Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My BDs love their roaches. They get fed a wide variety of food to raise them up. Before feeding them to BDs however, they get fed the same thing the BDs do, sometimes even repcal pellets.

yes that is a turkey leg

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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

Good eaters ! Have a question about these guys, are they hard to bred? I have heard not, but never actually looked into it (YET) !

The reason I ask, is I have a pair of uroplatus henkeli
(Big leaftail geckos) and their main food in Madagascar where they are from , is the hisser cockroach .

Problem I have is, I'm into all the reptiles, alone.

Hubby admires them from a distance, he says he has accepted a houseful of my critters, but would draw the line at bringing HUGE ROACHES into the house, hahahahhahah

I don't see any diffrence between having thousands of crickets, he does not mind them. Just the thought of roaches , people dont like !

Thanks !
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Eve

I feed roaches as well - my beardie loves them (preferes them to crickets) And no they are not hard to keep.
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Russ

Appreciate it ! Now if I can talk the big guy into it, hehehe !

How many do you start with in order to breed?
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Eve

depends on how fast you want to get sustainable breeding colony. I started w/ 50ish near adults; got them at a reptile show for $10 ('bout what I spent in crickets each week). I hear the average is to figure it will take somewhere between 6-9 months to get up to a sustainable colony.
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Russ

wow you got a deal. I have seen them sell between $.50 and $6 each depending on size & quantity. Some people buy them as pets just like scorpians and spiders.

It varies but if you want to figure it out, figure each female can have an average of 50 babies a year minimum (up to 3 clutches of 20-30+ ea). 1/2 will be female. those babies will have babies in about 1-1 1/2 years. you need a ratio of about 1:5 males to females. You need to feed the roaches to your BD before they get full grown, anywhere from 3-6 months old. BDs can eat 4-6 at a time, sometimes more depending on the BD and the size of the roach.

Here is a female with about 50 newborns

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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

What species of roach does the data relate to?
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Russ

cost to start them up so forth ! Because I still have to continue to breed crickets also.

I have alot of smaller lizards I breed, collareds, emerald swifts, Oh and frogs, who would still have to have crickets !

The bigger leaftail geckos, and other bigger lizards I have could eat the roaches, if its not too expensive.

Also that pic you showed holding a roach, amazing, this is going to sound weird, but it is actually a goodlooking bug !

Thanks again guys, If I need some more info, I may BUG, you both, hehehhhe (get it???) Oh my !
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Eve

"I have alot of smaller lizards I breed, collareds, emerald swifts, Oh and frogs, who would still have to have crickets !"

Acutally, I feed my tree frogs and anole immature roaches. Discoid babies are 'bout 1/4 inch. I put them into the enclosure in a taller glass petri dish to keep them from buroughing into the substrate and by the next morning the little critters are all gone. I had to switch everybody 'cuz I just can't stand the smell of breeding crickets.
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Russ

a definite smell. I keep the crickets clean too, but they still have an offensive odor at times! Weird smell!
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Eve

yes that is for hissers but death heads are pretty much the same I believe (never did a true count). Lobsters are much more prolific.
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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

They are relitively easy to breed once you get the hang of it. There are a few special thing to keep in mind.
Temps: they need to be kept warm 85-90F.
Humidity: needs to be med-high. Too much and the cage becomes a mess.
Food: they eat just about anything but a good diet will get them to grow and reproduce better. Strangely enough, different roaches prefer different foods and mine are actually picky about their meals (my wife spoils them)
Housing: needs to be DARK

If you want more info, or want to try a few to see how it goes, contact me off list.

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Bennett

www.beardiedragon.com

>>My BDs love their roaches. They get fed a wide variety of food to raise them up. Before feeding them to BDs however, they get fed the same thing the BDs do, sometimes even repcal pellets.
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>>yes that is a turkey leg
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>>Bennett
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>>www.beardiedragon.com
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Kylie

AIM: MatchFlameStick
ike

You should post that pic on an insect phobia board... ; )