Marble cockroaches are nutritious food for an exotic pet. Breeding cockroaches as a business How to breed cockroaches at home

The main item of expenditure in the maintenance of terrarium animals is food. An alternative to purchased feed will be the breeding of fodder insects. Among the many options (meal worms, crickets, fly larvae), cockroaches are the most popular. Arthropods breed quickly, do not require care, and are a highly nutritious product. Feed cockroaches are universal food, they are suitable for all reptiles, birds, spiders.

Types of feed cockroaches

Cultivation of cockroaches has become profitable business. Financial investments the case is small, but the demand is good. In China, entire farms are being created to grow arthropods for pet food and fish. Insect colonies reach millions of individuals. Products are bought up only by livestock owners, but also by restaurateurs various countries. Cockroach meat is popular, it is considered a healthy and tasty delicacy.

Several characteristics contribute to the popularity of arthropods as a prey item:

• low cost of insects;
• unpretentiousness in nutrition;
• high fertility;
• undemanding to the conditions of detention.

Full information about feed consumers in the article "".

Marble (Nauphoeta cinerea)

One of the most common food objects. The birthplace of insects is Northeast Africa. Sexual dimorphism is expressed in body size - females up to 30 mm, males 25 mm. Another feature, in females, the abdomen is wider. Arthropods have wings but do not fly. The species is ovoviviparous. The females carry the egg capsule in their abdomen. Periodically they expose it for airing. The incubation period is 30 days. Imago live 6 months. The population density is 5 individuals per 5 cm 2.

On initial stage buy 30-40 individuals, the number of females and males 3:1. The larvae take 4-5 months to reach sexual maturity. The species is non-aggressive, but when it enters the terrarium to spiders or reptiles, it quickly burrows into the substrate. Main advantages: unpretentiousness and fast dispersal of the colony.

Insects are settled in a glass or plastic terrarium. Its size depends on the planned size of the colony. The recommended temperature is 25-32°. Any substrate: wood or coconut sawdust, paper, egg trays. Marble cockroaches easily move along a vertical surface. The upper part of the walls to a width of 5-6 cm is lubricated with petroleum jelly. For ventilation, small holes are drilled (diameter 1 mm) or a grid is installed. The litter is moistened 1 time in 2 days.

Information. Once a year, it is desirable to add adults from another colony so that inbreeding does not occur.

Feed

The main part is dry food ( cereals, milk mixtures, food for animals and fish). Their juicy foods are recommended apples, beets, carrots, lettuce, grass.

Turkmen (Shelfordella tartara)

A popular fodder cockroach, it is easy to keep, has a soft chitinous cover. Under natural conditions, it lives in the deserts of Asia and the Middle East. It is characterized by pronounced sexual dimorphism:

• Females are massive, brown with reddish spots on the sides, the wings are reduced. Length 30 mm.
• Males are slender, have long wings, and are orange in color. Size 25-30 mm.

For growing arthropods, you will need a cage with good ventilation. It is best to use cardboard egg trays as shelters. Optimum temperature content 27-30°, humidity 60-80%. Insects need regular access to water. Vermiculite is poured into the drinker or cotton wool is placed to prevent the larvae from drowning.

Feed

The species needs a variety of food: bran, vegetables and fruits, bread, oak leaves. To exclude cannibalism, protein is given in the form of gammarus, eggs, dog food.

reproduction

Adults live 3-4 months, females lay ootheca with eggs every 2 weeks. For the development of offspring in the capsule, high humidity is necessary. It is recommended to collect cocoons and place in wet moss. The larvae will need shelter from the adults.

Representatives of the species do not run along the walls, lubrication is not required. Because of small size reptiles are fed several adults at once. The disadvantage of Turkmen cockroaches is an unpleasant smell.

American (Periplaneta Americana)

This species ranks third in the ranking of food objects. Insects with cargo sugar cane settled all over the world. Adult size 27-44 mm. Sexual dimorphism is expressed in the reduction of the female's wings. Representatives of the species have a reddish-brown color. Life expectancy is 8-10 months.

