Meet "junk" !!

[MonsterPyxie]

Finally getting around to getting pictures up! My computer has been down for two months, so its been a little rough, but I can finally introduce this little monster.


This is the day I received the frog from "reptimart.com" very good interaction with them, and wouldn't hesitate to buy another pyxie from them. I paid $30 for the frog, and $35 for next day air shipping.
(PLEASE excuse the cell phone pictures. My nice camera was full of stuff waiting to be uploaded to my computer while it was down )

Aug 16th 2011
a little on the skinny side.


this is a bit later, you can see how he really plumped up.
Aug 25th 2011




and this is from tonight, after murdering about 25 medium size lobster roaches, with my "nice" camera. Make sure you click on the picture to enlarge them!

Sept 12th 2011






this is his living quarters. Its been a month, so its due for new dirt. As you can see he has MANY burrowing holes, and normally stays under the dirt 95% of the day.












Go ahead and leave your thoughts, I'm open to criticism. Also if you'd like to guess sex that's fine too, but don't struggle for it. I'm honestly not too concerned about the sex at the moment. I have been bitten so they say by these little monsters. I want to own and care for at least two more. So I'm sure out of 3 I should get at least 1 male and 1 female. Breeding them would be a interest and possibility in the future.



Here is also some pictures of my roach colony's. When I bought my first colony I was mislead by the owner of the roaches and told they where dubia with SOME lobster. I believe this was the owner not knowing any better, or trying to trick me. I seem to remember there being a FEW dubia, but they have all since been devoured from the looks of it.

These lobster, the medium sized ones, are Junk's staple diet at the moment. I will move him to the dubia when I feel they are at good numbers.





It should be noted that they are due to be cleaned, and the vasaline needs to go. with the higher heats im giving them, it just runs down the sides and kills a few. I will attempt to line the top with packing tape to stop these from climbing out. Also If its not obvious, I removed all the egg crate, and tubes to get a good picture of there numbers. I would guess there is around 800 or so atleast.


Here are my dubia I just got going.

Lots of pictures, but thats because im proud of these guys. Can't wait to see them explode. I find roaches pretty interesting!























I would guess I have around 450-500 dubia at the moment. Two shipments from two separate breeders.

The roaches and pyxie are kept in our small bathroom, with a space heater getting the room up to 90 degrees, the roachs are around 95-99 degrees because of how I have them stacked in front of the heater, and the pyxie being on the floor and in the corner a little, has his dirt at 80deg on the bottom, top soil is 83, and the air inside is just at 85-87deg. The pyxie can get up to 90 on warm days.


So, thanks for looking, and let me know what you think. Any advice is appreciated!

Rob

[Sublime]

Cool thread Rob! Junk is definitely growing and looking well fed. What the hell is that skull thing inside of his enclosure? Haha. Just a couple of tips for the roaches, don't want to offend your setup at all. Feed them fresh fruits or vegetables once a week and then take the un eaten rest of the fruit or vegetables out after a day or two to prevent mold or bacteria growth that can end up killing off your roach colony. Also for roach chow besides the fresh fruits and vegetables offered I have a couple ingredients you can grind up in a coffee grinder: Dog food, cat food, kelp tablets, chicken feed, baby rice cereal, whole grain oats, fish flakes, milk powder, soy protein, dried alfalfa, ferret food. All high protein foods for your roaches and they'll love it, which will benefit your frog tremendously. That along with water gel crystals will have your colonies exploding with obviously monthly cleanings. Your temps are perfect for breeding them by the way.

That last shot is cool with the freshly molted nymph dubia. I'm not quite sure what a space heater is, but is it under the tank? If it is you might want to consider re-arranging a different heat source so he can spend time in the water as well instead of 95% of the time being burrowed under dirt for heat. Sorry if I come off as rude or anything, I'm trying to be more careful after that spencer guy lol. I think you're a cool guy, so no hard feelings. I'm open to criticism too! I'll post some pics of my pixie in a few days in a warm water bath when I need to clean his tank and you can give me some thoughts on my little guy too . Take it easy.

