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Hello all! I'm a new roach owner - I have 4 Madagascar hissers, two adults and two juveniles. I've had them about 3 weeks now, and they never eat a noticeable amount of food before I change it out. I've been going through posts on here and am feeling a bit better about that, as it seems fairly common? I give them lettuce, carrots, grapes, and cat/dog food pellets. The vegetables wilt pretty rapidly, so I was giving them new food every night at first but they don't touch it. It almost seems like one of them hasn't eaten at all - that or he is very good at being in the same exact spot every time I look for them. I am also wondering how everyone monitors moisture level? I got a hygrometer to measure the percent humidity, and through some research it seems like I should try to have their tank at 60% humidity at a minimum. So usually I've been doing a daily routine of misting the tank, soaking their peat moss until it's lightly saturated and then putting it back, and filling their water dish. With all this, the hygrometer would read only about 50% at the most (we have cold and dry winters here) so now I am also keeping a humidifier running right next to their tank. With this I can get the humidity up to 80%. Is this too much moisture/over-doing it? A long first post - but I want my new little pets to be happy and am so excited to be an invertebrate owner!

A few days ago two of my Schizopilia fissicollis nymphes died unexpectantly. One just sat on top of a leave, the other on top of a piece of wood. Not moving.... Which made me suspicious. I have their death on camera (time-lapse). They have been moving around in the hours prior to they demise. Eating, walking, and then slowed down, stopped walking and after a few hours stopped moving altogether. So that made me consider that the condition in their enclosure wasn't, lets say 'optimal' I assumed they preferred a hot, humid environment with a lot of bark, and a substrate with dried leaves. When I took out all roaches and did a thorough overhaul of the terrarium, there was a lot of fungi in the substrate and the wood tended to rot at the fringes... no good. The new setup consists of slightly moist coco peat and a lot of bark pieces on top. I provided better ventilation as well to reduce air stagnation. Basically I will try the classic 'moist corner' setup. Water is provided through fruit and agar blocks. In any case, the roaches are now much more active at night and walk over the whole area. They eat well (fruit and a leaves/grasshoppers/fish food paste smeared on bark). Keeping my fingers crossed! Do other people have similar experiences with keeping their roaches too humid and/or with too little ventilation? In particular with rainforest species? How did you solve it? Is moisture a real problem for roaches?