Insects are grown in cages with a lid. When catching, they are careful, adults run fast. A metal mesh is installed for ventilation. Temperature from 22 to 32 °, humidity is moderate. Trays are used for shelter. Food should be varied: vegetables, dry cereals, meat, greens. The disadvantages include the aggressiveness of the species, they can attack weakened spiders.

Madagascar (Gromphadorrhina portentosa)

For lizards of the genus Eublefara, more protein is required, they are fed with large Madagascar cockroaches. The size of the female is 60 mm, the male is 55 mm. Imago brown, wingless. Aggressive in nature, emitting a hiss when threatened. Threatening sounds are produced by contraction of the abdomen. Larvae and adults coexist without problems in one terrarium. One individual is enough to feed a lizard or spider.

Information. Males are distinguished by characteristic projections on the pronotum.

A feature of the species is a high life expectancy of 2-3 years and slow maturation - about 6 months. It is recommended to pour a layer of substrate 2-3 cm thick (peat, sawdust) into the holding tank. Insects are slow, but they can move along vertical walls. They prefer plant foods, especially oranges. The diet should include fruits and vegetables. When using juicy products, they do without a drinker. If it is necessary, take purified water, without chlorine.

The starting number of insects is 5 females and 2-3 males. The species is ovoviviparous. At one time, 20-50 larvae are born. With improper maintenance, arthropods reproduce poorly, young animals die.

Green (banana) (Panchlora nivea)

The view has not received much distribution, but has its advantages:

• soft cover;
• does not take root in an apartment;
• does not move along the walls of the cage;
• multiplies rapidly.

The size of insects is 22-25 mm. In the terrarium, it is necessary to maintain a temperature of 25-30 °. Water is sprayed daily, the optimum humidity is from 70%. A mixture of shavings and vermiculite is used as bedding. What to feed green cockroaches? They are omnivorous, but their jaws are not adapted for solid food. It is better to give apples, bananas, peaches, tomatoes, muesli. The species is ovoviviparous, the larvae burrow into the ground after birth. A bedding layer of less than 5 cm is desirable.

Advice. Carefully open the cage, insects are capable of flight.

Red or Prussian (Blatella germanica)

A synanthropic species can be kept in a terrarium and be beneficial. The size of Prussians is 10-13 mm, they are suitable for young birds, reptiles. Imagoes have an elongated, yellowish-coffee body. The larvae are small, able to squeeze through the smallest gap. When breeding, attention should be paid to the integrity of the cage. Insects multiply rapidly and reach maturity. The optimum temperature is 30°. The substrate is not used, instead I put cardboard trays. Prussians are omnivorous, they are given oatmeal, bread, vegetables and fruits. There should be a drinker in the garden.

Advice. Choose candidates for cultivation with care. Prussians do not always die from poison, but their body is poisoned. Such food will harm reptiles or spiders.

Black (Blatta orientalis)

Imagoes are quite large up to 30 mm. The color is black or dark brown. Insects are secretive. The female leaves 20 ootheca with eggs during her life. Each leaves 10-20 larvae. In favorable conditions, they grow in 5 months. Black rams need food with protein (dry pet food, eggs, meat). When food is scarce, they are prone to cannibalism.

Before you breed cockroaches, study all the information about their needs and habits. In beginners, insects often escape their cage. In the warm season, they take root indoors, begin to actively breed. For the sale of live food, specialized forums, ads in groups, and pet stores are used. The conditions for keeping all tropical and synanthropic species are similar. But when growing Prussians, special care is required, otherwise, instead of growing cockroaches, you will have to deal with their destruction.

For some people, cockroaches are vile and disgusting creatures that need to be crushed immediately. And some specifically buy and breed exotic species of cockroaches for keeping in terrariums. Cockroaches are unpretentious creatures capable of long time go without food. Compared to other species, the marbled cockroach is able to thrive in low humidity.

