Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking of using Roaches as an alternative to crickets. From what I have been reading they are pretty easy to take care of and a good source of food. What size roaches do I need to be able to feed to a 4 month old beardie? Also I would appreciate any other helpful hints or good places to purchase roaches. Thanks.

All my babies are raised on roaches. I think they are great and all my BDs love 'em.

Lobsters are fine for babies but only get 1" long so they are about the size of crix. I find it easier to feed larger roaches like blaberous. Contact me off list and I can get you some more info.
-----
Bennett

beardiedragon.com
Home of the Florida Orange

Hi!

I just placed an order the other day for some lobster roaches from the Worm Man's worm farm. (also crickets to hold me over). Since I have a BD and a young Crested gecko to feed, I figured these smaller live-bearers would be easier for me.

Does anyone have any idea how many I would need to hold back to breed? Our CG is like 7 grams and the BD is like 76g/12-13" long.

I swore I wouldn't get roaches, but the live bearers sound so much easier than dealing with crickets and moving the laying bins of dirt around, etc... and my hubby is starting to complain about all the pet food bills (well, we've got a little managerie going here LOL) I'm hoping my 11 yr old daughter will take over the roaches ROFL ... their class pets last year were madagascar hissing cockroaches *ick*

-Bonnie
1.0 husband
1.3 2-legged kids
1.1 maltese/husky
1.0 tabby cat
1.0 pionus parrot
1.0 bearded dragon
0.0.1 crested gecko

I started with lobsters and they are small for BD's and they climb glass. But I wanted something that breed fast so that I could get away from crix. I started with 250 lobsters for 20 bucks. bought 2000 crix for 20 bucks. After going through those crix's I have feed off of the lobsters the whole time.

during that time I have gotten some discoids to start feeding off. Had them now for about 6 months and they are doing great. Started with 12 and around 300 now and feed a few of them off.

So imho I would say go with the discoids they don't climb and they are bigger for when your dragon is ready for adults. Just feed off the babies and in no time your dragon will be feeding off of adults. Lobsters just suck cause they climb glass and plastic and you have to feed alot of them at a time. They are alot better then crix though cause they are loaded with meat and not water.

I appreciate sharing your experiences. I don't like the fact that lobsters can climb. It took me long enough to convice my wife that roaches would be a better alternative than the crickets so I think I will try the discoids. Thanks again.

Well since I keep more and breed more roaches than anyone I will chime in. It really takes an ideal set-up and a person not fearful of roaches for me to recommend lobsters. Blaptica dubia are my number one roach, and discoids and orange heads are also good feeders. I sell thousands of these roaches every month to hobbiest and large reptile breeders. Roaches are very easy to keep and breed and if you have a little patience you can build a colony to feed as much as you want. Read some of the documents under our Help & Support section to learn more about varoius species. You can see my ads in the classifieds.
James
www.check the classifieds for blaberus because I don't want to get in forum prison!!!