Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what are some of the animal foods that a box can have? i only thought that worms where used, but the last post said something about roaches. besides those two what eles can they have? what are the easiest to raise and breed for food?
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1.5 Common Mud Turtles
0.0.2 R.E.S.
0.0.1 Map Turtle
1.2 Russian Tortoises
0.1.1 Gulfcost/Three Toed Boxturtles
0.1 Eastern Box Turtle
1.0 Hamsters
3.0 Dogs
2.3 Family

A lot of the same things that aquatic turtles eat... earthworms, mealworms, crickets, waxworms, hissing roaches, veggies,greens, non-citrus fruits.

pinkies, chicks, and wild boxies would readily eat carion if given the chance.
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1.2.1 Terrapene Carolina Triunguis
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1.1 Melopsittacus undulatus
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The Madagascar hissing cockroaches are easy to raise but none of my turtles or other herps want to eat the full grown adults so I always end up having to get rid of a few pounds of them when I have too many.
The Caribbean lobster roaches are even easier to raise than the hissers. They're smaller and softer than the hissers, they are about the size of a cricket easy to eat like a cricket, but like the hissers they are live bearers that do not fly. I don't want any flying roaches in my house!
They breed like crazy, I never run out of food as long as I have them. Like a cricket vitamin/calcium powder sticks to the lobster roaches very well, it won't stick well on the hissers.
All my turtles like the lobster roaches. My gecko is the only herp who won't recognize them as food.
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PHRatz

ok so where can i get these feeders? i dont trust the people at my local pet store what is a good web page to get this stuff from?
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1.5 Common Mud Turtles
0.0.2 R.E.S.
0.0.1 Map Turtle
1.2 Russian Tortoises
0.1.1 Gulfcost/Three Toed Boxturtles
0.1 Eastern Box Turtle
1.0 Hamsters
3.0 Dogs
2.3 Family

Where to get them... hmmmm good question. I got my starter colonies from friends but I'd bet that you can find feeders like these at herp shows. The person who got me started on the lobster roaches I believe did get hers at a herp show in the first place.

As for mail order, I had a problem with my hissers once, I wrote to this guy at:
http://www.snuggeybug.com/index.html
He was very helpful even though I bought nothing from him.
Since he'd help a person who's not even buying anything from him, he's probably a good person to buy things from.

My problem with them was that they had mites. It's normal for them to carry a few mites that are exclusive to them without harm to them or any other species... but my problem was that the mites had gone overboard and were causing problems. I tried predator mites but that didn't work. The man from Snuggeybug suggested shaking them up in a bag full of regular old cooking flour to knock the mites off of them, so I did it & it worked! lol
I'm sure if you did a Google search on Caribbean lobster roaches, you'd find someone who sells them.
My box turtles are ornates which means they are a little more carnivorous than the other box species so my boxies, my aquatics, & my frog really like these roaches for food.
I like breeding them because then I know what food is in the bugs before my herps eat them.
Good luck on your search for feeder bugs.
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PHRatz

i have heard of gutloading for crickets can this be done with roaches as well? if so do you know how? i keep 3 toed/gulf coast hybrids? and a eastern. but i also have some res and som muds can they all eat these?
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1.5 Common Mud Turtles
0.0.2 R.E.S.
0.0.1 Map Turtle
1.2 Russian Tortoises
0.1.1 Gulfcost/Three Toed Boxturtles
0.1 Eastern Box Turtle
1.0 Hamsters
3.0 Dogs
2.3 Family

My yellow mud especially loves to eat the roaches, my western painted will eat the mid sized lobsters & the smallest hissers, he's picky about the larger bugs.
The boxies all like the mid sized hissers & the adult lobsters.

Gut loading them is just feeding them. I feed them a mixture of whole grain cereals, veggies, fruits & sometimes herp pellets.. if I have a pellet that I've bought to try & the herps refuse it, it gets ground up for bug food.
Most herp pellets aren't much different ingredient wise from dog food so I also use a high end dog kibble mixed with the left overs of the Harrison's organic parrot food, left overs from the bottom of the bag of PMI Lab Diet rat food, all ground up together in the food processor.
For a treat both species like a slice of whole wheat bread, the hissers also like a leaf of lettuce thrown in.
The better they eat, the better they breed.
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PHRatz