Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I would like to start breeding them and feed my dragons roaches and do away with crickets. I cant stand the smell, sound, and all around BS that comes with crickets. I had some questions about roach breeding and care.

First im looking for a non-climbing/non-flying roach. My girlfriend would freak out if she new they could fly or climb out.

Next how many would i need to start a good size colony and what should be used to house them. i was thinking perhaps a rubbermaid garbage can and moddify it with screen so it has ventilation.

What would be a good staple diet for them.

How long do they take to start producing and how many should i expect. How often should i cycle the breeders.

Any other good info that you might have on housing/breeding that might help me start would be fantastic!
thanks a ton

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0.1.0 Adopted Beardie (Sissy)
0.1.0 Chris Allen Red/Orange (Vicky)
1.0.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtles (Radar)

Leos
1.3.0 SHTCT Baldy
0.2.0 SHCT
0.2.0 SHT
0.4.0 Hypo Tangerine
0.1.0 High Yellow
0.1.0 Jungle
0.1.0 Tremper Albino
1.0.0 Tangerine Tremper Albino
1.0.0 Pattenless
0.1.0 Blizzard

Only 2 more eggs cooking for the year

First of all congratulations on your decision. Crickets are wicked nasty creatures to deal with and was the main reason I was getting fed up with some of my herps.

There are a few great species of roaches that are great breeders and non-climbers. Discoids (Blaberus discoidalis)and orange-spots (Blaptica dubia)are the first 2 species that come to mind for availabilty and production. There is also another species out there called the Turkistan roach (Blatta lateralis) that is smaller as an adult(more cricket size) thqat are supposed to be very prolific as well as being non-climbers. I recommend no fewer than 100 to start with and then. I use 58 qt Sterilite (rubbermaid) bins (wal-mart about $5) for mine with eggcrates to hide in. because they don't climb you can either leave the lid off or drill holes in the top. I also don't use any substrate just a bare bottom container for easier clean-up.

As far as feeding them there are a number of commercial products out there. I feed mine dry dog food, Rodent chow, collard greens, romaine lettuce, apples, carrots, bananas, sweet potato, etc they are roaches and they will eat anything (another great thing about roaches). Remember whatever you feed your roaches your herp is eating as well. I have even fed them cans of monitor food because I had got some really, really cheap and the monitors won't touch it.

The time to start production will vary on enviromental factor such as temp, diet etc. I have never found a need to cycle the breeders. Just keep the colony well maintained and you will have roaches for the rest of your life and then some(still another great thing about roaches).

But wait there's more...

Once you get your colony going you will almost always have a variety of different sizes of roaches for all your herp from the youngest hatchling to the biggest adults. Did I mention roaches don't smell, they don't make noise and they have a higher meat to shell ratio than crickets. In other words they are the perfect feeder insect.......

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Joe

"Life is a banquet and most poor fools are starving to death"

1.2 Amel Motleys het Snow
0.1 Snow Motley
1.1 Emory Rats het Albino
0.1 Albino Emory Rat
1.1 Taiwan Beauties
0.0.3 Yellow Ackies
and a Partridge in a pear tree
actually he's a Blue & Gold Macaw

jojobear, you sure sound like you know what you're doing. Where can I order either species (it sounds like they are equally perfect.)? What temperatures and humidity do they prefer? I need to get started quick, crickets are making me go berserckus!

Ian

Did you notice it didn't take long to convince me not to breed them crix

Here are a couple of sites that have good information & caresheets on lots of roaches and I've heard both are good sites to purchase roaches. I haven't purchased through either of them, I bought my starter colony at a Reptile show. Before I found my Discoids at the reptile show I was planning to order through BugChick, she was running a sale on them last month:

www.bugchick.com/
www.bigappleherp.com/

To start my colony I bought 35 adults and 20 sub-adults. I've only had them 3 weeks right now, but I do have babies already. It will be a few months before I have enough to start feeding them off to my Leos. I am keeping my main colony in a very large plastic tub, I don't remember the capacity size but it measures about 30"Lx18"Wx18"H. I have a 2nd smaller tub, 62 quart size, that I will eventually use to house the "feeder" size in.

I have either dealt with or recommend the following:

http://www.doubleds.org I have dealt with these guys and they are great packed very well and super customer service.

www.blaberus.com James is a member here and is always willing to go that extra mile to help out and he has a really great website for all kinds of info on breeding and setting up your roaches.
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Joe

"Life is a banquet and most poor fools are starving to death"

1.2 Amel Motleys het Snow
0.1 Snow Motley
1.1 Emory Rats het Albino
0.1 Albino Emory Rat
1.1 Taiwan Beauties
0.0.3 Yellow Ackies
and a Partridge in a pear tree
actually he's a Blue & Gold Macaw

There are lots of good species. The two most popular are the Blaptica dubia and the Blaberus discoids. I always recommend Dubia to my customers as a first choice becasue they are so mellow and easy to work with. There are many places selling them and good care info. They are very easy to keep and breed and dragons go crazy for them.
James

P.S. Very nice dragon!!!

This has been a problem to overcome in my search for roaches.

Ian