Petri's Journal Page
- Thread starter eat2muchrice
- Start date
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
This is the pet turf “fake grass” I ordered from Home Depot. It’s been in my cage for a few weeks and looks great, I do miss having live moss and when they get new trays in I’ll probably switch back. The pet turf is very thick and does not shed, it also has great drainage vents (for peeing pets) that allow most of the water to drain through. Cost only $4.33 per sq ft, but has to be special ordered and thanks for Home Depots great customer service I waited a month to find out they lost it in the back warehouse. Also the smallest order I could make was in 5 ft sections $35 total, but that’s enough to make 2 or 3 mats so I can easily swap them when cleaning.
I know people will ask so the answer is NO, I cup feed crickets and roaches and worms are in a special feeding dish so I have not lost any bugs in it. Also cleaning is easy, diluted chlorine and hose off in the shower or outside. Also cleaning poop is easy, just make sure you check every day for fresh poop and use tissue papper to pick it up. When the poop is fresh is will suck right up into the tissue.
I know people will ask so the answer is NO, I cup feed crickets and roaches and worms are in a special feeding dish so I have not lost any bugs in it. Also cleaning is easy, diluted chlorine and hose off in the shower or outside. Also cleaning poop is easy, just make sure you check every day for fresh poop and use tissue papper to pick it up. When the poop is fresh is will suck right up into the tissue.
Last edited by a moderator:
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
Here are a few pictures of Petri showing off his colors, I pissed him off trying to use the “stick” method getting him out of his cage. He did not like that stick.
Last edited by a moderator:
Vegas Chad
Avid Member
Very nice thread! Also... He - He looks to be a she. A very nice she too!
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
haha, He is just very fat.
Here is an old picture of his spur. I'm glad you like the thread and thanks for the comment, I'll be updating on my roach army soon.
Last edited by a moderator:
Vegas Chad
Avid Member
HA well ill be a son of a gun. Mazel Tov, its a boy!
PattyCake
Member
Here are a few pictures of Petri showing off his colors, I pissed him off trying to use the “stick” method getting him out of his cage. He did not like that stick.
The "stick" method always seems to end badly for me. Archimedes absolutely despises it!
Amazing thread, looking forward to more updates on Petri
Last edited by a moderator:
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
The "stick" method always seems to end badly for me. Archimedes absolutely despises it!
Thanks! I enjoy making journals for my pets and reading peoples comments.
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
We (I) decided it was time to start breeding our own food for Petri, crickets starting costing us over $40 a month. Don’t plan on cutting out crickets, but after hearing and reading great things about Dubia roaches I thought I’d give it a shot. The idea is to slowly change these to his primary food 60-80%. After a ton of researching and watching videos it was time to start my “roach hotel” or is it called “roach motel”? Heck I’m calling it a “Roach Condo”.
So first thing first, I got a plastic container bin and used insulation tape to help secure a small heating pad to the bottom. I know my container is small compared to what others use, my thought is this is going to be in my garage and need to keep as much heat located into a central area. My solution is to create two of these roach condo's, one for mating/breeding and the other for raising/feeding.
These are my feeding trays made from ice cube...trays cut in half, I had extra laying around the house. The trays worked out great, I can separate all my dry foods, fresh vegetables, fruits and water crystals. I also sanded the tops and inside the cups to give nice traction for the roaches, while I was at it I also sanded the inside bottom of the container bin.
For ventilation I drilled four large holes on the top lid, but saved the cutout circles of the holes for covers. I attached them to some cord so I won’t lose them and now I will be able to better control heat and humidity. After that I cut and hot glued screen mesh to cover the open holes. This is what the final project looks like, now I have to make another.
I found these weather hygrometer/thermometer with probes for $8 each on amazon, so I tossed them into my containers.
Finally for some extra insulation during cold nights I coved the whole thing with this box.
Now I just had to wait for my roaches.
