Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone fed roaches to their box turtles?
I'm looking into aquiring some lobster roaches to breed
for feeders but it occured to me that I have no idea if they would like them.

Thanks for any info!

Lisa,
I breed lobster roaches for mine. All my turtles love them, the box turtles and the aquatics.
One problem: they are very fast running insects.
I feed them to the box turtles using hemostats because I have to kind of mess them up a little to keep them from running away before the turtle can catch it.
Well except for Janie who will take the bug right off the hemostats before it even hits the ground.
They are very EASY to breed too.
Good luck with this!
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PHRatz

I'm so glad to hear that. I'm tired of trying to breed crickets, and tired of the smell. I'm sure I'll still buy them occasionally but I need something that I can breed to keep cost down. I haven't bought any mealworms since 2001 since they are so easy to breed. I'm having limited success with superworms, but I still have to buy some occasionally.

Crickets are really high maintenance and if you get babies to hatch, they dry up really fast if you don't keep them hydrated enough

So, I've been reading about how easy lobster roaches are to breed and I bought 10 at a reptile show a couple of weeks ago.
I'm down to five due to escapes (I have a cat that LOVES to try to get into my bug boxes) so I think I'll set up a large container and order 100 adults, but I wanted to make sure turtles liked them. I've heard vaseline will keep them from climing out.

> I've heard vaseline will keep them from climing out.

Yes Vaseline works wonderfully. I line all my roach boxes with a layer of it near the top & it really does keep them in.
I got a cup of roaches from a friend 2 years or so ago & they bred like crazy right off the bat. All you have to do is make sure the have a water source which is easy, just use a plastic lid from some sort of container and keep a wetted down folded paper towel in the lid, that gives them the water they need. Food, just feed them a mixture of grains, cereals, etc. then they breed like crazy.
They give live birth, the babies are born white. I've seen them newly born, the mama will stay with them & hide them under her body until they turn brown, then they're on their own.
They stink too but I keep mine in Rubbermaid boxes, punch small holes in the lids with the tops on the boxes that will keep the odor way down.
I haven't tried superworms yet but I breed mealies too, they are easy once you get the hang of it. I had trouble with the first couple of batches when I first started trying but now that I've got it down, I always have mealies around as well.
It's kind of a hassle to have all these bugs because I do have to clean their containers about once a month because they just get to stinky if I don't but it's so nice to never run out of herp food!
btw, I have 2 containers for the lobsters. I keep them in one, then keep the other one empty. When I clean them out I just transfer them to the second already cleaned container & then I clean the one they're in & store it. That's much easier than trying to put them in something else while I clean their tub.
I use a laundry soap scoop to get them out of the dirty container & into the clean one.
A hassle in a way but cheap well fed food for my turtles is worth it.
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PHRatz