Quote Originally Posted by MarkS View Post
Often your best bet is to get a starter colony from someone local otherwise you can end up paying a lot for them. A couple of key things to keep in mind. NEVER feed off the adult females, it can take 6 months for a roach to become an adult and start reproducing, if you feed the big ones off your colony can crash pretty quickly. (I have a friend to whom I had given several starter colonies to until she learned this lesson) Keep them warm, they don't produce well in cold or even room temperature. I keep mine on top of my snake racks where it's always pretty warm. I prefer to feed lots of fruits and veggies for moisture, but don't overdo it or you'll end up with a fruit fly colony too, also if they start to mold it can be very bad for the colony. Make sure the previous fruits/veg are consumed before adding more. This is a lot easier to do once the colony has gotten big enough, with most of my colonies I can toss in a couple of chopped apples or sliced up oranges and they're completely gone the next day
100% agree with you on keeping your adult females...they are the bread and butter of your colony. I keep my reptile room around 80-82 degrees and just keep my bins close to the oil radiator heater I setup in the room. I feed mine the powder left over from my rat food, carrots, apples, potatoes, and oranges. I also put in water crystals to help with humidity and provide a source of water. I've bought from several places. Here is an online breeder of roaches that I have used that does have starter colonies available: http://www.buydubiaroaches.com/forsale.html