Terrestrial Isopod Care and Breeding

Terrestrial isopods are a high calcium prey item that can make an excellent addition to your feeder rotation. My lizards and frogs all enjoy terrestrial isopods which can be a great treat a couple times a week. The isopods I use are tan sow bugs purchased online at doubleds.org, however you can purchase isopods through various online retailers. 

I first set up an aquarium with a mixture of fertilizer free organic soil and play sand. You then want to add plenty of leaf litter and bark chunks for them to hide under and eat as well. They will eat leaf liter and bark as part of their required diet as a source of tanins.  You will need to mist the tank daily or every other day depending on the humidity in your area as they breathe through gills and require moist soil to survive. Be careful not to drench the soil as they will drown and die with too much water, but also note that if the soil dries out they will also die from inability to breathe.

 

Isopods keep their babies in a pouch on the underside of their body where they incubate until ready. Here are a couple of pictures provided by Cheryl Garcia of her isopod with babies in the pouch as well as some babies being born.

Isopods will readily eat various fruits and veggies as well as greens that you would typically offer your feeder insects. They also eat the shed skin of your lizard along with dead members of the colony. I also provide them with plain calcium powder on their food a couple times a week in addition to adding cuttle fish bone to the tank as a calcium source. they require the added calcium to build their shells.

I do not clean out the tank often, maybe every couple months or so. When you want to clean it is best to transfer the isopods over to a new tank. It can take a few days to get them all transferred as the babies are tiny and some may burrow in to the soil. You can add bark and other items for them to cling to and transfer them over daily as they congregate on to the bark.