Roach Poll!!!

[geckobeginner22]

hey all i am fairly new to the whole leo thing. As of right now i only have 1. It might be a HTCTB(or something like that..lol) right now i am breeding my own mealworms. but my leo does not seem to like them as there is not much movement with worms as there is with crickets. I really hate crickets. I work at a pet store and all they do all day is make noise.. So I would like to start breeding roachs. I am looking for all the information I can on breeding these lil guys. I would like everyone to post what type of roach they use and why? and you can also them why you choose them over another kind of roach.
Also any links/ideas to the care and breeding of the roach you are using would be great..! I cant wait to see all the different kinds of roach's people are using and the reasons. I am going for blaptica dubia right now but lets see if anyone can change my mind!?!?!
Thanks All
..( Sorry if this was done before, if so then please point me to the right link so i am gather info.)

 

[spykerherps]

I feed mainly dubia and thats what I would go with. Highly nutritious if you are feeding them properly and depending on the size you are feeding your gecko they seem to be quite filling. I also keep and breed discoides, lateralis, fusca , and prosticus. though the latter two I have not begun feeding from. their colonies are still too small. Though I will not try to sway you I'd say start with dubia, and probably stick with them. I just have the other species because I like variety and I think my geckos do as well. I believe variety is good for them. I would say 85% of my geckos diet is roaches. I still supplement their diet with crickets and king worms occasionally. and once or twice a year will give them silk worms and Goliath worms.

 

[#19wingnut]

Only been keeping Dubia's for a short time, but I don't think you can go wrong with them. I researched extensively before I decided what type to breed, checked out some roach forums, and although you will find some people that prefer other types of roaches, I found that the vast majority prefer B.Dubia due to the fact that they can't climb smooth surfaces, can't fly(some people claim that adult males can "hover", though most people seem to never have witnessed this), are slower moving than many other species, give birth to live roaches rather than egg sacks, etc. I don't know how they stack up nutritionally compared to other roaches, but I hear that their shell(exoskeleton) is also "softer" than other types of roaches. They seem to require less humidity than most other species as well. All in all, it seems they are the easiest to keep/breed, though there are other types that breed faster and more prolifically, but given that you, like myself, only have one gecko this shouldn't be a concern. I recommend you google search care sheets for each type of roach you are considering and make the comparison(may even be able to find a comparison in your searches). They are apparently considered one of the larger types of roaches but I just feed my nymphs and keep my adults for breeding(my gecko is not yet large enough to eat an adult anyway).

 

[RoninSTi]

I've just placed a small order for some B. Dubia. I've done a ton of research and they seem to be hands down the best. If my gecko eats them (I've read some geckos can be picky about the roaches), I'm going to start my own colony. Two websites you can check out are

theroachranch.com

http://citrusxsandfire.webs.com/bdubia.htm

Good luck.

 

[Redleg]

I recently made the switch over to dubias a couple of months ago. I started with crickets, then mealworms, then phoenix worms, back to cricket/mealworms......they were all a pain to obtain and too long for breeding. And its easy to dust them, supplements stick to them very well.

Did a little research and settled with dubias. The biggest learning curve I had was temperature. Once I was able to maintain the proper temp. the colony took off. I am now feeding my 9 geckos with the original colony I started with.

No noise, and NO smell. Feeding is simple, and very low maintenance......15 minutes a week...at the most.

Don't just give up on your current feed, you need to establish the colony first before feed it off to your leos. When will that be.....that all depends on what you order.

I ordered a mixed lot in sizes and adults as well. I was able to separate the adults and get them started in breeding while I fed the remainder of the colony in limited numbers. Now I have week old nymphs to sub-adults to choose from.

Good Luck!

 

[Keitone]

Why dubias when you can get lateralis for so much cheaper? Dubias seem to run about 10x as much as lateralis.

 

[T-ReXx]

I use both dubia and lateralis. I too would have to give the vote to dubia. The main reason for this is ease of handling. lateralis does breed faster and stays smaller at adult size than dubia(and is also non-climbing, non-flying) but they are WAY faster moving. My leos get mostly dubia, with lats occassionally for variety. I also feed mealies and supers. I feel that lateralis are great for many arboreal geckos(my tokays and cresties LOVE them) but with leos the extra activity isn't really necessary. Both species are very easy to breed and seem to be taken equally well but I just find that dubia are easier to work with on my part.

 

[geckobeginner22]

Are there any bad things about feeding roachs... I heard some people say that they are not good for the leos but I don't understand why.

 

[RoninSTi]

The only bad thing I've ever read is that for some leos the adult roach is too big for them to eat.

 

[Vegas_Eric]

I feed mine both B. Dubia and Lobster Roaches. I would say that most of my leo's prefer lobsters over the dubia.

Some of my largest leo's however will only eat good sized dubia nymphs and even adult male dubias.

To keep the lobster roaches from crawling up the sides of the sterilite tubs I dust them really well in a tall deli cup with repashy calcium.

My baby leo's love lobster roaches more then crickets and mealworms also. I feed them the medium 1/2 to 3/3 inch nymphs and they are happy after eating only 2 or 3.

P.S. one of the cool thing about roaches is that they have more meat to shell ratio then crickets and mealworms, so that means more digestable food for your leo's and less poop! An adult lobster roaches stomach is 3 times larger then a crickets, so that means they get more of the good stuff you feed (gutload) them with then they will every get with a cricket.
1 adult lobster roach is like the equivalent of your leo eating 3 or 4 crickets.

Also adult Lobster Roaches only grow to 1 1/2 inches approximately so any sub adult to adult leo can handle eating them without any problems.

 

[Ga_herps]

After keeping dubia and a couple of other roaches I have come to conclusion that dubias are my favorite. They are very easy to maintain, and as long as you start with a very large colony to counteract the time period for them to take off production should not be problem. I think the one thing to remember though is don't overdue it. If you only have a couple of animals then obviously a small colony is all that is needed. I also breed chams, and some small monitors which both enjoy the dubias, and keep any excess under control.

 

[RoninSTi]

Thought I would update...
I purchased 1000 nymphs and the colony is growing very rapidly. I love how easy they are to maintain, and the lack of smell/noise is awesome! My leo loves chasing them down, my T loves them, and the pacman gobbles them up.

I have a mealworm colony and this dubia colony and that satisfies my needs for now. This will take care of any picky eaters I get in the future.

 

[geckobeginner22]

hey how do you guys get your slower leos to catch the roachs? my leo is alittle on the slow side with hunting. the only time i see it go crazy with hunting is when she is really hungry. thanks in advance guys