Posted by:
James Tu
at Fri May 30 10:41:31 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by James Tu ]
People sometimes get upset if I say a food item is better than another. I believe for several reasons that roaches are one of the best food items. I raised and very successfully breed frilled dragons on roaches. There are several reason I prefer them over crickets and mealworms. First off they can live for 1-2 years and are easy to breed. Second, the eat anything so you can gutload them. I feed mine a blend of dog food, lab chow, bran, and oats, plus they get a daily slice of apple, orange, carrot, or whatever else I have. With crickets they usually smell and there are a lot of little things you have to do to breed them, which is why there are so many breeding farms because most people don't want to spend the time it takes. Mealworms are a little easier, but you still have to seperate the worms, get the beetles, and then get them to lay eggs. With roaches you just keep them all together in their rubbermaid container on top of a good heat source and they breed and breed and breed. There are a few downsides are; like dealing with the climbing species (hisseres and lobsters) can be tricky. They females usually have around 20-40 babies and the babies take 3 months to become adults so getting a good breeding colony takes time. Although one advantage is most people feed them off at 1-2 months old depending on their size, and they usually weight much more than the same sized cricket or mealworm. Certain species like orange heads put off a defense musk that can be strong it you have hundreds of them, although it is not a constant stick like crickets. One last thing to add. I found even animals that where tough feeder always jumped after the roaches. I think they are a very natural food items , and most reptiles really love them. I would recommend going with a non-climbing species. There are a few good one I will list in the order I like.
1. Blaptica dubia (orange spotted)
2. Eublaberus distanti (4-spot)
3. Eublaberus prosticus (orange head)
4. Blaberus craniifer (death head)
5. Blaberus discoidales (discoid)
I would check the feeder classifieds or do a search on the web. If you use the species name most of the sites are in German or Chinese, but you will find some people selling them. Roaches are very popular feeder in other parts of the world. One of these days I will build a website.
James
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RE: best feeders for a Bearded Dragon? - James Tu, Fri May 30 10:41:31 2003