You don't have to worry that the pets will remain hungry, they are omnivorous and can eat any food from your table.

The ash cockroach is certainly not a beautiful exotic animal, and does not shine with intelligence, but many breed them at home to feed large insect-eating animals with fresh food.

Marble cockroaches are rich in proteins and essential substances for the proper development of your pet.

You need a small low aquarium or insectarium in which your pets will live. Pour on the bottom sawdust a few centimeters high, paper boxes should be placed inside the insectarium so that marble cockroaches can hide in case of danger.

A tightly closed lid is a prerequisite, otherwise you risk losing nimble pets. The lid should have small holes for normal air circulation. To complicate the task of insects escaping from the terrarium, the upper part of the wall can be lubricated with petroleum jelly or sunflower oil.

Fruits, vegetables, sweets, pastries, leftover meat dishes, all half-eaten foods that can be found in the refrigerator are suitable for feeding. For food, they put a plastic bowl and make a replacement every few days so that the food does not stink. For water, a shallow vessel is also installed, cotton wool or a foam rubber sponge is placed inside so that the insect does not drown. The cotton wool will absorb water, and the cockroach will drink from the cotton wool.

If you accidentally forget to feed the cockroaches, don't worry, they can go without food for a long time, and in case of severe hunger, they will begin to eat paper and wooden items in the terrarium. The main thing is to monitor the amount of water in the drinker, without liquid, insects will die within 3-6 days.

Try to feed marbled cockroaches with a variety of foods so that they get all the necessary vitamins and minerals. You can buy food for cockroaches at the pet store. The amount of food directly affects the rate of reproduction, if you are going to breed marbled cockroaches as food for various animals, you should take care of a nutritious and balanced diet for cockroaches.

Keeping marble cockroaches is not difficult, but certain conditions must be maintained. Since the insects are from Africa, they love warmth, the recommended temperature in the insectarium is 25-30 °, it is also desirable to maintain an air humidity of 60-70%; for this, it is enough to open the lid of the insectarium once every few days and spray water from the spray gun several times. It is better to place the terrarium in the south room near the battery, so that the insects feel comfortable even in winter.

Change the sawdust in the terrarium should be 1-2 times a month so that pests do not start. Before replacing, you should transplant cockroaches into a separate box and put a piece of rag there so that the insects do not scatter, but hide under it.

Breeding marble cockroaches

After fertilization, the female carries the eggs in herself, sometimes pulling out the ootheca to ventilate the eggs. The female bears eggs for 1-1.5 months, after which her back part opens and white nymphs emerge. The female gives birth to 15-24 nymphs. The maintenance of small cockroaches does not differ from adults. The cockroach becomes an adult at the age of 2 months, during this period they shed the old shell several times. After molting, cockroaches become and acquire their usual color within a few hours.

Good day, dear readers. Today we’ll talk about a cockroach with a beautiful name - marble. You will learn why this type of cockroach is very popular as a fodder crop among the owners of unusual pets - toads, spiders, lizards, large parrots, snakes and other non-trivial animals.
If you are that lover of the exotic and plan to have arthropods as food for your little animals, this article will come in handy for you - I will tell you how to keep a marble cockroach, what conditions it needs for a comfortable life, how to equip a house and how to feed a colony so that insects successfully bred.

Why do owners of exotic pets choose marbles as a forage crop?

This insect, originally from Africa, is very unpretentious in keeping and breeding, which, coupled with omnivorousness and rapid reproduction, has made these creatures so popular among the owners of lizards, ants, snakes and spiders. The marble cockroach got its name because of its characteristic color: light spots and stains are interspersed in its brown-black shell, which somewhat resembles a marble pattern.

Marbles are high in protein and low in fat, making them excellent food for animals that eat insects. They are low-fat and nutritious, and are also easy to digest - so you can be sure that your exotic pet will not have digestive problems.

