Lateralis Colony FAQs

[Vision Geckos]

Hi there,

I noticed there have been a surge of posts about breeding your own feeder insects and I was hoping to start this thread as an FAQ for starting a lateralis roach colony. I do not have the answers to these, but I'm hoping that your answers might lead us, the potential feeder breeders, towards a decision.

• Where does the lateralis roach rank nutritionally amongst the various feeders?
• How often do you feed them? If I had a colony of say 1000, how often would I have to feed them?
• How quickly do they reproduce? Assuming I had a colony of 1000 kept at 80 degrees, what would the numbers look like one month down the road?
• Do they jump? Do they fly?
• Do they smell?
• I have seen that they are quick. Do you think they may be too quick for leopard geckos?
• How do you clean the setup? Do you remove each individual roach and put them in a separate container?
• Do you separate adults from babies and juvies? If so, how?
• How do you collect the egg sacs, and where do you put them?
• How do you go about collecting the roaches during the geckos' feeding time?
• Which roaches do you feed the geckos at feeding time? (adult or juvie, male vs female)

If anybody has any other questions to add to this, please feel free. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Tony C]

Nutrtitonal analysis SOURCE:

Sample Moisture Protein Fat Fiber Ash

B. Laterallis 63.63% 36.5% 5.31% 2.19% 1.95%

B. Dubia 61.18% 35.6% 6.75% 3.25% 2.01%

Meal worms 58.74% 21.0% 15.52% 2.01% 1.18%

Crickets 71.96% 18.5% 6.26% 2.09% 1.29%


I don't really track the feeding of mine, but I would say they eat about a bit less than a similar number of crickets.

They have a reputation for reproducing quickly, but mine have been off to a slow start. I started with 2000, and it was not enough to feed two juvenile beardies and sustain a breeding population.

They do not jump, fly, or climb smooth surfaces.

They have a slightly funky odor, but nowhere near as bad as crickets.

My leos are able to catch them, though not always on the first try.

I clean the setup by transferring the egg crates to a new tub, then catching the remaining few one by one.

I do not separate them, though I do make an effort to avoid feeding off adult females.

I don't collect egg sacs.

At feeding time I shake them from their paper towel rolls or egg crates into a 32oz cup (old fruit fly culture cup), remove any adult females, then dust and feed.

I don't bother to sort by size, as a leo should be able to handle any size lateralis.

 

[Vision Geckos]

Do they make a lot of noise? Do they hiss? If I had a tub of them with a lid on it, would I be able to hear them through the tub?

 

[Tony C]

They are quiet, no hissing or mating calls or anything like that. You may hear them running around sometimes, but that's about it.

 

[STUTFL]

How much do they eat? :tongue3: