exotic roaches. Residing in sunny S. Ca. This blog is all about my collection of various critters, past & present. You'll find care sheets, tutorials and various information on my former reptiles & current inverts.
I get asked this question quite often, “Why is my female dropping her egg cases (ootheca)?”. A ootheca (egg case) is a segmented cluster of eggs a female roach produces and either lays (Oviparous) or holds and gives live birth (Viviparous).
Females will carry the ootheca protruding from their bursa, which is at their tail end until she either retracts it back into her uterus to incubate until the eggs hatch, or hide it somewhere until the eggs hatch, depending on the species. Egg laying species like B. lateralis will glue the ootheca in place securely with saliva when deposited. Generally 2 columns of eggs side by side form a cluster of 16-60 eggs (3/8″ – 1.5″). Ootheca’s can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months to hatch.
Roaches usually drop eggs cases (ootheca) if there is something wrong with their care or environment. Too wet, or too dry for to long, not fed in a long while (more than a week regularly), temps too cold/hot, etc. There could be a problem with fertility if it’s just one or two ootheca’s, but many, there is something else going on. Females may also drop their ootheca when dying.
Disturbing your roaches to often may also stress the female. The ootheca is gently held in the bursa and could easily fall off when the roach is handled roughly, like shaking the egg flat she hides in, etc. Blatta lateralis female will often drop under-developed ootheca’s when disturbed. Another possibility may be to many males.
When breeding roaches for food for your pets, you should have two bins. One for your breeders and one for your feeders. more if you want to separate by size. By having a separate bin for your breeders, the only time you should disturb them is when feeding and watering.
So if you’re experiencing dropped ootheca’s, double-check your setup and routines! Most species don’t need much to breed or keep as pets. A few places to hide, food, water source, warm temps if breeding, room temps if keeping as a pet and some humidity and your good to go.
A quick update to those who have followed the progress of my G. rosea breeding project.
I bred her last November 09′. She was getting larger and larger and was due this month! I checked today and she had freshly molted. So it seems I won’t be getting an egg sac after all. Instead I get a fresh molt, what a trade-off.
She is gorgeous though. It’s probably a good thing she molted. Since I had bred her, my roach production and business has skyrocketed. So I wouldn’t have had much time now anyhow, so all is good.
When I was breeding my dragons, I would keep the temps inside the incubator at 84F with humidity at around 80%-90%. I no longer keep or breed bearded dragons. They are in my opinion one of the most awesome species of lizards out there. If your new to the hobby and are thinking of breeding your bearded dragons, follow these simple steps for incubating and you too could have 100% hatchouts.
First, when you know your female is ready to deposit her eggs, get your incubator setup. Weather its homemade or commercial, you need to have the temps and humidity ready for the new eggs. Incubating the eggs is simple, the hard part is the long wait and anticipation to hatching.
Okay, after you have your incubator setup and ready to go, your waiting for your female to drop those eggs. In the meantime take a plastic container with a lid about the size of a sandwich holder or larger, but small enough to fit in the incubator. Add vent holes on the side, then fill half way with damp vermiculite (Walmart). I would use vermiculite cause it is bacteria free, doesn’t promote mold or fungus and is better for the eggs.
Now, your females has deposited her eggs and your ancious to dig them up. Don’t dig them up in front of her, place her back into her enclosure or separate container out of site of her eggs. Locate and uncover the eggs very carefully. Use a spoon to pickup the eggs one by one and gently set the eggs on top of the vermiculite in the same position the mother deposited them.
Gently mist or squirt water over the eggs to wash them off. Place the lid on container firmly, date and set in incubator. Periodically check to make sure your temps and humidity are good and also do a visual on the eggs to make sure there still good. When you first put the eggs in, they may collapse slightly, this is normal and they will fill out again after a few days.
If the eggs are good, you’ll see them grow slightly over the 2 month period of waiting. Bad eggs turn yellowish brown, remove if you see these. When its time to hatch, they all should hatch out within a 3 day period. They generally won’t start to eat until there 3rd or 4th day of life. Once they start eating, you better have plenty of food.
I fed baby roaches, both B. dubia and B. lateralis nymphs. If your feeding crickits, you’ll need 2 week old crickets (1/4″). My newborn beardies would eat upwards of 5-10+ roaches a day each plus there mustard greens. They would grow an average of 1/2″ a week on roaches. In six weeks they would be ready to sale at 6″+. If your thinking of selling them, wait till at least 6 weeks of age. At this age there stong enough to handle shipping overnight. Following the info mentioned above and you should have healthy baby dragons.
Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Your welcome to share videos as long as it is doesn’t violate any terms. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.
Setting up your feeder roaches!
The video shows one variation of how a typical setup would be for your B. dubia / B. lateralis and various other feeder roaches. Items you may need are listed below. If you live in a dry climate, less ventilation to hold humidity in. More humid climate, more ventilation. Proper ventilation is necessary to keep humidity levels right and to prevent mold and bacteria from growing. Also try to avoid glass tanks as they don’t hold heat and humidity well. The essential items below can also be purchased from our website.
Supplies Needed:
Plastic tub/bin (shoe box size up to 73 qt is adequate for most).
Shoe box size containers work great if you just need a small colony to feed a couple or a few tarantulas, etc. If you have larger reptiles or need a larger colony, then step up to a larger tub / bin. If all you can find are clear tubs / bins, thats fine too. Roaches are nocturnal for the most part and prefer it dark. Take some black or dark colored paper and mask around your roach bin to give the roaches the darkness they desire. Personally, we use clear bins and the roaches continue to breed without a problem.
Before you begin preparing your roach bin, make some water gel from the water crystals you may of gotten with your roaches. Water crysals are a safe alternative to keeping your roaches hydrated without the risk of drowning. Takes a few hours to make, so now is a good time to start.
Use scissors / razor to cut a hole out of your lid anywhere from a quater the length to full, depending on where you live. If its dry in your area, smaller hole to keep humidity in. If its more humid where you live, more ventilation to keep condensation from building. Use a hot glue gun or similar to glue / secure a piece of metal screen mesh over the hole you cut.
Even though most feeder roaches are non-climbing, the newborn baby nymphs can generally climb because there so small and light. So as a precaution, use clear packing tape, roach barrier or similar along the inside top portion of your roach bin. A good 2″-3″ strip will usually kreep them in.
Now add a few egg flats / cartons, placing them vertically close together. Helps the roaches feel more secure and comfortable allowing them to hide and breed better. Leave room to add a food and water container as well. Any shallow bowl or lid will work just fine. Add some high protein roach chow, dog food or similar to one of the bowls and water gel to the other.
Most feeder roaches don’t require any substrate, so none is needed. It just makes it more difficult to cull your coloony for new nymphs as most like to burrow first chance they get. Well now your reeady to add your roaches. If you bought them from Greg’s Exotic Inverts, they’ll be in a small video size box or similar. Take the box of feeders and open it over your roach bin. Using your fingers, tongs or similar, pull the piece of egg flat out with roaches atatched. Either shake feeders loose or set piece of egg flat in bin and remove latert. Dump / shake remaining feeders into bin and your setup.
Roaches are very easy to keep, breed and maintain. I sugest you use 3 tubs / bins. One for breeders, one for feeders and a spare for containing feeders while cleaning. Happy roaching!!!!
Valid comments on/about/experience are all welcome. Spam, hate, offensive, etc… will be ignored/deleted. Your welcome to share videos as long as it is doesn’t violate any terms. Thanks for reading, Greg Hagedorn.
