Sorry I read this a few days ago and didnt have time to give a thorough repsonse then, since nonbody replied, heres my opinion..... Hands down, crickets suck. First off, Crickets are way too noisy, you put a few crickets together and they will annoy the crap out of you. get a mass of crickets together and it will be unbearable. Second, crickets die way too quick, I'm not certain of the life span but I think crickets live a few weeks, unless you buy your cricket supply as needed and feed them all off right away, you will notice that they have like a 50% mortality rate(unsure of numbers, just a guestimation but it is high). If you buy them in mass, say 1000 from the net, you may end up getting to use maybe 500 of them. Third, crickets in general stink, especially in numbers, then factor in the amount that die and add to the stink, and you have a stinking mess on your hands, with a bunch of dead carcasses to clean up...... Now to roaches. Roaches in general are extremely hardy and easy to care for, keep them warm, dark, watered, and fed and they will be good to go and take off in time. They are silent, and have little to no smell. Definitely alot less than crickets. Nutrition is up to debate but I think they are better. Be careful what you get, many can climb and fly. You have many many choices but the two that I would reccomend are b lateralis and b dubia. I personally have both. They are both a non-climbing, "non-flying" species. The males have wings and can jump and "glide" a foot or so but cannot just up and fly across the room. As far as non infesting, the argument goes that a majority of the roaches on the market are tropical and need heat to survive. If you put them in a less than 75 degree house they will be too cold to live and produce and will die off. b dubia are a little more pricey and get larger fr your larger animals, approx 2 inches, and I like them because they are usually extremly slow, if you accidently drop one or two, they are easy to catch and pick up. b lateralis are lot cheaper and they stay about the size of crickets so are good for your smaller animals. The benefit is they breed like crazy when kept warm and are extremely cheap. One guy has them as rusty reds on the ads and sells I think 1000 of them for around $20. The only thing is they are extremely fast, if you drop one or two of these, good luck. I have a shop vac in the room that I use to get the strays becuase they are usualy too fast to catch by hand in a open room, but it is do-able. Since im ramblng on, what are you trying to feed? what you choose really depends on what you are trying to feed.... Jon
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1.1.1 breeding pair blue tongue skinks w/ juv. offspring
1.0.0 Juv. Albino Bullfrog
0.0.2 Giant Pixie Frog (one juv. and one adult)
1.1.0 Clawed frogs
1.1.0 Albino Clawed frogs
0.0.1 Superlight juv Sulcatta
0.0.2 Fly river turtles
0.0.2 Savannah Monitors (one pastel)
0.2.0 juv pastel Columbian boas
1.1.0 monster pink pastel columbian boas
1.2.0 Hypo Hog boas
1.0.0 Hypo boa
1.1.0 Hypo boa babies, Poss. DH sunglow
0.2.0 Hypo poss. DH sunglow
1.0.0 Coral albino boa (my baby)
and
1.2.0 Pomeranians (the wifes babies)
