feeder roaches

[Jess]

Ok, What's up with Roaches being better the crickets for food??
I hear they are better , easier to clean, no smell.
But, what happens when they grow to big to feed? That doesn't happen with crickets?
Thankx, for the help
Jess

[The Snake Guru]

But, what happens when they grow to big to feed?

Dip in chocolate, bake for 15 min at 350 degrees, and WAMMO a tasty high protein treat!

~B~

[n5zow]

Dip in chocolate, bake for 15 min at 350 degrees, and WAMMO a tasty high protein treat!

~B~

ROFLMAO!!!!! *HURL*

[Lorelei]

Dip in chocolate, bake for 15 min at 350 degrees, and WAMMO a tasty high protein treat!

~B~

EWW - you are one sick puppy!

[Basil]

B. dubia roaches (Orange Spotted Roaches)- These are the roaches we feed. We are able to feed the adults to our Bearded Dragons and Blue Tongued skink. If you don't have anything that is big enough to eat the adults you can keep them to replace your breeders as they grow old or sell them to others who can use them. They also grow slowly. It takes about six months for them to mature. IMO these things are so much better than crickets. My wife had to talk me into trying a colony. Now I wouldn't switch back for anything. As you stated, they are more nutritional, cleaner, no smell, and they don't make noise, can't fly, can't climb smooth surfaces and are not very fast.

Or you could try lobster roaches. They stay smaller as adults, but they can climb smooth surfaces and I think they can fly. Not sure about that.


Ok, What's up with Roaches being better the crickets for food??
I hear they are better , easier to clean, no smell.
But, what happens when they grow to big to feed? That doesn't happen with crickets?
Thankx, for the help
Jess

[Jess]

New Computer - $1,800.00
New soft Ware - $400.00
New shirt $20.00

Watching me HURL on the Key board PRICELESS !!!!!!! ROFLMFAO!!!!!!

Jess

Dip in chocolate, bake for 15 min at 350 degrees, and WAMMO a tasty high protein treat!

~B~

[Jess]

Ok,
What I have for bug eating critters.
2 T's.
5 gecko's ( 4 kids keep by them:D) 1 here, That My 80 yr old mother says is mine. But, is in her room..LMAO!!
I can hear it now. Mom, We are going to feed the gec, roaches. no more Giant meal worms. That are in the frig. not moving..:help::der:

Hell, I could let one of those Big Sucker go in the Monitors cage & let him think there is an Invator! LMAO!!

So, lets say I am going to adventure into this Roach thing. What do you keep them in? what do you feed them? Where the Hell do you keep them?

I have a Cricket Tub. ( white with lid screen) I feed them carrots, & there gut load.

Will the roaches torment the critters if not eaten right away?

Oh Yeah, AND BRAD,, I don't want your help on this one . OK:p:p LOL
Thankx
Jess

B. dubia roaches (Orange Spotted Roaches)- These are the roaches we feed. We are able to feed the adults to our Bearded Dragons and Blue Tongued skink. If you don't have anything that is big enough to eat the adults you can keep them to replace your breeders as they grow old or sell them to others who can use them. They also grow slowly. It takes about six months for them to mature. IMO these things are so much better than crickets. My wife had to talk me into trying a colony. Now I wouldn't switch back for anything. As you stated, they are more nutritional, cleaner, no smell, and they don't make noise, can't fly, can't climb smooth surfaces and are not very fast.

Or you could try lobster roaches. They stay smaller as adults, but they can climb smooth surfaces and I think they can fly. Not sure about that.

[Basil]

We put them in a Rubbermaid container, they cannot climb the sides. We cut out a one each strip on the long sides and hot glued screen mesh over it. We use Chick Starter (you can find this at any feed store) as the food and substrate. They'll eat it and burrow into it while they sleep. We put a couple paper towel rolls in with them, so they have something else to hide in. We keep a little cap (mayo or peanut butter) filled with water crystals so they can drink. And that's pretty much it. We add more water crystals maybe twice a week.

