Hey all,

I bought a tub of lobster and pallid roaches from Petbugs when I went to pick up my new Ts.

I want to start a colony of my own.

I have a few questions though.

1. According to the packaging, I have 100+ assorted sizes. Will a 5L ice cream tub or similar size be okay to start breeding them?

2. How does the females look? How does the males look? When I start using them as feeders in 5 months or so, I don't want to feed the females.

3. I am going to put a 60watt heat lamp or similar pointed towards their enclosure as a heat source. Any con's to doing this?

Thanks!
Herco.

It is better to get yourself a larger tub so long as the 5L will run out of space within a couple of months.
But for now it should be fine.
It is better to get a heating pad instead of light as an ice cream container is a bit small and the heat from the light might heat the whole tub but if you don't have a heating mate on site then the light will do fine until you can get sorted.

Sexing them is a whole new ball game.
I will post a sexing topic for you a bit later.

The right way to go about a colony is not to touch or feed out of it for at least 1 year, the moment you stating feeding from it you never rally get a chance to catch up.

Work it out like this, if Harco has 10 spiders and you feed your spiders 2 prey items once a week how many roaches will you use in a month? 80 roaches.
So over 5 months you will need 400 roaches to feed to your spiders.

Thanks Jake,

I bought a 10L tub yesterday afternoon and spray painted the outside pitch black. If the colony reaches a desired size, I will move it over to a bigger tub.

Pet bugs sell the pallids and roaches in 100+ boxes. At the end of the month I will buy +-500 more.

I have not bought a heatpad or light yet, so I am still in 2 minds for a proper solution

The challenge is that on our yard it easily goes below 0 degrees in the early mornings. The roaches will be kept in the garage, with no other heating other than what I directly supply for them. I am afraid that a heatpad on the bottom will not be enough to reach the desired temperatures.

Provided I have the proper heat and I have 500+ roaches in my started colony, how long do you think I should wait before feeding from it?

I have 4 slings, all still very small. 2 of my Ts eat medium sized crickets and the other 2 eat small crickets. So for the next few months, they will just feed off the smaller roaches in any case. The adults will be left to do what they do best.

You must just watch that the spray paint is heat resistant and does not let toxic smell evaporate into the roaches.

A heating pad wont be able to heat your spider efficiently so you need to make a design that clads the box in polystyrene or something that will allow the heat to maintain in the roaches tub.
People normally stick the heating pad on the side or under the tub, the under side does not always work as the the space between the mat and the tub is a bit big.

If you roaches gets to cold they will start ding off so one needs to keep them heated and also if you want to grow your colony you need to give the right environment or it will just stay stagnant and not grow.

Well if you going to be buying more in then you can use the colony now to start feeding your spiders you will be feeding then plus minus 32 feeder items a months on the 4 spiders you have now.
And they are cheap enough to keep buying a 100 roaches at time if you need more feeders.

Thanks for the input Jakes! I appreciate all the info.

Lots to consider.