Caring for your stick insects

I got my first set of stick insects when I was in Year 12 - I was in a rough patch mentally, in all honesty (not to trauma dump), and my mam's friend was offering up Indian stick insect eggs to people, and I thought having something to commit to would help me find a reason to get out of bed and do something. So I collected the eggs. Waited a few months. And nothing. No worries, I was able to dispose of the eggs and was gifted 5 Indian stick insect nymphs (babies), so thank goodness! I had those for about a year before they all naturally passed away, and tried to hatch their eggs. Nothing. So I disposed of those, with plans to get more stick insects after finishing my A-Levels, until I found a stick insect nymph on my ceiling. I must have dropped an egg in my room at some point, and it eventually hatched (they can take months). So my mam's friend said I must have been doing too much with the other eggs! I had plans to get more, but my plans happened earlier than expected. Currently, I have 5 stick insects (I was gifted 4 from one of my mam's friends - a different one from the first lady), and they are my world. They're such a unique pet that I find them a great conversation starter (hopefully it's not just for me and other people actually find it interesting, not just pretending to). When I was first doing my research, though, I struggled to find one modern source containing everything, so I thought it would be fun to write one myself!

These tips will likely only apply to Indian stick insects; they are some of the easiest stick insects to care for, and I don't know if they apply to other species.

With any small pet, I think the average Joe would assume that small animal = small enclosure, but that's not necessarily true (especially with hamsters). For stick insects, the height of the enclosure should be at least thrice their length and the width at least twice their length - they're meant to live in trees, so the tall enclosure makes sense. They moult, kind of like tarantulas, as their outer layer can't grow with them, so they shed it off and need to hang from a high place in order to do it properly. It's important to keep a large enclosure (mine is 30*30*60 for 5), as otherwise the stick insects may knock the others' legs off - they are social creatures, and so should be kept with others. It's recommended to have a mesh top as well, as it means that they can hang from it - they can climb the sides of my 'glass' enclosure, but it must be easier to cling to mesh.

The things they eat are very easy to come by; both sets of mine ate privet, but only the one I have now ate the ivy I gave to them - I haven't tried my new set with oak, but my older set had, but I don't think they ate as much of that as they did the privet, though that could have been because the oak leaves were lower down than the privet ones (due to the oak being shorter). But there are other types of things you can give them: bramble (from blackberry, and it's recommended to use older leaves rather than newer shoots), hawthorn, rose, hazel, and oak. You should ensure the food is kept fresh. I change mine about once a week, occasionally going for longer or shorter depending on how the leaves look. I keep mine inside pots meant for painting in schools; you shouldn't leave an open cup because the stick insects (especially nymphs) are at risk of drowning in it. The way they drink is by misting the leaves; the way I do it is to lightly mist throughout the day to keep it damp, and then spray them a lot at night because (at least I think) Indian stick insects are nocturnal. 

Some basic information about Indian stick insects is that after 6-ish moults (i.e. about half of their lifetime), they should begin to lay eggs - you will likely not have a male; I would be incredibly surprised if you did because of how rare they are (in culture at least). Indian stick insects reproduce strictly asexually (parthenogenesis) but are assumed to be sexual in the wild, and so all of these eggs are viable. To ensure they don't hatch hundreds of babies, you must either freeze them for a week (I would do two to be safe) or just crush them. I know people think this is cruel, but in the UK (not sure for other places), they are a non-native species, and so it is illegal to knowingly let them go free (as you likely will not have the capacity for hundreds of nymphs unless you neglect them or have a huge enclosure). So if you don't want to have to dispose of eggs, then I fear stick insects aren't the pet for you. 

And currently this is all I can think of! I will add more when/if I think of it <3