We keep them on a shelf in our reptile room. I have never seen one harass any of our reptiles. We put them in a cup with our geckos. They can't climb out and the geckos just crawl in and eat them. They way we can easily tell how many each gecko is eating, and in what amount of time.

Mary is the one in charge of the feeders. If I've forgotten anything, she'll add to it I'm sure. Oh, and if you want to get started, she does sell them.

[The Snake Guru]

Thanks for Info. Man!
Sounds a great alternative to crickets.

~B~

[mimigwen]

Ok,
What I have for bug eating critters.
2 T's.
5 gecko's ( 4 kids keep by them:D) 1 here, That My 80 yr old mother says is mine. But, is in her room..LMAO!!
I can hear it now. Mom, We are going to feed the gec, roaches. no more Giant meal worms. That are in the frig. not moving..:help::der:

Hell, I could let one of those Big Sucker go in the Monitors cage & let him think there is an Invator! LMAO!!

So, lets say I am going to adventure into this Roach thing. What do you keep them in? what do you feed them? Where the Hell do you keep them?

I have a Cricket Tub. ( white with lid screen) I feed them carrots, & there gut load.

Will the roaches torment the critters if not eaten right away?

Oh Yeah, AND BRAD,, I don't want your help on this one . OK:p:p LOL
Thankx
Jess


Michael gave you the skinny, but I can tell you that years ago, roaches were the line I wasn't going to cross...

But 20 bucks a month on crickets that stunk up the garage, and died in the aquarium, and grew to big to feed the lizards, jumped out all over ,CHIRPED ALL NIGHT IN THE GECKO CAGES, and tried to harass the lizards, I was open to the idea.

There are are lots of different species of feeder roaches. The blaptica dubia (Orgnge spotted Guyana) are tame by comparison. They can't climb smooth surfaces (glass or plastic) can't fly, the males can flutter a few inches horizontally, but I've only see than 2-3 times, don't make noise, and don't smell. These roaches like temps from 80-100 degrees, but will do ok in the 70's. Lower than 70 they will die, higher than 100 they will croak off at about 105 degrees. The hotter the area, the more they reproduce, but some say shortens the lifespan a bit. They take 6 months to go from tiny pillbug size (small enough to feed the wee little pygmy chameleon, and newly harched crested geckos) to about 1 -1 1/2 inches before their final molt into adulthood.

Females have about 20 babies every 6 weeks, the caresheets say a month, but since we're not using supplemental heat anymore (I was using heat tape) I'd say it's really more like every 6 weeks. Once they reach adulthood, males last 6 months, females a year--but again, since mine are slighly cooler temps, I have the males last ~9 months and females 15-18.

I feed the surplus adult males to the adult bearded dragon and the blue tongued skink without a problem. Narcissa the juvenile bearded dragon can eat nymphs right before the last molt. The smaller babies we do for the cresteds and the pygmies (and the leachies now too).

The bugs are slow by comparison to crickets and other roaches (Lobsters) and play dead if they feel threatened. They don't seem to bother the lizards at all, even if they get loose in the enclosure with them. I've had the occasional adult roach sleep underneath the bearded dragon until we could catch him.

I'm told they cannot crossbreed with native species, and even if one gets loose, if the temps get out of range they will die.

The biggest difference I found was that thay dehydrate a little more easily than crickets-really need water crystals vs vegetables. We do the water crystals and chick starter and change the substrate of the chick starter about ever 3 months.

Since they have a higher meat to shell ratio, you feed much less. Lazarus the skink eats 3-4 (males) about 2 times a week. The adult bearded dragon about the same. I use the surplus nymphs to replentish my breeder colonies, or if we have too many I feed adult females to the dragons and skinks to cut back the breeding stock.

Michael has been brave enough to pick them up from the beginning. It's has taken me 2 years to pick up an adult, though I have no problem handling them until the last molt. I think it's the color change that wiggs me out. The grey/tan ones look enough like pillbugs that I'm not impressed.

