Roaches as feeders?

[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.