Roaches as feeders?

[martin98]

I'm curious, does anyone feed roaches to their cresteds. I was thinking of starting breeding B. Dubias as feeders and would like some input on this. Mainly I'm tired of messing with crickets and their smell. I feed CGD and GGD most of the time, but supplement with crickets 2 or 3 times a week. Plus I'd use them with my other gecko sp.

[sciteacher]

Martin,

I can't help much with your question, but I was right where you're at a couple of weeks ago. I am in the process of setting up two colonies of roaches. I have already received my Blatta lateralis shipment (500 roaches) and have them set up. I haven't fed any yet though. I'm also setting up a Blaptica dubia colony. I will be getting a smaller group of dubia in the next week or so. I have their tub set up and am just waiting for shipment. My thoughts so far... the lateralis are a bit larger than I expected (seem a bit larger than "cricket sized") and they are quick. I have them set up in the garage and am a bit nervous about bringing them into the house for feeding. I'm not worried about infestation, but if my wife starts seeing escapees running around loose, it won't be a pretty situation!

The dubias are even larger, but I think I'll like them better. I've kept a small group of Hissers for a couple of years... not as feeders, just as classroom pets. They don't move nearly as quickly, and they don't look at all like the German cockroach that can infest homes. The dubias remind me quite a bit of a slightly smaller version of the hissers. I was only going to get the dubias, but I found a deal on the lateralis where I could get 500+ for less than $50. I figured I'd go ahead and try both species.

Gary

[martin98]

Gary,  you must have seen the same ad as me in kingsnake, I ordered lateralis and dubia today. I'll be keeping them in the garage for the same reasons as yourself, in sterilite tubs. I have enough geckos that someone will eat them, such fun starting new hobbies like raising feeder roaches. Hopefully I can keep the escapees to a minium and start a new food source for my geckos. The adventure continues.....

[NYCrestie]

good topic

here my situation
i HATE crickets!
i was thinking of starting a much smaller colony of roaches myself
the thing is, i currently only have 3 cresteds, all under a year of age. 1 is about 7 or 8 months and the other 3 are about 4 months old. so i like the small size of the lateralis, but will be afraid of how fast they are. i like that the dubia are slow, but am worried about their size.
i have been debating for a month now on what to do and still havent come up with a solution

ps, i dont like roaches either, lol
didnt even think about housing them in the garage, but now that the 2 of you mentioned it, i know exactly where i will be keeping them!

[martin98]

Well I got my roaches today and it is an assortment of sizes. I got them set up in their tubs and picked out a couple of medium sized ones. The standings day geckos tore into them. These roaches aren't really creepy looking like a cock roach I'm use to, dubias are like a little tank and lateralis are short and thick. If all my cresteds like them as much as my day geckos I'll have a hit on my hands. Doesn't seem too hard to keep, keep them warm and feed them and you'll have more nymphs.

[SharpExotics]

Hello guys!

I spent a lot of time researching feeder roaches...I settled on the Latteralis...for several reasons:

Size: Latteralis are the perfect size for ciliatus...weather you are feeding hatchlings or adults you will have the right size of roach.

Mobility: Latteralis do not burrow or climb...I have several thousand in 58qt tub with no lid on it and have yet to see one "get out". Tey will climb the silicone in the corners of glass tanks...but that is easy enough to fix.

The Dubia both climb and burrow...and they also get to big in my opinion....and up the facts and I think it's an easy choice to make.

As far as the speed of latteralis...I have noticed that it seems to heighten my geckos drive to hunt.

Just my .02

Israel

[NYCrestie]

have you owned the dubia?
ive never heard of them climing or burrowing so thats news to me

whats the easy fix you speak of to keep the latteralis from climbing the silicone?

how fast are the laterallis?

i really like the way laterallis sound but their speed is whats making me think otherwise

[firecrested]

I bred dubias for about 6 months.  I didnt have much luck with them.  My cresteds wouldnt eat any of them, but they did breed fast..

[GeckoEyes]

I use lobster roachs (not sure about its scentific name..) alot for all my reptiles and have given molted nymphs to my baby cresteds twice and they loved them.

My leopard geckos also really like the roachs.

[martin98]

I have both Dubia and Lateralis, my cresteds eat both kinds. I feed mostly nymphs and smaller ones to my adult cresteds. I don't see any diffference in the two as far as preference. I just wanted something to suppliment CGD and GGD, plus I think they like the hunt and chase.

[Anthony Caponetto]

I've tried lobster roaches and didn't have much luck.  They seemed to hide way too fast for the Cresteds to even notice them.  I think more probably escaped than got eaten.  The escaped roaches caused a slight spider infestation in my reptile room too.  Not a good experiece. lol

[cml3.0]

I have a colony of Lateralis. I do occasionally give a couple of them to my geckos and beardies. They seem to love them. And I saw an increase in weight gain when I was feeding them roaches not crickets. They are fast, but are easier to catch than the crickets b/c they only go in straight lines, not like crazy crickets.

If you are worried about them escaping you can get some bug stop from any of the major roach sellers (toc roach store, carnivorous orchid), also several people sell a gut loader especially for roaches and is much better than what is sold in store (i am referring to the above mentioned store).  Oh, and you can also use vaseline for a bug stop. Just apply it to the top of the cage and they can't climb over it.
Hope that helps
Christa

[MdngtRain]

Is there a place to get small (a max of 12) numbers of roaches to feed?  I only have 2 cresteds, so an entire colony would be over-kill. 

[sciteacher]

I'm sure a lot of roach breeders would sell a small number to you if you wished, but I think you'd find that they weren't nearly as cost effective as crickets if you're simply looking for insects to feed off to your animals. If you're simply going to feed the roaches without breeding any replacements, then the main advantage I would see over the crickets is that the roaches have a much longer lifespan, so you might be able to order a hundred or so and feed them off over a period of months, whereas the crickets would die much quicker and many would go to waste.

