Pyxie Project Update

[Jace]

Jeff, I just recently started feeding my biggest male Pyxie, Gherkin, hissing roaches and I'm not sure whether he has increased in size or not, but he sure loves them! He even snubbed his usually worms to go after the roaches. I plan on breeding more from my tiny colony in the spring and letting some of them grow to feed to him and my other two.

[Jeff Kennedy]

Oh yeah! We are already seeing in our Pyxie's that love roaches.....they REALLY love them!!! These are the ones that are growing at a more rapid pace as well. Some of them are hesitant to get on board and only want to eat crickets. It's strange how each one has their own personality and favors one food over the other. One of the females completely hates me!!! She will raise her head almost completely back and look up at me after I place her in the feeding bin. She will then fill up with air and strike at my finger when I put it in there. It is hilarious!!! As far as the hissers, I am kind of excited to get them just to have them myself. I want to see what these huge adults look like. I won't be feeding those for awhile anyways since their exoskeleton is so hard but we will begin feeding the babies and juvies out in December it looks like.

[XSpringer]

Hey Xavier, Yes Ella and I recently ventured in to the world of vending at expos. We are enjoying it immensely and probably will continue vending. As attached as we are growing to these guys (and gals), it is a lot of work daily and a lot of $$$ in food. It is unrealistic to think that we could keep them all forever, so to answer your question, Yes, we will be selling them in the future. We will begin with the females first and this will occur probably as soon as springtime arrives. By our estimation, we have about (10) females at the moment. We know that this could change as they grow over the next couple of months but feel like we have a pretty decent handle on the sexing of them this young. By spring, it will be defenite who is male and who is female. We will be hanging on to a couple of the lady's for another project and then donating a handful back to The Frog Ranch, so that Kim can insert them in to his group of breeding ladies. What is left after that will then be offered up for sale. As far as the males, we are doing this study to try and see if we can influence and produce some 10" monsters. We will be hanging on to them much longer and continue to experiment with their diet and monitor their growth. Once we are confident that they are done growing, then these too will be offered up for sale. When it is all said and done, we will be waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy upside down on our investment but we are doing it for the experience. We are still throwing money in to the project as this week, we just purchased a large, established hisser colony so that we can insert it into the study to see what effects different roach species might have in regards to the Pyxie's growth. This was suggested by Kevin on this board and we thought it was worth checking in to. This is as much a part of your guys life as it is ours. Although we are the ones investing the money and resources, we are open to ideas and suggestions. We are doing this for all the Pyxie lovers out their so give us your input when you have some!!!

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Good stuff Jeff. I can't imagine your food bill yet I can't speak for much (my 33 ball pythons cost $150+ each month to feed). Thanks so much for what your doing. So many people will appreciate it. I think its awesome that you'll send some back to Kim.

Xavier

[Jeff Kennedy]

It is the least we can do. Working with Kim has been absolutely amazing and he is soooooo generous. We are thrilled to call him a friend and keep in contact weekly. He has provided info, insight, expertise and most of all, our specimens for had it not been for The Frog Ranch, we never could have done this. Unfortuneately, we have dealt with our fair share of bad apples (no pun intended) in this hobby and dealing with Kim has been a breath of fresh air.

[Jace]

I've had my hissers (started out with 3...now have more! ) and I love watching them just for them. My daughter has claimed two of the males and has them in her bedroom even. Gherkin, because of his size, is not overly impressed with crickets anymore, but he loved the hissers! My only problem with them is that unless you have a large, established colony, it takes a long time to get the necessary sizes. Of course, now that I have more females, I am going to try and breed them at specific intervals so that I have a variety of sizes for not only my Bullfrogs, but also my toads and geckos.

The one female sounds like mine. Obi is about 4" but can puff herself up to twice her size almost. And she hisses louder than the roaches. I just love the personality though. Gherkin is so laid back and likes to be touched; Kadesh is a hider and grumpy; Obi is like a teenager girl and wants everything her way. Between my 13 year old and my frog, I've got my hands full!

