EDIT - We have confirmed ootheca! I'm reporting my own post.
The cockroaches themselves aren't really all that dull, if you ask me, but the way they came into my care feels like classic dull man happenstance.
I got 2 males and 3 females; I've separated them, but I'm pretty sure two of the females are already impregnated.
Fun facts about Hissing Cockroaches:
-They can reproduce every 2 months, but usually no more than 3 times per year.
-They give birth to 10-40 live babies (called nymphs) at a time.
-They do this by laying an egg case (called an ootheca) INSIDE THEIR OWN ABDOMEN. After a few weeks, the case ruptures and they push it and their babies out the backside of their abdomen.
-While pregnant, they will often open the rear of their abdomen and allow the ootheca some fresh air.
-When born, the nymphs are only a few millimeters in size, but they can grow to over 3 inches (~7cm) long.
-Nymphs can reproduce after 6 months.
-They can live for up to 4 years on average!
-Other than a few sharp little spikes on their legs, they are completely harmless.
-Contrary to popular belief, they are VERY CLEAN. They feed on decaying wood, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables and the occasional meal of dead meat, but they prefer the fresh stuff.
I've only had these for a few days, so I can't say that the experience will be the same for everyone, or that it won't change over time, but so far they are AWESOME!
They have little personalities, and the pregnant ones are so cute because they just grip your finger and hold as close to you as possible, and it honestly reminds me of a cat pressing its paw into you and extending its claws ever so gently.
The hissing is funny sometimes, because it's almost like a little kid throwing a tantrum. I was trying to clean out the jar they were in temporarily before I got home, and every time I'd try to move this particular male, he'd be like "NO!" and scurry about 4 mm, and I'd go to pick him up again, and he'd go "NOOOO!!" XD
And because I know it's coming - the males have small, I call em, "proto-horns" on the back of their heads, and their antenna are fuzzy.
Not the best angle for the situation, but you can see the bumps there on the head, and if you look closely you can see the thick-yet-fine fuzz on the antenna. Compare it to the image in the main post, and you'll notice the difference in the horns.
Can you feed them dead leaves and twigs from the ground? Do they like eating those?
Yup! Although as mentioned elsewhere, you wanna be somewhat careful about mites, I wouldn't go tossing random stuff directly into the enclosure, but of you have, like, a feeding station or something, or if you're just walking around with one in your shirt pocket or whatever, go for it!
A lot of owners feed them fruit and vegetables - potatoes, carrots, strawberries, grapes, etc.. - and also leaves and wood from non-aromatic trees and plants - fresh aromatics like cedar can be deadly. They also feed them dry pet food for protein - stuff like fish food, or kibbles n bits - or even fresh meat, but it's not preferred to do so.
They typically feed on forest floor detritus in the wild, so stuff like fallen leaves and branches, the occasional tiny dead gecko. Stuff like that.
I fed em some raisins and a fortune cookie and they went nuts! lol
Can they safely eat eucalyptus leaves?
eucalyptus has evolved to have very flammable leaves due to oil content, and theya re also likely allelopathic means they have compounds in thier leaves which prevent other plants from growing under them. so they are likely to be poisonious. to insect. as an invasive in cali, i dont see anything even harming them, other than cutting them down, no diseases, hurts the tree, they also grow faster than the native trees here.
I'm going to guess probably not without aging at the very least. Eucalyptus seems like it would fall into the same category as cedar in my mind. Lemme Google this... Yeah that's what I figured - it contains a lot of aromatic oils that can be toxic. The aging/composting is going to be your best bet with anything like that, because it allows the oils to break down and the volatile compounds to turn into gas. That being said, don't feed your bugs anything just because I said it may be ok. I'm just a guy who did a bunch of research in a hotel bed.