Wet Food and Water Requirements

Wet food (vegetables and fruits) and moisture must be made available to cockroaches at all times. If water is not freely available the breeding efficiency of your cockroaches will reduce or they will die.

Fruit and Vegetable types; Generally speaking vegetables are better than fruits as they last longer and don’t ferment as quickly. Most vegetables can be used including, carrots, sweet potato, pumpkin, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower (and leaves), and beans. Root vegetables are superior to green vegetables as they contain a high nutrient/energy ratio and will generally last longer. The standard vegetable mixture I use are equal quantities of carrot and sweet potato due to their longevity, price and availability. I supplement this mix with other household leftovers. Vegetables to avoid include apple cores (seeds contain cyanide), avocado and citrus.

We have a lot more to tell you about how often to feed and things you should avoid feeding your cockroaches. There is too much information to give you in a single email, but you can get all the details from our Food and Water Requirements page.

Traditional Food and Water Containers

There are a number of ways that people use to provide food and water to their cockroaches (bowls, water crystals, cotton wool etc). Unfortunately many of these methods often get dirty and unhygienic quickly, or need to be topped up daily for a large active colony. An active colony in a 70L (18.49 gallons) container will drink 700ml or more (16.91-23.67 oz) of water/week in hot weather.

For full details of traditional methods to dispense food and water see our Food and Water Containers page.

Efficient Food and Watering Dispensers

Some web sites show how to build some basic water and food dispensers, but I have found them to be unstable (fall over) or not reliable. Water dispensers often stop working as they develop a vacuum when the water drains. There is nothing worse than lifting a container for cleaning and having 500ml of water spilling onto a thick layer of detritus which needs to be scooped out. It is very frustrating and makes a messy job even messier. A stable, reliable, cheap and robust food and water dispenser system is essential….luckily we have spent years refining our design, and have worked this out for you.

Automated dispensers allow food and water to be dispensed as required, with refilling occurring only 7-14 days. If you go away for extended periods (up to 14-21 days) the size of the reservoirs can be increased to cater for longer periods. Our unique dispensers are easy to build, inexpensive (made from recycled household materials), durable and designed not to spill, preventing a big mess.

For full details on how our Food and Water Dispensers improve breeding efficiency see our Food and Water Containers page.

Remember with our productive systems the average family (two children family) can turn their scrap vegies into $1400 worth of crickets…or even better you can add extra containers and make more money. To save yourself thousands of dollars and lots of work, our manuals can be purchased from Here. In tomorrow’s lesson we will look and providing dry foods, and gut loading/dusting. We will be in touch soon.