For lovers of arthropods, this creature even seems beautiful - certainly marbles are prettier than our Prussians. Nevertheless, if you accidentally meet him in the kitchen, this meeting will not bring you joy - a 3 cm long body and antennae mustache will cause unpleasant feelings even among the most cold-blooded owners.

How do marbles stand out from other cockroaches?

Before we talk about the maintenance of marbles, I will tell you a couple of facts about these unusual insects:

• Marble cockroaches have long glossy wings.
• The female is traditionally slightly larger than the male.
• They belong to viviparous cockroaches, so that at the end of a 2-4-week pregnancy, one female gives life to 1-3 dozens of small white nymphs.
• Newborn nymphs will become adults in about 4 months, in general, a complete life cycle This type of cockroach lasts about 9 months.

Sexually mature age occurs at about 5 months - from this time the female will bring offspring 4-6 times. It is interesting that the marble cockroaches have some kind of maternal instinct - after the birth of the nymphs, the newly-made mother fiercely protects them from other inhabitants of the insectarium. True, parental feelings end as suddenly as they appear.

If you decide to start breeding these arthropods as a forage crop, you first need to prepare and learn how to keep marbled cockroaches so that they feel good and serve as tasty and nutritious food for your pet.

Cooking insectarium

A large plastic container or an aquarium is suitable as a dwelling for marblers. These creatures are extremely unpretentious in content, so they do not care where they live.

• However, keep in mind: the tenacious paws of the marbler allow him to easily move around vertical surfaces whether plastic or glass. Therefore, it is important to insure against shoots and cover the insectarium with a fine mesh - so the cockroaches will not scatter and full air exchange will be maintained.
• If there is no suitable mesh, just grease the upper edge of the walls of the house with petroleum jelly - this will prevent the arthropods from escaping. However, even if a couple of individuals were able to escape - do not worry, it is extremely difficult for them to take root in a human apartment. Some owners of marblers say that they yearn alone and often return to the insectarium when escaping.
• The bottom of the insectarium is lined with a substrate - suitable cat litter, sawdust, coconut bark. Be sure to put some insect shelters inside - these can be egg trays, paper boxes, tree bark and branches.
• Do not forget about the feeder and drinker - they must be installed so that even small nymphs have unhindered access to them. Any bowl is suitable as a drinker, just cover it with cotton so that the cockroaches do not accidentally drown. Water should be changed regularly, because without fluid, your cockroaches will die in a few days.
• Every couple of months it is necessary to clean the insectarium, change the substrate to a fresh one and, as it gets dirty, replace the egg trays or those shelters that you have installed. If this is not done, an infection or ticks can develop in the cockroach house - both of which are fraught with the death of the entire colony, so it is important to maintain cleanliness.

We read on the topic: Sea cockroach what a miracle Yudo

Temperature and humidity in the insectarium

Marble cockroaches are heat-loving creatures, so the temperature in their home should be kept at 25-30 degrees. When it comes to humidity, there is no universal advice. If the insectarium is covered with a tight lid, you can irrigate it only once a week. If there is no mesh or cover on top at all, it is better to moisten the cockroach house a little daily with warm water from a spray bottle.

What to feed marbles?

In the digestive system of these insects, special bacteria live, thanks to which marbles digest everything that their jaws can survive. However, they have one interesting feature- in a nutshell, cockroaches acquire taste qualities the food that was eaten.

So make sure that there is always fresh and varied food in the feeder - otherwise your cockroaches will start eating cardboard, wood and their fellows. It is unlikely that your chameleon will like a cockroach whose stomach is full of cardboard.

Otherwise, there are no difficulties with food - marbles, as I said, are omnivores. They can be fed with the following foods:

• fruits and vegetables - apples, pears, carrots, beets, grapes, juicy watermelon, melon and cucumbers;
• bread and cereals, cereals;
• boiled eggs;
• dry cat food;
• dry fish food.

