i am thinking about starting a roach colony

^^ few questions on roaches..

are ALL the roaches available as feeders flightless?
are there any that are more nutritional than otherse?

as everone else i want the flightless, and the ones that dont climb.

i will probably order from LLLREPTILE as they are always cheap, unless anyone knows any place that has them cheaper?

about how many roaches do i need to get in order for a colony to progress in a timely manner. i know it increases exponentially. and i am just curious as to how many you guys started off with?

they seem so expensive even being just roaches, but i guess if they start breeding it will pay off. but crickets smell awful, and i think its ridiculous to pay 10cents a piece for them when usually half of them die, and its hard to not have any loose ones crawlin around.

i read also that some chams wont eat them, my cham is a 2y/o M veiled, who has just conquered his superworm addiction, i assume that they will all eat them if they get hungry enough??? kind of wing him off worst case scenario?

i hear roaches dont stink like crickets. do they stink at all? my crickets will stink up a whole room they have to go in a extra bedroom, they are so stinky. are they really odor free?

they dont stink and some just dont like them. get about 100 or so depending on how much u will spend and the amount of time u would like them to take.

dubia roaches cant fly, cant jump, dont stink, cant climb, and they are slow as heck.
where as turkistan roaches breed like crazy, are fast, can climb, but cant fly, dont stink and cant jump. chams are more interested in turks. turks are cheap as heck. u can get any kind of roach for the cheapest price available at www.aaronpauling.com

i cup feed my cham, if i got the turk roaches would they be able to climb out of the container? the crickets cannot

when you say that dubia cant climb i assume they are just as capable as the crickets? or they cannot climb vertical...


how big do they get? bigger than any cricket i would assume?

dubias cannot climb anything while others like hissers can climb glass. they get about 4-5 cm. im trying to start using the metric sys so bear with me. 2.5 in or so. when i feed turks my cham eats them so fast they dont have a chance to react.

i cant seem to find turks on aaronpauling website.. i see he has lobsters that are 100 for 8$ how are those?

budthecham said:

i cup feed my cham, if i got the turk roaches would they be able to climb out of the container? the crickets cannot
when you say that dubia cant climb i assume they are just as capable as the crickets? or they cannot climb vertical...
how big do they get? bigger than any cricket i would assume?

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As far as I know turks cant climb either. I've been keeping them in a container without a lid and so far so good
Check out my site, I have a few roach breeders listed to choose from:
http://www.freewebs.com/lbesok/commerciallinks.htm

are turks among the smaller roaches? i would like to feed him something large at least a large cricket size or bigger. where can i find those for cheap.

anyone use lobsters? they look appealing cause of the cost

Adult turks are a little longer and as meaty as a cricket. Great for smaller and medium sized chams. The thing about lobsters is they are fast and can climb, so I wouldn't recommend going with them. Dubia are great! I'd recommend going with ken the bug guy for the turks......

when you say lobsters can climb will the be able to climb out of my cupfeeder?

so basically i should go with dubia or turks?

i would consider my cham as a large cham. when i cup feed mealworms he usually gets about 3 with one tongue shot and loves pinkies.

dubia are larger than turks? how fast are dubias breeding

I made the mistake of getting lobsters the first time I bought roaches--they ARE appealing based on their cost...but trust me, it's worth the money just to spend a little more and get something that you will be happy with. In my experience, lobsters are just TOO fast, can climb way too easily, and basically have to be hand fed one by one in order to ensure that none escape your feeder cup. They are creepy too...they DO breed like crazy, but they are also VERY very hardy...which is scary. I dealt with them as best as a could for a few weeks and then it was into the bearded dragon cages they went, every last one of them!! (Or so I thought...) At least three months later...I found one under the garbage can in the bathroom!! They are a lot of work...If i were you I would get a hundred or so dubias and start a colony...much easier to deal with!!!

I have heard that Turks can reproduce out of their environment unlike the Dubia. The breed at lower temps or something like that. That and the size is what differentiate one another.

Just what I have heard from a couple of people.

budthecham said:

i cant seem to find turks on aaronpauling website.. i see he has lobsters that are 100 for 8$ how are those?

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blatta lateralis aka turkistan

Yes, lObster can climb out of a feeding cup or keeping bin.
Dubia are the most prolific in the herp industry. They are a variety of sizes depending on the age, and yes are much meatier than turks. When kept warm (mine are in the garage) they breed quickly, but i'm not going to lie it takes a lil time and patience to get them going...When we first got ours we didn't feed out of them for a month or so to get um going good.

I have had hissers for years, and more recently got some Turks.

I love my hissers!
pros: beautiful, big, slow, interesting and amusing territory rituals between males, females actually care for the young for a time
cons: they climb (espcially the young ones), not the fastest breeders, adults are too big to feed to chameleons (not a big deal, just feed off at younger age), hard to tell males from females until they are middling age (a practised eye can tell sooner).

Turks are alreadys showing their worth:
pros: breed quickly! dont climb, and the winged males dont seem to want to fly, adults are a good size (like a large, fat cricket, so you can offer a couple of these roaches at a time)
cons: boring, fast (not extra fast though, still quite managable), adult males are easily distiguished from adult females (so you can feed off most of the males and still grow the colony)

I've not tried any other types, but I think my vote goes with the Turks because they are easy, non-climbers.

Try the dubia first.

They don't climb, they don't smell, they don't fly. They eat almost anything. I would definitely cup feed though. I have some for sale in the Misc for sale section. I'd start with 75 mixed and buy a few adults so the breeding starts right away. They need 80-90 degrees to breed.

THECHAMMAN said:

blatta lateralis aka turkistan

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on aaron pauling it says the males can fly? whats the deal on that

I love dubias! Best bugs ever.

THECHAMMAN said:

blatta lateralis aka turkistan

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do the turks fly? i have heard yes and no, on the AAron pauling website he sells 1000 for 22bux. that seems like the way to go, and they breed fast.

now i am stuck between a Dubia and a Turk...

how fast do the Dubia breed...

i need some help on deciding

and i HAVE to cup feed if that makes a difference my screen grid is too large, they should both be fine for this??

budthecham said:

are turks among the smaller roaches? i would like to feed him something large at least a large cricket size or bigger. where can i find those for cheap.

anyone use lobsters? they look appealing cause of the cost

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I use the lobsters, and so far I have not had problems with them. My cham loves them and so does my gecko. I do have to watch my cham to make sure he is eating them, but a good technique I use is to put vaseline on the container where I feed him to prevent from any of them escaping. They are fast, but not fast enough for Marty.

I haven't tried any Dubias, and I assume they are way better, but right now I'm pretty satisfied with the lobsters. I just hope my colony doesn't get out of control. So far they are fine, but I've only had them for maybe 2 months.

Does anyone have any specific details for feeding the dubia?
I have started my own small colony and would like to feed my chams from them. I understand it may take a month or so before I can actually get to that stage, but I have the patience.

Any info is greatly appreciated, i.e
What to feed them,
The ideal temperature for breeding
When is the point to start taking them for food?

etc