[Jeff Kennedy]

Jo-Anna, LOL on the girl comment. We actually purchased a colony of 8-10 thousand hissers. I know right?!?!? Was lucky enough to find a guy that had his colony for several years and was looking to part with it. It wasn't cheap though

[Jace]

WOW! I had to beg for the original 3...and they were 99 cents a piece. I think I got my $3 back with the two batches of young that were birthed. I have to admit, that must be the sight to see-10, 000 hissers. What a rush! Of course, I love insects almost as much as frogs. With that colony and a steady supply of all sized young, you are going to have some monster frogs on your hands. I think I might send my guys down to you just to fatten up some!

[Jeff Kennedy]

HaHaHa!!!!! We'd surely do it if you had a way to get them down here!! As far as the hissers, I am thinking (hoping) that with that amount on hands, I will not only have the endless supply of food but will also be able to make my money back on the original purchase. I am finding that you just can't go wrong with roaches. Each time a momma gives birth it's money (or food) in your pocket!

[Kevin1]

I used to love playing with my dubia roach colony. The way the function as a colony is so intriguing to me. I've been searching for a good replacement dubia species that won't cause me allergies. I miss all the food lol and the entertainment.

[Jace]

My females love to climb on the top of their wire lid, and it makes a rather creepy sound. Watching horror movies late at night and hearing that...I like a good scare, but I kept one of the lamps on anyway!!

Jeff, do you think with my small colony I should worry about all the interbreeding? After all, I'm pretty sure the original three were two brothers and a sister, or does it not really matter with insects?

[Jeff Kennedy]

Hi Jo-Anna! I don't think that it matters with insects but I could be wrong. I mean, after all. All we want them to do besides breed is to get there guts full and get ate so I don't think that it really matters how smart they are or whatnot . HaHa!!! No but really, I can't answer that 100%. I know that with my dubia colony, it probably has at least 16 different bloodlines in it because I purchased from 16 different people to build it. If you think that I can get them to you, I'll send you a batch of hissers when ours come in. That will ease your worries about having roaches that date their sister

[Jace]

Maybe I've watched too many mutant horror movies...I'm envisioning inbred cockroaches with 6 antennae and screeching like fighting cats!! I'm sure it will be fine. I'll check with the petstore I got the original three from and see if they can get me a few more-that way I don't have to sleep with one eye open!

[Jeff Kennedy]

Just listen for a banjo being plucked in your hisser bin. When you hear that, you know that you have some imbreeding going on and it's time to seperate the brothers from the sisters.

[Kevin1]

Roaches should be fine Jace. I've read many many articles and scientif research papers on roaches and not one of them said that any of their colonies suffered from inbreeding except for one which wasn't too bad. She said after years and years of having a colony this scientist noticed a reduction in the number offspring produced by individual females.
They were dubia and wild caught. When first acquired, the females regularly had between 40-50 offspring each time. After years the litter size was averaging 30. She imported more wild dubia and the numbers went back up. Inbreeding isn't really a problem in many "less advanced" organisms. Some scientist believe inbreeding is better for a population to rid the gene pool of inferior genes.I would get into it more but I've already typed quite a bit there.

[Jace]

Thanks, Kevin. I wasn't overly concerned, more curious than anything. I have kept several females, and have 4 males capable of helping me out (1 of my original males died already and the other is in the process of dying), so I hope to have more babies being born. I have separated them for the time being as I don't have the necessary setup for heat for them at the moment. But I have a plan come spring!!

Jeff, once you get your colony in, I would love to see how you house them and everything. I hope to have a more substantial (though NOT 10, 000) colony by the end of next year, but I don't like having escapees like I have been. Best of luck!

[Jeff Kennedy]

Hey Jo-Anna, I am going to keep them the same way as my dubia with just a couple differences. They will go in a large, dark Sterilte plastic tub that has had an opening cut in the top with screen glued down. It will have a heat mat placed inside with no substrate and egg flats for them to climb on. Up top, I will have the standard layer of clear packing tape (which keeps the dubia babies at bay) as well as a layer of vasoline above that. I have heard that the vasoline can break down with elevated temps and have heard that "bug barrier" is the best. If that ends up being the case and I have some Houdini's on my hand, then I will invest in the bug barrier product.

[Jace]

The vaseline slows them done and is more effective with the adults. The babies can squeeze through anything and can hide in the oddest places. If you remove anything from the bin, double check every nook and cranny for a six-legged surprise! Canada does not allow dubia roaches to be kept or bred, so I hope I can have a long term hisser colony to provide a safe and healthy change to the worms and crickets most of my guys get now.