So first thing first, I got a plastic container bin and used insulation tape to help secure a small heating pad to the bottom. I know my container is small compared to what others use, my thought is this is going to be in my garage and need to keep as much heat located into a central area. My solution is to create two of these roach condo's, one for mating/breeding and the other for raising/feeding.
These are my feeding trays made from ice cube...trays cut in half, I had extra laying around the house. The trays worked out great, I can separate all my dry foods, fresh vegetables, fruits and water crystals. I also sanded the tops and inside the cups to give nice traction for the roaches, while I was at it I also sanded the inside bottom of the container bin.
For ventilation I drilled four large holes on the top lid, but saved the cutout circles of the holes for covers. I attached them to some cord so I won’t lose them and now I will be able to better control heat and humidity. After that I cut and hot glued screen mesh to cover the open holes. This is what the final project looks like, now I have to make another.
I found these weather hygrometer/thermometer with probes for $8 each on amazon, so I tossed them into my containers.
Finally for some extra insulation during cold nights I coved the whole thing with this box.
Now I just had to wait for my roaches.
Last edited by a moderator:
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
I made the order online for my roaches at dubiaroaches, my thinking was to get 2 adult pairs, 25 extra large for breeding and 100 smalls to start introducing them to Petri. These things are expensive so I’m glad I’ll be breeding my own. Here is the arrive day, my son was so excited, he loves roaches? I think because of the Disney movie Wallie, every time he gets to hold them he keeps saying “awww so cute!” haha love this kid.
Here is the unboxing of 100 smalls, it also included 3 adult pairs. Dumped them into roach condo #2.
I opened the box for my extra large nymphs, my son started to pluck them out one by one and toss them into the bin. As I was keeping track of male and females I really stated to notice he was grabbing all adult males. This was one of those WTF moments, male, male, male and kept on counting full grown adult males, my end count I only had TWO females. This is what it says on their website “Only a few weeks from being adults, they are also good for starting a Dubai colony” and “All Dubia roach nymphs are mix of male and female.” I was pissed, really! After I cleaned up I went inside to send out an e-mail to the company.
The next day I called and got no response, tomorrow was thanksgiving so I knew I would have to wait. Called again on black Friday with no answer, I knew I would have to wait till over the weekend. Monday rolls by and I called, nothing....grrrr, and then finally I receive a return call moments later. I tell him the deal and he was kind and quickly offered an apology, he said they must of made a mistake and their shipments are of random sex 40-60% females, he stated he would need to speak to his partner before sending a new shipment. Later he e-mailed requesting a picture of the roaches, I relied with the one posted above and he agreed to ship me new females.
Here you can tell the difference in male and female by the last segment of their abdomen, females have a wider segment then the males.
Week later the new females arrive, cracked open the box and they hooked me up! Inside were extra large nymphs and adult females, I was so stoked. This is really going to get my roach army going, the final count on this was 7 males – 35 FEMALES! I’m glad that was over and have learned, no matter who you order feeders from, make sure you let them know if you want to breed or not. I do understand that if my first order was for feeding, why waist valuable females when the breeding ratio should be about 5 to1. I took all my extra adult males from the first order and gave them to my local petco employee’s, they were excited and offer to hook up extra crickets when needed. All in all, this became a good outcome.
Here is the unboxing of 100 smalls, it also included 3 adult pairs. Dumped them into roach condo #2.
I opened the box for my extra large nymphs, my son started to pluck them out one by one and toss them into the bin. As I was keeping track of male and females I really stated to notice he was grabbing all adult males. This was one of those WTF moments, male, male, male and kept on counting full grown adult males, my end count I only had TWO females. This is what it says on their website “Only a few weeks from being adults, they are also good for starting a Dubai colony” and “All Dubia roach nymphs are mix of male and female.” I was pissed, really! After I cleaned up I went inside to send out an e-mail to the company.