Gary

[NYCrestie]

yea im gonna agree with sciteacher on that one

thats the main reason ive thought about starting a roach colony myself

whats everyone opinion on the smallest roach colony i could get away with?
would 50 cut it?
how many breeding size roaches would be a good number to keep, and feed off the nymphs, remembering to raise more nymphs to adulthood to replace the older adults
keep in mind i only have 3 cresteds all under 1 year of age

still havent decided on lateralis or dubias....but am leaning towards lateralis

[firecrested]

I started out with 25 sub adults before I sold them and withing 3 months they were almost doubled,? the only trouble I had was none of my cresteds ate them so I was stuck with all of them.   I had the dubias, they I dont lnow about the lateralis but the dubias dont climb, fly or stink.  I never even noticed them.  I even got mine feeding on the cricket gut load and cricket quencher that petco sells, they ate it the first day i offered it to them.

[sciteacher]

I've got 4 types of roaches currently. I dabbled in hissers just as an interesting classroom pet for a few years. Didn't really kick the temperature up high enough to jumpstart the breeding behavior. I've got them home for the summer and the warmer temps have gotten them breeding. The other roaches I'm pretty new to. I've got a pretty good colony of lateralis that is really starting to percolate right now. Started with 500 and am starting to see tiny babies everywhere right now. I started with a much smaller group of 50 dubias and it will be a while before I feel comfortable starting to feed those as I want the colony to grow first, but I think these will end up being my main feeders eventually. They're calm and easy to handle and I like the looks of them. I also have a small group of discoid nymphs that were thrown in as a bonus with my dubia order. They're still not mature, but they're the "cutest" of the roaches I have. I wasn't expecting them when they arrived and wasn't sure if I really wanted to mess with yet another species, but so far I really like them, so I'll probably keep that colony going also. Of course with both the dubias and discoids, the adults are much too large for my cresties, but the nymphs are very appropriately sized.

Gary

[martin98]

Antyhony, I've had my roaches about a month now and the Dubias reproduce fast. I think 50 would be alright to start with, considering the geckos you have. You'd only be feeding the nymphs, I only feed them once a week to my geckos. The best part is watching them hunt them down and any not eaten can't climb out and get away. Roaches live a long time and the care is minium, just some roach food and water crystals and a place to hide. I keep mine in a sterilite tub and clean it weekly when I do my gecko enclosures.

[sciteacher]

For dubias, the less disturbance the better if you're  trying to stimulate reproduction. If you're doing a complete break down cleaning weekly, that might be enough to slow down the rate of reproduction. If you're simply spot cleaning and taking out the biggest "clumps" it might be OK.

Gary

[martin98]

Thanks, I didn't know that. I have been doing a complete cleaning every week, but now I will wait a few weeks and check things out. I thought they were doing a good job of producing, but thanks for the info.  John

[NYCrestie]

Antyhony, I've had my roaches about a month now and the Dubias reproduce fast. I think 50 would be alright to start with, considering the geckos you have. You'd only be feeding the nymphs, I only feed them once a week to my geckos. The best part is watching them hunt them down and any not eaten can't climb out and get away. Roaches live a long time and the care is minium, just some roach food and water crystals and a place to hide. I keep mine in a sterilite tub and clean it weekly when I do my gecko enclosures.

what would i do with the adults then? just let them die off since they will be too big to feed off?
50 sounds about right to me, seeing how i dont want to be over run with roaches.....bad enough im gonna be sticking the colony in my unattached garage. lol

[martin98]

Your geckos will get big enough to feed the adult roaches and once you start breeding your geckos the hatchlings will eat the nymphs. Remeber these are tropical type roaches and unattached garage in the winter might not be warm enough for them.

[sciteacher]

Your geckos will get big enough to feed the adult roaches and once you start breeding your geckos the hatchlings will eat the nymphs. Remeber these are tropical type roaches and unattached garage in the winter might not be warm enough for them.

Kind of losing track of who has what type of roaches in this thread, but if we're still talking about dubias and crested geckos, the adult dubias are much too large to feed to the geckos. If you're talking about lateralis, then yes the adults can be fed.

Gary

[martin98]

Gary,  Sorry about that, NYCrestie was leaning towards Lateralis. I have both Dubia and Lateralis, sorry about the confusion.  John

[NYCrestie]

actually its a good thing you cleared that up martin....i was leaning towards lateralis but then everyone started talking about dubia, so then i switched my train of thought as well and was talking about dubia adults

if i go the roach route, they will definately not be allowed in the house no matter what. so its either garage or nothing. i will have to set up a heat lamp, pad or something. and i know regulating the temps will be a pain. but in the house is out of the question, assuming i even get the go ahead from the woman to even have the roaches at all.

martin- since you have both, do YOU have a preference of one over the other?
from what ive heard from everyone i like the small size of lateralis, but like the slow movement of the dubia.
i personally also like the lateralis because i plan on expanding my gecko collection over time, and most will be crested size or smaller

[firecrested]

When I was breeding my dubias, it was during the winter and the room i kept them in would sometimes reach 60 degrees.  All I did was put a heat pad under the container they were in and that worked fine.

[martin98]

I really don't have a preference either way, but I have other geckos that will eat the larger adult roaches. Seeing as my adult cresteds are in sterilite tubs theres no problem with burrowing or climbing up the sides.
If I were you, I'd go with the lateralis, they seem to suit your needs now and in the future.

Setting up a heating pad should work well enough in the winter, just keep them warm and they should continue to breed. I know what you mean about the wife, if she ever found out I had 2 colonies of roaches in the basement she'd freak! She barely puts up with the crickets I had in the garage.