Banana01
Songster
Hello. I have had some luck raising cockroaches for treats, and wondering if anyone else has done so what your setup is. I started off watching some youtube videos about how to raise cockroaches as apparently it is common for lizard owners to raise them to feed their pets.
If you've never seen a chicken and a cockroach, it's like watching a t-rex vs a cow. Cockroaches also have extremely high protein at 70%, compared to beef jerky for people that has 65%. It's definitely one of their favorite treats.
When it comes time to feed them, they become super excited and make the most happy chicken sounds, you don't ever hear them get that excited often. The mothers love to catch them with their babies and the most anti-boredom activity we have is cockroach feeding time.
Crickets are similar, because they even live with the cockroaches but I also have seperate cricket growing places. You tend to find large spiders in there as well, all of which the chickens will clean up for you when it's time to feed them.
If anyone is interested I can share how I raise them, it is hands off meaning I keep a cockroach farm that they live in, but I don't have to do any extra work. All that is required is a dry, dark place where cockroaches normally like to hang out.
I'm interested to hear if others raise cockroaches and if there is anyone, I'd love to hear your setups especially if they are closed systems. I tried a closed system meaning the cockroaches are enclosed in a box, but ended up switching to an open system because my setup didn't work. I can raise enough right now to feed a couple broods of babies and several adults about twice a month but I'm not really even trying. I could easily quadruple my capacity.
If you've never seen a chicken and a cockroach, it's like watching a t-rex vs a cow. Cockroaches also have extremely high protein at 70%, compared to beef jerky for people that has 65%. It's definitely one of their favorite treats.
When it comes time to feed them, they become super excited and make the most happy chicken sounds, you don't ever hear them get that excited often. The mothers love to catch them with their babies and the most anti-boredom activity we have is cockroach feeding time.
Crickets are similar, because they even live with the cockroaches but I also have seperate cricket growing places. You tend to find large spiders in there as well, all of which the chickens will clean up for you when it's time to feed them.
If anyone is interested I can share how I raise them, it is hands off meaning I keep a cockroach farm that they live in, but I don't have to do any extra work. All that is required is a dry, dark place where cockroaches normally like to hang out.
I'm interested to hear if others raise cockroaches and if there is anyone, I'd love to hear your setups especially if they are closed systems. I tried a closed system meaning the cockroaches are enclosed in a box, but ended up switching to an open system because my setup didn't work. I can raise enough right now to feed a couple broods of babies and several adults about twice a month but I'm not really even trying. I could easily quadruple my capacity.
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