Live feed locust breeding - save myself from the horrible costs!

Andy · May 15, 2005

Im looking for someone who has experience in breedling locust, my local petsop charges 40p EACH!
Was wondering if it is really worth breeding them as opposed to buying them at this price.

As for nutrition, are they as good as brown crickets?

8 leg wonder · May 15, 2005

your lucky to be able to purchase them they are not available in Canada. as for breeding them it's only worth it if you have lots of Ts or a reptile to feed them to.

jadormdrache · May 16, 2005

probably easier to breed non-climbing roaches or mealworms,less chances of escape

Dark Raptor · May 17, 2005

I've been breeding Locusta migratoria, more than one year ago. I'll tell you: crixs and roaches are much better "feeder", they are cheaper and easier to breed.

Here is one topic about that:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=39089

Andy · May 17, 2005

Dark Raptor said:
I've been breeding Locusta migratoria, more than one year ago. I'll tell you: crixs and roaches are much better "feeder", they are cheaper and easier to breed.

Here is one topic about that:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=39089

Could you advise me on how to breed crickets?
Temperatures to keep them at etc, I may consider this option as my geckos munch about 8 a day.

Cirith Ungol · May 17, 2005

I can give you advice on how to breed B. dubia roaches. Best feeders arround imho.

Take a large plastic box with a lid. Drill many holes through the lid so a lot of air can get in. Put in a handfull of adult dubia roaches, place som egg crates on the floor, toss in some fruit and vegetables, like cucumber (very good!), bananas, orange, and anything you like basically - except onions or other "sharp" vegetables. Throw in some ground up dogfood. Close the box. Done.

To speed up the breeding you can put a heat pad under one side of the container which keeps arround 35 degrees celcius at all times.

Put in more fruit and vegetables as soon as you see that the old ones are eaten or dried out.

Clean the box once every 6 months to 1 year.

If starting with 50 roaches you'll have about 400-500 roaches running arround in the tank within 6 months, all at various stages of development.

For additional info read the dubia breeding sticky. Lots of good info there!

B. dubias are about 584 times easier to breed than crickets. They don't make a sound, they don't stink and they are very likely to never give you any trouble in regard to escapes.

Dark Raptor · May 17, 2005

Andy said:
Could you advise me on how to breed crickets?
Temperatures to keep them at etc, I may consider this option as my geckos munch about 8 a day.

Check info here:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=39862
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=40804

...and I can agree with Cirith Ungol, roaches are the best feeders, except they are 585 times easier to breed

I've got now Nauphoeta cinerea and Blaptica dubia, Gromphadorhina portentosa and Blaberus giganteus. They are great.

Cirith Ungol · May 17, 2005

Dark Raptor said:
except they are 585 times easier to breed

Oh, sorry! My bad! 585 times ofcourse!!

Andy · May 18, 2005

Thanks for the info,
main reason I dont want to breed roaches is because my geckos won't eat them. And I only have 2 T spiderlings atm so it really isnt worth it. But I may come to that option as I develop more T's and I get mantids.

Raqua · May 18, 2005

Cirith Ungol said:
B. dubias are about 584 times easier to breed than crickets.

Well, I'm pretty sure, crix are easier to breed ...

And their life cycle is VERY short compared to roaches which makes me being able to control the production depending on my needs ... right now I'm expecting an eggsac to hatch, so I already have tons of pinheads ready. They will be in the right size when the sac hatches. You can't do this with roaches because of the log cycle.

james · May 18, 2005

Roaches

What kind of geckos? I feed all my geckos Blaptica dubia and for the one or two really picky one they love Blatta lateralis. I've pretty much found that any insect eating animal loves roaches.
James
www.blaberus.com

galeogirl · May 18, 2005

I never had a problem getting my geckos to eat N. cinerea roaches when I was still keeping herps. I couldn't get most of my adult ts to take them, but they were great feeders for my slings and scorps.

Cirith Ungol · May 18, 2005

Raqua said:
Well, I'm pretty sure, crix are easier to breed ...
And their life cycle is VERY short compared to roaches which makes me being able to control the production depending on my needs ... right now I'm expecting an eggsac to hatch, so I already have tons of pinheads ready. They will be in the right size when the sac hatches. You can't do this with roaches because of the log cycle.

B. dubia give birth to live young in room humidity. Crix can't beat that in a million years! ;P

Dark Raptor · May 18, 2005

...and Nauphoeta cinerea, when you've got enough of them in different stages, gives you "non-stop food" in almost any size. You don't need to check humidity, they are very resistant to mould and some diseases. They are less canibalistic.
In one thing crixs are better, newly hatched insects are so small that they are good food source for L1/L2 spiderlings.

Andy · May 18, 2005

james said:
What kind of geckos? I feed all my geckos Blaptica dubia and for the one or two really picky one they love Blatta lateralis. I've pretty much found that any insect eating animal loves roaches.
James
www.blaberus.com

Leopard geckos

Raqua · May 19, 2005

Cirith Ungol said:
B. dubia give birth to live young in room humidity. Crix can't beat that in a million years! ;P

I keep crix bone dry, without substrate (in my room sometimes 20-30% Rh), except a cup of substrate for eggs, which is moist. No mold, no mites - no problem. And the main reason for me to keep them is the speed of their reproduction. Canibalism is reduced to minimum if they have enough food, hides and especially proteins in food. I give them powder milk and have no significant canibalism.
The only thing that I consider better on roaches is their size. Great feeders for adult spiders. But I'm a bit lazy and don't have room for another feeder colony, so I stick with crix for now.

Cirith Ungol · May 19, 2005

Nice. Crix seems to work for you. Wouldn't for me. I hate those bastards. Eventho it takes a little longer to get a working dubia colony I prefer it 1000 times before crix.

I don't have to care about them at all as long as I toss in some more food every 2 days. There's no cannibalism at all (ok, if I starve them there might be ofcourse), I don't need an egg laying section either.

So I win!

(Just teasing

)

Raqua · May 19, 2005

Well, If you had like 100 small slings and 200-300 on the way, then I wonder whether you would feel like winner with your colony .....

;P ;P ;P

xelda · May 19, 2005

One of my buddies who lives down the street maintains a large collection of reptiles, over 100 species, so we've been testing roaches on them. The only animals that seemed to have any problem were the dwarf monitors because the flat shape of the roaches was too awkward for their mouths.

Cirith Ungol · May 19, 2005

Raqua said:
Well, If you had like 100 small slings and 200-300 on the way, then I wonder whether you would feel like winner with your colony ..... ;P ;P ;P

Havings slings or not doesn't have anything to do with wether dubias or crix are more easy to raise

Live feed locust breeding - save myself from the horrible costs!

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