Benito Gutierrez, 69, and his 64-year-old wife Carol are accused of keeping the adopted youngsters trapped in separate rooms for up to 12 hours at a time without even access to a bathroom.
The alarm was only triggered when one of the children escaped the house in Tucson through a bedroom window before running into a store to ask for help.
Yesterday, the couple were arrested on three counts of child abuse and are being quizzed by detectives.
Pima County Sheriff’s Department said: “The children were kept in separate bedrooms, which were locked from the outside.
“They had no access to food, water, lights or bathroom facilities for up to 12 hours at a time on a regular basis.”
One of the rooms had a bucket which the children had to use as a toilet. Police said the children have now been removed from the family home.
The case comes weeks after Louise and David Turpin were accused of beating, shackling and starving their 13 children.
It is claimed Mr and Mrs Turpin kept the children, aged from two to 29, in filthy and fetid conditions.
Some were chaining some to their beds and starvation was used as a weapon to control them, prosecutors said.
The Turpins were arrested on January 14 after their malnourished 17-year-old daughter climbed out a window of the family home in Perris, around 70 miles east of Los Angeles, and called the 911 emergency number on a mobile phone.
Each of the Turpin parents faces 94 years to life in prison if convicted on more than two dozen charges, including torture, child abuse and false imprisonment.
The South California couple have been barred by a judge from contacting their home-schooled offspring as they await trial.