We keep ours in 10 or 14 gallon rubbermaid containers--the short, squat dark ones, and like Michael said, we put screen on the sides for a little ventilation. They like it dark--so we just leave them alone. They are EASY to keep, we water them about 2 times a week in winter, 3 in the Texas summer.

I never thought I would touch one, much less RAISE them, but especially with the baby geckos, its SO nice to have a consistant supply/range of sizes to feed. We're never out of the right size, and once you set them up the upkeep cost beats the fees we were paying for superworms and crickets. I buy a back of chicken feed about 1x a year (10 dollars) and water crystals about ever 12-18 months.

Probably more than you wanted to know--certainly more than my friends and family want to hear about. They are convinced I have crossed "the line."

I can hunt up some caresheets online if you want more details...

Mary

[mimigwen]

http://www.blaberus.com/FORMgallery1.htm

This website gives you a good overview with pictures of some of the popular feeder roaches. If you go under "resources" and care sheets, the blaptica dubia is the first one. His longevity quotes are longer lives than what I was quotes when I bought them, but is pretty close to what I'm seeing at my lower temps.

If you're interested I can try to get some photos of the reptiles and the different sizes they eat this weekend when Michael's around to help...

Mary

[Robilyn]

Dude this is awesome. My crickets are driving me crazy. Once one got loose and crawled inside my sink cabinet between the boards where we couldnt get him, and chirped for like a week. Agh! Lol. I have red eyed tree frogs and a couple Ts...would they work for those too?

[RyanK]

Dip in chocolate, bake for 15 min at 350 degrees, and WAMMO a tasty high protein treat!

~B~

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/luiscypherr/cryingkoreans.jpg

[mimigwen]

Dude this is awesome. My crickets are driving me crazy. Once one got loose and crawled inside my sink cabinet between the boards where we couldnt get him, and chirped for like a week. Agh! Lol. I have red eyed tree frogs and a couple Ts...would they work for those too?


Tell me about it! I can't tell you how many nights we were about to go crazy, particularly when we had an aquarium of cresteds in the bedroom. Chirp chirp chirp...and the day geckos...chirp chirp chirp.

As far as I know, anything that can eat crickets can eat roaches, you just have to make sure they are the appropriate size--I do about the same as judging size for the crickets, though eveyone here seems to be able to eat a little bigger roaches than crickets. If you can catch the roaches after a molt, while they are white and soft then the reptiles REALLY like them.

Mary

[Jess]

Oh, sure give the guys a nice comment. J/K
I get eat the Dang Roaches..LOL
Jess
Thanks for Info. Man!
Sounds a great alternative to crickets.

~B~

[Jess]

Thank you both so much!! And No it was not to much info. I guess I'm the odd one.LOL
I will have to get with you guys soon. Soon as the Evil Feeders I have are gone..
Thankx Again,
Jess

http://www.blaberus.com/FORMgallery1.htm

This website gives you a good overview with pictures of some of the popular feeder roaches. If you go under "resources" and care sheets, the blaptica dubia is the first one. His longevity quotes are longer lives than what I was quotes when I bought them, but is pretty close to what I'm seeing at my lower temps.

If you're interested I can try to get some photos of the reptiles and the different sizes they eat this weekend when Michael's around to help...

Mary

[The Snake Guru]

Oh, sure give the guys a nice comment. J/K
I get eat the Dang Roaches..LOL
Jess

LOL ;)

~B~

[Jess]

That would be wonderful. You guy are great!!

I know it sounds silly. But, talking about the sizes & seeing them with the animal. Makes more sense of what I would need.
Thankx Again,
Jess
http://www.blaberus.com/FORMgallery1.htm

This website gives you a good overview with pictures of some of the popular feeder roaches. If you go under "resources" and care sheets, the blaptica dubia is the first one. His longevity quotes are longer lives than what I was quotes when I bought them, but is pretty close to what I'm seeing at my lower temps.

If you're interested I can try to get some photos of the reptiles and the different sizes they eat this weekend when Michael's around to help...

Mary