How to Keep Your Hissing Cockroaches Alive

Hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) are the one of the few species of roach often kept as a pet, rather than raised for reptile food. They are almost as hardy as their relatives though, and successfully keeping your new pets alive doesn't require any particularly special equipment or food. What hissing cockroaches do need, however, are a warm habitat and a suitable diet. You can't just put them in a cardboard box and hope for the best. Like most exotic pets, hissing cockroaches need a tank and, normally, a heater.

Things You'll Need

  • 10-gallon tank
  • Reptile heat mat
  • Aspen wood shavings or chemical-free potting compost
  • Cardboard tubes or cork bark
  • Shallow dishes
  • Plastic box with lid
  • Moss
  • Plant mister
  • Fresh produce
  • Cereal and dog kibble
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Instructions

    • 1

      Place the reptile heat mat on the surface for the tank. Put the tank on top, with the heat mat positioned underneath one end of the tank.

    • 2

      Create the cockroach habitat. Hissing cockroaches like to burrow so provide 3 to 4 inches of a safe substrate such as chemical-free potting compost. Add cardboard tubes or pieces of cork bark on top as hiding places. Include one shallow dish with an inch of water and another for food.

    • 3

      Cut a cockroach-sized hole in the plastic box, add sphagnum moss and mist until slightly damp. Replace the lid and put in the tank. This allows the cockroaches to hydrate themselves as they need to. The tank itself should be fairly dry.

    • 4

      Adjust the thermostat to maintain a temperature of about 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

    • 5

      Introduce your cockroaches. You can keep several in one tank; in fact you need a small group to stimulate breeding. Don't include dozens though, the males especially may fight and become stressed.

    • 6

      Feed the cockroaches on a varied diet of fresh fruits and vegetables supplemented with the odd bit of cereal and dog kibble.

    • 7

      Replace the water and remove any uneaten food daily.

    • 8

      Clean the tank every couple of months. Hissing cockroaches do not produce much mess. Transfer the cockroaches to a box, remove and replace the substrate and hiding places and replace the insects.