As you can see, the question of how to feed marble cockroaches is solved simply - almost everything that you eat yourself will suit them. The main thing is to regularly put fresh food in the feeder so that arthropods are not tempted to gnaw on cardboard or engage in cannibalism.

Don't forget about the drinker. Cockroaches need to drink plenty of water to feel normal, and they come to the drinker more often than to the feeder. Without food, these creatures can live for weeks, replacing normal food with whatever gets under the mandibles. But the lack of liquid in the insectarium threatens insects with death in a couple of days. If you often leave and leave the insectarium unattended, it makes sense to install a drinker like the one they put for birds. So you will be sure that marble arthropods will not suffer from thirst.

turns out to be a very profitable business.
I want to start an additional business.
Here is infa from books on animal husbandry:

Cockroaches are one of the most common food objects for terrarium animals. Their advantages include extreme unpretentiousness in maintenance, speed of reproduction, lack of smell, aggressiveness. There is essentially only one drawback - the ability to crawl on glass.
Cockroaches are a universal food for almost all lizards and amphibians, some turtles and snakes. But their mobility and ability to hide should be taken into account, therefore it is advisable to feed cockroaches by placing them in special feeders, partially removing the limbs, or offering the animal with tweezers.

Here's what the breeders say:

Today, the cockroach is one of the most popular fodder crops, due to several qualities of this species, such as: low cost, unpretentiousness and high fecundity. In my case, for example, in 2 years a colony of 40 cockroaches has turned into an army of thousands of destroyers of everything edible, and continues to grow.

Option 2

Business idea: Breeding Madagascar cockroaches for work on holidays.

Who it's for: Everyone.

Required resources: box or aquarium, cockroach farm.

Required personal qualities Keywords: love for insects, responsibility, organizational skills, sense of humor.

Initial capital: about 500 rubles.

Recently, it has become popular to keep exotic animals and insects at home. You can earn money by breeding some of them. This also applies to exotic cockroaches.

For comfortable living and breeding, rams need to maintain a temperature of about 25 C and air humidity (it is enough to spray the aquarium with water once every two days from a spray bottle).

For reproduction, it is enough to have two individuals (male and female). The cost of a pair of cockroaches usually does not exceed 300-500 rubles, cubs can be bought for 50 rubles. Cockroaches grow very quickly and, under comfortable conditions, begin to multiply. As a rule, offspring (10-20 cockroaches) appear within a couple of months after buying a pair of “newlyweds”.

The resulting offspring can be sold (to a pet store or through an ad), or you can do more profitable and arrange cockroach races as entertainment. Yes and original gift friends will always be at hand.

How to organize cockroach races?

For competitions, you need to have several (10 -15 individuals) trained "athletes" and a cockroach track. The cockroach track looks like a large box with low sides made of transparent plastic or glass, the field is divided into treadmills, the start and finish lines are marked. You can make it yourself, or you can order or buy in a store.

Cockroaches participating in the race must be prepared in a special way and be on a special diet (usually cockroaches are not fed enough for 3-4 days before the competition).

How to implement a business idea?

You can offer your services on various corporate holidays, friendly parties, on New Year, birthdays and even weddings. If there are familiar organizers and hosts of events, you can agree on cooperation with them and try your hand, you can also advertise in the media that a new entertainment service has appeared in your city.

Each participant chooses a cockroach and cheers for it. You can come up with a funny nickname for a cockroach and encourage your athlete in every possible way. The leader must develop a program for the races, announce the start of the competition, announce the results of the races and award the winners. Having good organizational skills and a sense of humor, you can turn the competition into an unforgettable holiday for its participants.

However, it is worth remembering that it is impossible to make money bets on such races, sweepstakes in our country is prohibited by law. But to make a prize for the winner of the race is not forbidden.

There is also such a business.

