Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what is best feeder roaches for babys beardies and for adults beardies?

I breed bearded dragons and have found that ALL roaches are absolutely awesome for them! You can't really go wrong. But here are a few notes on the species that may help you deciede.

Baby beardeds are so small that it's hard to find small enough dubia and discoids for them to eat. Not very economical either because baby beardeds have such a big appetite. For babies beardeds I like small Blatta lateralis, they are small and easy to digest. The species breeds very very well too. (I harvest egg cases from my laterilis colony and put them into a smaller container of their own. Then when the cases hatch they are all about the same size and easy to feed to the beardies)

For young subadult to adult beardeds, you can't go wrong w/ medium to medium/large sized dubia or discoids. By far the best insects to feed adult beardeds. I preffer to feed mediums sized dubia/discoids because they seem to have the highest meat-to-shell ratio. I also keep the large ones as breeders so I don't kill my roach colony by feeding them off. Obviously, if you are feeding a small subadult dragon you shoud use smaller dubia or discoids.

Lobsters are probably the best breeders of these roaches but they are remarkably good at escaping from cages and roach bins. Also, they are so fast and can climb glass and plastic; so its kinda hard for the beardeds to catch them. But, these are probably to and easiest to get to breed and might require the lowest amount of care. (They WILL escape from you containers though!!)

Hope this helps!!