Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Several posts down, Ratz and LisaOKC were talking about roaches. I've been looking into starting a colony or two, mainly for my ornates and deserts. They just love fast moving bugs, and I can't seem to keep up with their appetites!

In your opinion, what is the best roach for feeding Box turtles? I'm looking for a roach that is easy to raise, has a lot of babies, and is large enough for an adult Box turtle. I've done some research, and I'm leaning towards Lobster or Discoid roaches. I value practical advice, so what do you all think? Also, please be honest if they're not worth the effort.

Thanks in advance!

I haven't tried the discoid roaches but the lobsters are extremely easy to raise. I have Madagascar hissers too but the large ones are too large, too hard & crunchy so the adult boxies aren't interested in those adults roaches.
The boxies, the frog, the mud turtle will eat the smaller hissers but once they get past an inch or so nobody wants to eat them. When I get too many of them I give them to the Abilene Zoo if I can't find someone else locally to take some off my hands. (oh gosh I just realized my vet recently took in a Savanah monitor lizard, I think I have a gift for that lizard)

The lobsters like the hissers give live birth which makes things easy because I don't have to worry about disturbing eggs. They are softer bodied like crickets so most of the turtles like them better. They have babies ALL the time. Every few months I end up with way too many & have to find a way to get rid of the excess.
I keep them in a fairly large Rubbermaid container with a line of Vaseline around the top, holes punched in the lid & some aspen on the bottom to keep the odor down. They like humidity a bit higher than the hissers do so I keep the lid on all the time. They smell worse than the hissers so that's another reason to keep the lid on all the time.
I feed them a mix of ground up dog food, bird food, rat food.. (the scraps of foods we have around the house anyway) & I mix cereals up in that too.
They like to eat a slice of whole wheat bread too. Hissers seem to like fresh veggies a bit more than lobsters do.

I put one peice of 3 inch PVC pipe in the box so they can have a hide box, a wet paper towel in the water dish to keep it from spilling everywhere..they drink from the wet towel & then I ignore them.
They breed like crazy!
I clean the tub every few weeks or it'll get nasty so I just keep a 2nd tub clean all the time & just scoop them into the clean one when they need to be changed.
They are very fast so I make sure the 2nd tub is set up & ready with the Vaseline before I do the transfer.
This doesn't take up much of my time so to have food available all the time makes it worth my time.
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PHRatz

I am also raising lobster roaches and I think that
they are second only to mealworms as far as "easiness"
to raise.

I use a variety of different sized boxes with hinged
lids and peat moss as a substrate. I mainly feed them
laying mash and apple wedges.

I used to use "bug boundary" to keep them from escaping
but that didn't seem to work with the babies, so I've
started using vaseline recently and found that it works
better, except that it is a pain to deal with when cleaning
the container (how do you wash vaseline off?).

Prior to using the vaseline, the boxes I have have a thin crack at the lid hinge, so a smaller roach(and occasionally a large one) could get out if it really wanted to, but that hasn't been
too big of a problem. I keep paper towel tubes and egg crates in with them. They are less likely to climb the walls if they have some hiding places.

I've found them easy to deal with, interesting to watch and I've gotten pretty comfortable handling them. They don't bite at all(at least they haven't bitten me.)

I would say the adults and sub-adults are perfect sizes for adult boxies and then you've got a range of juveniles and babies to feed younger turtles or other reptiles.

The smallest baby roach is perfect for the smallest hatchling turtle.

Highly recommended!

>>
>>I used to use "bug boundary" to keep them from escaping
>>but that didn't seem to work with the babies, so I've
>>started using vaseline recently and found that it works
>>better, except that it is a pain to deal with when cleaning
>>the container (how do you wash vaseline off?).
>>

I scrape/rub the vaseline with papers towels first, then I just use hot soapy water to wash the rest of it off the container. Seems to work ok so far.
I live in a dry climate so I have to leave the top on their container to keep the humidity up.
They do better this way whereas the hissers do better with the lid off.
I don't have any escapees in the lobster tub, I have an occasional hisser escape with vaseline around the rim.
-----
PHRatz

I have to put in a plug for blaptica dubias. I raise them for my bearded dragon and my EBT. I like the dubias because they can't climb smooth surfaces so they're very easy to contain in a Rubbermaid tub. They do take a little longer than the lobsters to get a colony established, but they're very easy to care for and both animals love them. I used to use crickets, but roaches are so much nicer. My dubias have no smell, no escapes, and no parasites. What more could I ask from a feeder insect?