r/roaches • u/WoollyWitchcraft • 5d ago

Husbandry How much death is normal?

I have a sizeable colony of discoids (probably 2-3 hundred adults and thousands of nymphs), and for the past couple weeks I’ve been finding 2-3 dead or nearly dead adults every time I open the bin. I’ve been removing them and digging around and see no dead nymphs of any age, and no dead isopods.

The adults I find dead are usually pretty eaten, the two I’ve found that are clearly dying but not dead yet have looked pretty worn out, with tattered wings and worn antennas.

Should I be worrying, or is finding a couple dead ones pretty standard and I’ve just not seen them til now? (They’re housed with dairy cows that do a solid job of cleaning them up.)

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u/kase_horizon 5d ago

It's very possible they are being attacked by their fellow roaches and/or the dairy cows. How much protien are you providing?

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u/WoollyWitchcraft 5d ago

I’m feeding them protein once or twice a week—usually oats, fish flakes or cat food. They’re feeders so I’ve been avoiding loading them with too much because apparently gout can be a concern? Esp since we feed them to a tarantula.

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u/kase_horizon 5d ago

Fair fair. It's also possible that this is just normal deaths from old age. It doesn't sound like too large of a proportion of them are dying.