The next day I called and got no response, tomorrow was thanksgiving so I knew I would have to wait. Called again on black Friday with no answer, I knew I would have to wait till over the weekend. Monday rolls by and I called, nothing....grrrr, and then finally I receive a return call moments later. I tell him the deal and he was kind and quickly offered an apology, he said they must of made a mistake and their shipments are of random sex 40-60% females, he stated he would need to speak to his partner before sending a new shipment. Later he e-mailed requesting a picture of the roaches, I relied with the one posted above and he agreed to ship me new females.
Here you can tell the difference in male and female by the last segment of their abdomen, females have a wider segment then the males.
Week later the new females arrive, cracked open the box and they hooked me up! Inside were extra large nymphs and adult females, I was so stoked. This is really going to get my roach army going, the final count on this was 7 males – 35 FEMALES! I’m glad that was over and have learned, no matter who you order feeders from, make sure you let them know if you want to breed or not. I do understand that if my first order was for feeding, why waist valuable females when the breeding ratio should be about 5 to1. I took all my extra adult males from the first order and gave them to my local petco employee’s, they were excited and offer to hook up extra crickets when needed. All in all, this became a good outcome.
Last edited by a moderator:
distortionz
Avid Member
Gotta say I really enjoy this journal and your cage looks amazing.. I'm going to make a cricket cup like this myself once I have a chameleon big enough to need it lol.. my thought though is have you ever went to lizardlandscapes website? They do a lot of stuff made from polystyrene and grout painted and sealed off. made to look natural like rock or wood. I actually already have dabbled in it and made a back wall for a cage, a waterfall, and a pot for a live plant. But I think I will do that around the cricket feeder and make it look like tree bark or stone. When I get around to it I will post a pic.. I also would like to breed dubias.. however my girlfriend will not let me do it inside the house lol.. where do you live? I considered doing the same with the heat tape in the crate but here in Ohio's harsh winter's I don't think that will cut it in my garage to keep it up to breeding temps.
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
No, I have never been to that website yet, but will soon. I have created a custom scape for my king snake, the picture is older so it doesn't show my "skylander portal" water dish, I'll post a picture of that up if you like. I did the background, shelf and planter out of extra styrofoam, coated it in grout, painted and sealed it. I do airbrush and was planning on painting vines and leave on my cricket cup, probably not anytime soon. Please do share you pictures here, I would like to see them and as for breeding dubias, I live in CA so my winters don't drop down like in Ohio. Good luck and thanks for the comment, I'm really glad you like this thread.
PattyCake
Member
picture is older so it doesn't show my "skylander portal" water dish, I'll post a picture of that up if you like
Skylander portal water dish? I'm guessing you got that from your son?
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
Skylander portal water dish? I'm guessing you got that from your son?
I can blame all our lego's castles on my son, buy not Skylanders as he was not born yet, blame Skylanders on the wife
Last edited by a moderator:
PattyCake
Member
I can blame all our lego's castles on my son, buy not Skylanders as he was not born yet, blame Skylanders on the wife
On the wife?
That made me laugh
Last edited by a moderator:
distortionz
Avid Member
Where did you find the valves for the dripper and what are they called I just went to like 3 hardware stores and even showed them pictures and they look at me like I'm stupid
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
I used air control valves for aquariums, got mine from petco, they were on clearance. They are cheap, but don’t work that great as I have to adjust them every few days. Hardware stores have “drip valves” for gardening, those should be much better quality, I’ve seen them there and would recommend picking those up.
distortionz
Avid Member
I need something like that for the bottom of my baby bin as I've been having water build up in the bottom.. killing my hydeis and I worry one of the babies will get under the screen somehow and drown.. I have been having to wipe it out daily.. it's getting old.. I think those would work fine and I was looking for drip valves in the gardening section at home depot and 2 Lowe's and no luck
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
They have them, drip valves are very common items. Good luck, I'm sure you will find something to work either way.
eat2muchrice
Avid Member
Here are some new pictures of Petri, he is now 5-6 Months and growing fast. These pictures are right after his third shed with us and his colors are really starting to show.
Last edited by a moderator:
