Common Name: Cuban Burrowing Cockroach
Scientific Name: Byrsotria fumigata

Status: Captive Bred

Food : Cockroaches will eat a range of fruit, veg, cereals and kitchen scraps. I feed all my cockroaches on my dried  'cockroach mix' (muesli, cat biscuits, fish pellets and bran - mixed together), plus a little fruit and veg. I generally feed the cockroaches once or twice a week.

A large black cockroach, only males have wings, easy to keep. Tend to burrow, rather than climb! Approximate adult size 4-5 cm. Very useful as live food for larger spiders and reptiles, I have been told that Bearded Dragons love them!

Note : A tub of cockroaches will always contain enough individuals to start a breeding colony. The number in a tub varies depending on size of species, stage of lifecycle and how many I have in stock. (minimum 10, when I am over-run with a certain species, a tub will contain as many as I can fit in!)

How I keep mine

I keep these and many of my other cockroaches in plastic boxes (24 litre or 32 litre, opaque, purchased from Wilko or Tesco).  I make air holes in the lid with my little soldering iron, great for burning the right size holes through plastic. I use peat, coir or vermiculite on the base and add leaf litter (Oak, Beech or other hardwoods) and pieces of bark or egg trays to hide under. I am discovering more and more that many cockroaches will eat some leaf litter and seem to enjoy it but it isn't strictly necessary as I kept cockroaches successfully  for many years without giving them any leaves. I feed them once or twice a week on my dried cockroach mix and pieces of fruit and vegetables. I find banana and cucumber are favourites.

I place my boxes on a shelf with a heat mat on it, I use a strip heat mat (15cm wide) and this covers part of the base of the box (several boxes can fit on one long mat). Like most bugs it is a good idea to give them a dry and a damp area to choose from. I find the area above the heat mat is dry and the area not covered by the heat mat is more moist.  I use plastic boxes for my cockroaches as I have lots of species and don't have the space to keep them all in individual tanks but of course they do equally well when housed in a plastic or glass tank and  are much more visible.

 Some cockroaches climb much better than others. I find the Cuban Burrowing can be housed without a lid and don't seem to climb out but the box or tank must be deep enough.  They don't fly and seem to like drier conditions than some other species. Most cockroaches will not do well in stale, damp conditions as this encourages mould to grow.