switching to roaches?

Linda Landsman

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 14, 2006
Messages
179
Hi, I have been entertaining the idea of switching to roaches for my T's. Will my T's readily accept them? I have only fed crickets. Are roaches more nutritious? Last longer? I have 21 T's , and it's getting expensive, I would like to raise my own food source. Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!
 

Gesticulator

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
956
I have switched ovet to B dubia roaches since the summer. To be honest with you, my T's still prefer crickets, in that they devour them instantaneously, and just kinda go for the roaches, at their leisure. What I have found is that the roaches sate the T's longer, as well, so I feed less often. If you are thinking of starting a colony, it does take some time to establish, so you will still need crix in the interim. I also use crix when I need "fill ins" for the roaches. Lots of pluses to roaches...no smell...no trips to the store, and easy to keep.
 

911

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
74
i really have to say i am a fan of using roaches due to no cricket chirping and i think roaches are a bit cleaner than crickets(my opinion) only draw back is that some species can climb class or plastic so there's more of an escape risk other than that they're great and the hissers can be fun to handle.....i had no problem switching the T's over to the roaches when i decided to. also if i have read the information correctly roaches appear to be atleast as nutritional and probably more so than crickets but don't quote me on that one. I personally have a colony of hissers going for my larget T's (watch out cause you can run a risk of the T's getting fang damage due to the adult hissers hard shell) and also a colony of Blaberus discoidalis (false death head). I have had no problem in getting them started and maintaining a decent number. I personally bought mine locally to get started but "blaberus.com" has some excellent information and caresheets so i'd say that would be a good place to start. well hope this helps somewhat
 

Vys

Arachnoprince
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Joined
Sep 22, 2002
Messages
1,560
Crickets kill each other, die for no apparent reason, smell, play (and can be heard through concrete and mountainchains) and make an absolute mess of their enclosure in no time at all. When you're experiencing a bad day, they'll probably also bite you.

Roaches, on the other hand, generally tend to not kill each other, not die for no apparent reason, not smell (well..some do :) ), and absolutely not be galen speleman in the middle of the night(are you Swedish by the way? Your name sounds sort of Swedish). People are generally afraid that they'll escape and infest the house, but I've never really heard of that actually occuring, even with the species you'd think would like it in your apartment.

As for spiders accepting them, hmm. Well, relatively solid crazy burrowers like B.dubia - in my experience, the hungry hungry and more voracious spiders will, but I never managed to get an Avic to eat one for example (even when it could be accessed). The majority of my slings wouldn't eat the nymphs either, in spite of repeated attempts.

The P.nivea roaches I currently use however have been eaten by every spider I currently keep. Nymphs are small enough for the smallest slings, (and generally alot more accepted than B.dubia nymphs for some reason), and while the adults rock for arboreals, they also work for slow terrestrials (with some aiming :) ). As for sating..well, with a zoophoba every now and then they swell like balloons anyway :p

Roaches are most likely easier to rear as a colony, too.

So in conclusion, I don't think you'd regret the switch; just do some research on the roach species that are available beforehand.
 
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iluvspydrz

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
188
i've read that roaches are A LOT easier to breed than crix.. i've also been considering replacing crix with roaches.
 

Brian S

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
May 29, 2004
Messages
6,526
With the exception of Lobster Roaches, the only problem is that most roaches breed much much slower than crickets IME. Of course 1 roach is equal to 3 or 4 crickets so you dont have to feed as often
 
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