Feeder Roaches

Does anyone use Orange Head Roaches (Eublaberus prosticus) as feeder roaches? if so, do you like them? why or why not?

I use these for my larger Ts and think they are one of the better species.They are easily bred,readily available,not very expensive,and best of all,they have one of the ''meatiest'' interiors of any roach for its size.Lobster roaches are mostly shell,hissers mostly fat,and then you have discoids and dubia in between.Dubia are meatier than discoids,but the orange heads are tops.On a cautionary note,this is the species of roach,I would LEAST want in eith a molting T.They enjoy protein and also require more moisture than other roaches,so the would be very willing to eat a molting T.The nymphs like to burrow,so I house my colony in a larger rubbermaid or sterlite container with no lid and about 6'' of coco peat,kept slightly moist underneath.They appreciate daily watering with juicy fruits or water crystals,I commonly have found adults drowned in the Ts water dish,so I leave the water dish out,when feeding.These are not as fast as some roaches at breeding,but if you can get a start with a couple hundred adults,then it should be able to sustain itself well for feeding a dozen or so Ts in a few months.As I said,the nymphs burrow,so I only feed the adults,which can burrow also,but are not as hard to locate.You could disable the nymphs,but I just use other feeders to allow as many orangeheads to mature as possible.

ive used these for 18 months and they are excellent.

I bought about 30 mixed sizes and ended up with about 800 until most died from cold temps when we went away for xmas last year (the house was set at 50F but over 12 days this was too much for them) about 100 did survive and are back to normal now, anyway the lesson is that orangeheads dont like the cold.

I keep them in a big rubber maid box, lid loose, with card egg cartons piled up, sat over a heat vent in winter, autumn/spring the heat is on less so they are closer to room temp at those times, summer they sit in the garage and enjoy the hig heat and humidity of illinois.

I feed on cat dry food and carrot, water in dish every day. very easy and a good mix of sizes to feed T's 3/4 inch and up. They do eat each other if given the chance and as the population gets bigger so the chances of moulting roaches being eaten goes up so they do limit their own population growth to a degree, nasty but true and the way of any organism.

the only thing to watch out for is feeding a small spider a too large orange head, they are strong and have sharp leg spines, potentially they could injure a tarantula. Generally though as long as the spider pins the roach belly side down theres no problem.

I have a small colony going, but there aren't enough in there for me to start feeding off yet.

xhexdx said:

I have a small colony going, but there aren't enough in there for me to start feeding off yet.

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they take a while to get kick started, but once the females start delivering batches of babies you'll have more than you need!

Thank you all for your answers ill buy some of these this week.