My neighbors in the dacha were engaged in bloodworms back in Soviet times. They caught it in the swamps near Moscow in the summer, froze it in the freezer, and sold it at exorbitant prices in the winter. They say that back in those days they had 2-3 thousand rubles per season. Bloodworms are fed to fish, why not sell cockroaches for food? Cockroaches can be sold even in larger volumes than bloodworms, you can also grow them in large volumes.

For a long time I accidentally saw a program about animals. They told how some people, either in the USA, or somewhere else, bred cockroaches. Then they were sold for food for various pets. Cockroaches are readily eaten by almost all types of poultry, reptiles, small animals such as monkeys, and even fish or some aquatic animals. My Kuzya, when we had cockroaches, deftly caught and gnawed them. I even read somewhere that live cockroaches are shown to cats, for example, during postoperative rehabilitation. Dietary clean meat, protein and healing chitin. Cats smell the benefits and bite into them, even like valerian. Those who have tasted cockroaches say that their meat resembles the taste of shrimp. A cockroach is one of the cleanest insects.

And recently, on one of the forums, I found how someone shared their experience in breeding cockroaches. It was a Serpentarium worker. They took ordinary household cockroaches for growth. They placed them in an aquarium, and made a double side wall. It was like a sandwich: a rigid substrate and a small metal mesh into which an adult cockroach would not slip. Small wastes of today's food (large crumbs of bread, peelings, etc.) are placed between the substrate and the mesh. The mesh presses the contents and the sandwich is inserted along special guides into the aquarium wall into the slot, which is usually covered with a rubber strip (so as not to run away). Adult cockroaches can eat crumbs by biting off a piece, but they do not crawl inside. The sandwich is changed twice a week to prevent mold. There are also simpler feeders - at least crumble pieces of bread. One small crumb of bread is enough for a cockroach for a week.

Breeding (breeding, fattening, sorting)

The bottom of the aquarium, as a rule, is covered with a special mesh of such a size that eggs fall through there. The fact is that you always have to sort eggs, juveniles and adults for sale. In the process of breeding, it is necessary to immediately make a selection according to the time of the brood (about 2 weeks). Individuals with the same laying time + -1 day are identified, the rest are tried to be separated or killed. Then a certain simultaneous rate of brood is artificially created, and when the eggs are taken, the small fry does not yet appear (and when the eggs are taken, they immediately spread and they always have to be killed). After retrieval of eggs, this group of individuals can already be sold, or left for the brood of the next generation. Eggs are placed in an aquarium to hatch a new group of individuals, thus maintaining the same rate of brood, since the conditions are the same for everyone.

Cockroaches should be kept in a semi-dark room in a dark room or in the corner of a balcony. The main thing is to maintain a constant temperature and the frequency of lighting. Then the brood rate will not change significantly in many generations.

When shaking cockroaches into packaging boxes for sale (this can only be done after removing the eggs and food from the aquarium), they still scatter, there are some nimble and juveniles - “premature” or “post-term”. The fines are collected with a brush.

A proven technology is described here, but you can initially do it easier.

If there is a balcony in the room where cockroaches are bred, then it is advisable to periodically treat the perimeters and escape routes with insecticides, for example, with special crayons, so as not to create inconvenience to yourself and others.

Implementation

It is necessary to negotiate with the nearest pet stores and pet markets, paste over with ads possible places where lovers of exotic animals gather. Negotiate with zoos, serpentaria and clubs young naturalists. You can make a call or mailing to specific people from the forums of animal lovers for permanent targeted service. There are many such clients throughout the country. You can send live or dried cockroaches in sealed boxes by mail throughout the country (pre-frozen so that the cockroach does not die of hunger, losing weight). Cockroaches - accelerators of their own breed! An hour is not equal, and casinos will arrange once-traditional cockroach races for the sake of exoticism. Also, you can’t avoid the fact that you yourself will have to stand in the bird market, selling and advertising your unusual product, collecting phone numbers and addresses from potential customers. There can be many, many such people.

As you can see, a million can be made even from a trash can, without initial capital and special efforts.

Good luck, and send your cockroaches for mating and brood!