Observations 2/5/2010 - 2/12/2010

• When I first received the cockroaches, I noticed that they weren't very active at all, so I was slightly concerned because both of them were well hidden under the newspaper and I could not really see them in the cage.
• The very next day, I noticed that Pete was up climbing the walls of the cage, so at that moment I knew everything was okay. Repeat, however, still remained pretty much in the same spot in the cage so I could barely see him in the cage.
• On Sunday, Pete was still really active and crawling all over the cage, especially right near the top of the cage. That night, I noticed that their cage needed some major cleaning, so I attempted to clean it. That night I wasn't feeling so, good and could not get myself to take the cockroaches out of the cage, so I had my home teachers come over and take them out of the cage so I could clean it. Then they had a nice clean cage again.
• For the next few days, the cockroaches did not move hardly at all. I became really worried that something was going on with them. I had to keep tapping on the cage to make sure they were still moving. I really thought that I was killing them. In fact Repeat hardly ever moved really moved and I worried about him the most. But for several days neither one of them moved and they just stayed at the very bottom of the cage, underneath the newspapers.
• One thing that I really noticed about the cockroaches during the time that I had them was that Repeat never climbed up the sides of the cage. So then I started to wonder if cockroaches lose the stickiness on their feet as they get older.

Heidi Stucki