Roaches...?

JBoyer · Dec 9, 2003

I am thinking about getting a starter colonly of false death head roaches as food for my T's. I have done a search but was unable to locate any good information about feeding roaches as the sole food source for T's. Do any of you feed mostly roaches, Why or Why not? Do they provide what is necessary for healthy T growth etc.? I would really like to do this considering crickets smell so bad and from what I understand the roaches are very easy to rear. ANy help would be appreciated!

Thanks

Jennifer

:?

chuck · Dec 9, 2003

roaches are healthier than crickets. more "meat", and cleaner...thats if you keep their conditions clean and dont treat them like a pet shop.
ive had death heads, lobsters and hissers. i didnt like the death heads b/c 1- at the time the adults were too big for my juvi's and 2- the young death heads had a plate of armor that my Ts didnt like. lobsters are soft and smaller, but theyre fast and multiple like roaches

. hissers are my fav, b/c theyre like beetles not roaches, but they do leave a mess after the T eats them, shell pieces everywhere, like it was sea food

pelo · Dec 9, 2003

I'm also in the process of starting a colony.I'll be feeding all my spiders roaches as their main diet(along with silkworms) once the colony is established.As far as I've researched and been told by experienced breeders,roaches are a most suitable diet for spiders.I'm raising blaberus discoidalis(central american glass wing).They multiply quickly,don't climb glass,no smell and are easily eaten by all size spiders.No more smelly crickets....peace....

JBoyer · Dec 9, 2003

Did the T's refuse to eat them? I like this idea because they can not climb glass, are there other roaches that can't climb glass?

Jennifer

chuck · Dec 9, 2003

just use some vasaline on the top inch or so of the tank ... unless you get banana roaches, their nymphs can climb on vasaline

LPacker79 · Dec 10, 2003

I've got some B. discoidales (Discoids, aka False death heads) that I plan to someday feed my T's when the population is self sustaining.
For now they're just cool to look at, almost as much fun as watching the T's!

Botar · Dec 10, 2003

I've got a colony of the false death's head and a colony of the giant cave roaches. I just feed off the adults to my larger T's and continue to feed crickets to the smaller T's.

As far as nutrition goes, I don't think you can go wrong with roaches. I had a colony of lobster roaches, but I didn't trust them and I wound up freezing the colony. The vaseline does fine to keep them in their container, but you can't keep them in the T's container that way. I put an adult in one of my T containers and then found a dozen or so babies in the container a couple of days later. That was the final straw for me. Some people like the lobsters, but I would recommend one of the non glass climbing species.

Code Monkey and Wade have posted quite a bit of info on them in the insect forum.

Botar

Buspirone · Dec 10, 2003

Roaches have their pros and cons like all feeders. I think the pros outweigh the cons but thats my opinion. So far I've only been feeding orange heads. The biggest "con" is that the nymphs tend to dig themselves into the substrate almost as soon as they hit the dirt. YMMV with other species, I've only just started a B. dubia colony so it will be a LONG time before I'm feeding those(I started with only a dozen). Initially my Ts were very cautious of the roaches. My curly which had eaten everything I threw at it even paused initially when it was introduced to its first roach but now treats them just like everything else....FOOD! This has been my experience with all the Ts I've offered the roaches to except my usumbara who attacked the roach immediately and my rosie who hasn't eaten one yet. If you start a colony of the non-climbers buy as many as you can afford(minimum of 4 dozen IMO) unless you know someone who is willing to sell you mature adults. The initial start up is extremely slow if you begin with too small a population of nymphs.

jhasty · Dec 10, 2003

Where does everybody get their roaches from?

DarkRAM · Dec 10, 2003

Jen I've been looking into the same thing the last week.

The sites below contains some good info on different roaches.
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/Roaches/
http://www.angelfire.com/wy/roaches/index.html

The roaches below are reported to be unable to climb glass. Although I dont know which breed the best and make for the best feeders its something to start on.

- Orange-spotted roach Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis
- Orange head roach Eublaberus prosticus
- Peppered roach Archimandrita tesselata
- Death's Head Cockroach Blaberus craniifer
- Discoid roach Blaberus discoidales
- Guyana spotted roach Blaptica dubia

Buspirone · Dec 10, 2003

Discoids or Dubias would probably make the best feeders. They are medium speed breeders if you use lobsters as fast and giganta as slow on the scale. They are common on most price lists.

Most info on roaches usually focuses on hissers but alot of it is applicable to most other roaches:

http://www.geocities.com/lflank/roaches.html

Botar · Dec 10, 2003

Originally posted by jhasty
Where does everybody get their roaches from?

I think there is a link in the links section of this site to a roach supplier. I believe he is an Arachnodealer, which would net you 10% off.

Botar

Shox · Dec 10, 2003

i'm starting a hisser colony next week. getting them from http://www.topline-roaches.com/

chuck · Dec 10, 2003

Originally posted by Botar
I think there is a link in the links section of this site to a roach supplier. I believe he is an Arachnodealer, which would net you 10% off.

Botar

roachman, hes a cool guy. ill be seeing him at the next show in ny

Roaches...?

JBoyer

Arachnoknight

chuck

Arachnodemon

pelo

Arachnoangel

JBoyer

Arachnoknight

chuck

Arachnodemon

LPacker79

ArachnoSpaz

Botar

Arachnoprince

Buspirone

Arachnoprince

jhasty

Arachnopeon

DarkRAM

Arachnosquire

Buspirone

Arachnoprince

Botar

Arachnoprince

Shox

Arachnosquire

chuck

Arachnodemon