[BG]

I'll tell you what guys ,you both are doing a great job. Rob your pixie is growing fast .By the looks of your Dubia .they are on they money. Mark we need guys like you that are straight forward and honest. Keep on telling the truth. It's the only way. You know your stuff. You are also very helpful. Every body could do what ever they want. We need you,and yourknowledge..Lol

[Sublime]

Thanks George for the compliment! No where near as experienced as someone yourself, but hopefully one day... Your frog collection amazes me too haha. I would of dropped the economy even more if I was doin' what you're doing .

[MonsterPyxie]

Cool thread Rob! Junk is definitely growing and looking well fed. What the hell is that skull thing inside of his enclosure? Haha. Just a couple of tips for the roaches, don't want to offend your setup at all. Feed them fresh fruits or vegetables once a week and then take the un eaten rest of the fruit or vegetables out after a day or two to prevent mold or bacteria growth that can end up killing off your roach colony. Also for roach chow besides the fresh fruits and vegetables offered I have a couple ingredients you can grind up in a coffee grinder: Dog food, cat food, kelp tablets, chicken feed, baby rice cereal, whole grain oats, fish flakes, milk powder, soy protein, dried alfalfa, ferret food. All high protein foods for your roaches and they'll love it, which will benefit your frog tremendously. That along with water gel crystals will have your colonies exploding with obviously monthly cleanings. Your temps are perfect for breeding them by the way.

That last shot is cool with the freshly molted nymph dubia. I'm not quite sure what a space heater is, but is it under the tank? If it is you might want to consider re-arranging a different heat source so he can spend time in the water as well instead of 95% of the time being burrowed under dirt for heat. Sorry if I come off as rude or anything, I'm trying to be more careful after that spencer guy lol. I think you're a cool guy, so no hard feelings. I'm open to criticism too! I'll post some pics of my pixie in a few days in a warm water bath when I need to clean his tank and you can give me some thoughts on my little guy too . Take it easy.

haha, the skull thing I won't get rid of. I bought it with my very first herp years back. I think I got it from petco? or petsmart? Not too sure. I have memories with that thing, even though its pretty much useless since it doesn't hold much water, and doesn't really have room for anything to "bask" on for heat.

as far as the food, im still experimenting. I'm giving them potatoes right now that im leaving in there as they seem to keep chewing on them. Then the oranges they are getting twice a week. For protien they are getting soft cat treats that come in a little bag. Bag says they are 30% protien. Also getting regular catfood since its higher in protien also, but they seem to eat that too slow. Today we have to go shopping so I told the wife we need to stop at the thrift store to look for a coffee grinder. So If I find one for cheap I'll start grinding everything up.

as far as roach chow, I'm just not sure what to mix in. I was thinking cat food, oats, fish flakes, then maybe some sweet cereal?

The water crystals im still on the fence about. I see some people saying that the salt or whatever in the gel is bad for reptiles and since the roaches climb all over it, its on there exoskeleton and gets transferred to the reptiles easy, and into there water. I need to look into it more. So i've been soaking the potatoes in water before putting them in for the roachs, and also the oranges are nice and juicy.

the last shot is actually a just matured male. I watched him pull out of his old exoskeleton. I took a few pictures but they didn't come out great. I'll post them up when I get home from work though. Just thought it was pretty cool looking

At first I thought the roach was dead, almost threw him away thinking the molting process killed him, but he was just playing dead on me!

Not sure what else you would call a space heater, but its just electrical heat with a little fan that heats the air itself. So the entire bathroom is at 90 degrees. the roaches get a little hotter because they are closer to the heater. its not the most efficient and will probably cost a lot compared to heating mats, but at the moment its working perfect.

he seems to hit the water at night a lot when im getting ready for work. The water is always dirty in the morning so I assume he gets his soaking time in during the night. The water in those pictures had just been changed.

No offense taken. It takes a lot to hurt my feelings, U.S. Army will do that to ya, and any advice to help me out caring for these animals is appreciated!

I'll tell you what guys ,you both are doing a great job. Rob your pixie is growing fast .By the looks of your Dubia .they are on they money. Mark we need guys like you that are straight forward and honest. Keep on telling the truth. It's the only way. You know your stuff. You are also very helpful. Every body could do what ever they want. We need you,and yourknowledge..Lol

Thanks George! The frog is really starting to take off, I think the roaches are doing the job of making him massive fast. Honestly every time I look at him he seems to be bigger!

I'm as honest as it gets, but come off a little brash. So i might just hurt some feelings, but oh well, haha

Rob

[Sublime]

Yeah that combination of food should be good roach chow, they love that sweet cereal too. For the water crystals, you can find them in any plant nursery.
Their non-toxic polyacrylamide polymer dry crystals that are super absorbent. It's nothing more than just holding water, it's fine for your roaches. Oh ok that's cool that he's in the water at night, my mistake. I'm just used to my guy always being in the water 24/7, but he's finally started going to the other side of his tank and sleeping during the day in the coco fiber.

[BG]

10000000%. I got the 3 pound jar. I'm anal when it comes to things.lol

[Sublime]

Haha nice.

[BG]

I just power fed my dubia. they got bananas,blueberries,apples,cheese doodles. The crickets got corn,banana,raw chopped turkey.

[Eel Noob]

Nice dark pyxie.

I used to raised roaches as well but sold my colony and now my wife refuses to let me start up another colony lol.

[Jace]

I am seriously jealous of your roach colony. I can't get dubias in Canada, and my few attempts to breed the hissers I found, while successful on one hand, just took to flippin' long for them to reach a size where either of my ABF would even glance at them. So, now I have hissers for pets.

[BG]

Bummer!!

Nice dark pyxie.

I used to raised roaches as well but sold my colony and now my wife refuses to let me start up another colony lol.

[MonsterPyxie]

Yeah that combination of food should be good roach chow, they love that sweet cereal too. For the water crystals, you can find them in any plant nursery.
Their non-toxic polyacrylamide polymer dry crystals that are super absorbent. It's nothing more than just holding water, it's fine for your roaches. Oh ok that's cool that he's in the water at night, my mistake. I'm just used to my guy always being in the water 24/7, but he's finally started going to the other side of his tank and sleeping during the day in the coco fiber.

sweet, going to have to get me some.
good to know. I will have to pick me up some. I'm assuming if its good to use on veggies that you grow and eat, it should be just fine for roaches and reptiles

I just power fed my dubia. they got bananas,blueberries,apples,cheese doodles. The crickets got corn,banana,raw chopped turkey.

cheese doodles? Not to sound like a prude, but all the chemicals and artificial junk in thouse I would think would be bad for them?

I remember with the rats if you fed them "junk food" it was supposed to lead to tumors, also tap water even was found to cause tumors in rats.

also with the mix of fruit, are you blending them all up into a paste? or just throwing them in there? about how long does it last?

I gotta try some fruit for sure!

Nice dark pyxie.

I used to raised roaches as well but sold my colony and now my wife refuses to let me start up another colony lol.

Thanks! hes starting to get some yellow on the front there, I am digging his colors so far

The roaches are a lot of fun for me, I like just tinkering with them, and trying to adjust stuff. No luck on the coffee grinder, but the wife is going out tomorrow so she said she would find me one. Then i can really start to play with there diet.

The wife was watching me clean out some of the vasiline today from the dubias container, and I was all excited because there was about a dozen or so new baby nymphs running around just glancing around, which I'm pretty sure where not in there yesterday. So I was happy to see them already dropping babies. The wife goes "aww there kinda cute!" and even I gave her a "what the hell?" look, haha. I was like "uhh, there still roaches, dunno about them being cute, hun" haha

I am seriously jealous of your roach colony. I can't get dubias in Canada, and my few attempts to breed the hissers I found, while successful on one hand, just took to flippin' long for them to reach a size where either of my African Bullfrog would even glance at them. So, now I have hissers for pets.

haha, I dont know about jealous. Its still a small colony. Me and the wife where talking about it, and once the lobster are gone, and the numbers of the dubia start improving, we are going to move them to a 50gal rubbermaid container.

I would be kinda proud to raise about...... oh....... 50,000 of them

I'll try and contact different breeders, and add in new dubia to the mix, so that way im not trying to make massive numbers off the same "line" or "family" of roaches. Gotta buy the mid sized dubia, that way I don't go for the "large" and get some old timer dubia that are done with breeding and die in a couple months.

should be fun Might be able to make some money selling them too!