Question about roaches

chamlover

chamlover

New Member
Hi Everybody,
I am fairly new to this forum and everybody seems really nice and knowledgeable about chams, so i am happy to be a part of this group. Now for my question. As much as i hate the idea of roaches, i also hate the crickets and i am starting to consider getting roaches instead or at least in additon to. But from what i have been reading,it is really important to feed the roaches high protein cat or dog food. And that is what worries me. Is this going to cause a problem to the chams with it being too high in protein? Should i not give them dog food and just give them vegeis? If i do that then i won't have very healthy roaches though right? HELP. Or should i just feed them occasionally roaches and not worry about it?

Thanks,
Debby
 
Not sure what anyone else thinks but i get my gutloads from cricketfood.com, they sell worm cricket and roach food kind of expensive but when you look at what is in it you couldnt make it for what they sell it for just a suggestion i havent ever done anything with roaches yet but when i get a cham i will so i have been reading a little. when i say i get my gutloads it is for a bearded dragon and the crickets i feed it they dont need as much a variety as chameleons seem too want.
 
chamlover said:
Hi Everybody,
I am fairly new to this forum and everybody seems really nice and knowledgeable about chams, so i am happy to be a part of this group. Now for my question. As much as i hate the idea of roaches, i also hate the crickets and i am starting to consider getting roaches instead or at least in additon to. But from what i have been reading,it is really important to feed the roaches high protein cat or dog food. And that is what worries me. Is this going to cause a problem to the chams with it being too high in protein? Should i not give them dog food and just give them vegeis? If i do that then i won't have very healthy roaches though right? HELP. Or should i just feed them occasionally roaches and not worry about it?

Thanks,
Debby
Click to expand...

i don't give my roaches catfood or dogfood.
I gave them premium advanced gutload from cricketfood.com and fruit and veggies.
so far they have survive and just start multiplying.
Yes! giving a catfood filled roaches to your cham can increase the risk of gout.

Some people gave their roaches catfood and dogfood and separate the roaches that are about to be fed and cleanse their body for 24 to 48 hours by feeding the roaches with healthy gutload for cham.

I am just too lazy doing that. So far, i see no nibbled roaches wings. and they seem to be content with what i fed them.
And, yes.. although i hate roaches, i slowly start to be more and more tolerant. I just love the fact that they are muuuuccccchhhh muuuuuchhhh cleaner than crix.
 
chamlover said:
Should i not give them dog food and just give them vegeis? If i do that then i won't have very healthy roaches though right? HELP. Or should i just feed them occasionally roaches and not worry about it?
Debby
Click to expand...


Completely untrue!
Roaches do not need dog or cat food to be healthy.
Roaches can do well on vegetables alone for months and months.
All roach, cricket, zoophoba worm, etc. diet should contain a little protein and the gut load
should definitely include it.
Occasionally feeding some cooked or dried egg yolk is a good way to provide protein.

-Brad
 
Roaches

I have been breeding roaches for a while now and i prefer to use catfood and feed veggies once to twice a week. My roaches breed out of control on this diet and it is VERY inexpensive. For some species, if they don't get enough protein they will eat the wings off of the other roaches. Giving them access to protein regularly, i have found, is a good practice in roach care.
 
For my roaches i use the nutrient diet food from blapticadubia.com (which my crickets love as well) and vegetables twice a week.
 
Thanks guys for all the info. Yes i hate the idea, but everybody keeps on saying they are soooo much cleaner than crickets. I think i will try that commercial gutload and then just add vegies to it.
 
I've been keeping my roaches and letting them multiplly. I rotate carrots and apples everyday and I give them a high-protien fish flake (becuase I don't have fish, but I have fish food) and they seem to be doing fine.

I really don't like crickets though.
 
spatulars said:
Crickets don't seem that dirty? How are roaches cleaner?
Click to expand...

dubias are not the normal roaches that you see in dirty houses.
Don't assume that they are the same.

For example, Cricket poops pretty much every 3 seconds :D.
Within a day or two, your cricket keepers are already stink all the way to heaven.
My roaches doesn't stink at all. It's been a month since i put them in the glass aquarium.
And the aquarium has no odor at all. and the poops are minimal (compared to crix).
 
spatulars said:
Crickets don't seem that dirty? How are roaches cleaner?
Click to expand...

How many crickets do you have at a time? i usually order either 1 or 2 thousand at a time, and when passing by there rubbermaid storage home, you can definetly smell them, with roaches, you have to stick your head in the container to smell them, and it's not dirty smelling like the cricket container.
 
Smell

I keep 6 different species in my pet room and there is no odor... I'll have 1,000 crickets in there and you about fall over when you hit the door. Part of the reason crickets smell so bad is that they die off pretty easily and no invertibrate smells pretty when it's dead.
 
Oh, I see now. That does make sense. You guys keep LOTS of crickets. Probably the big ones too. I keep about 50 small crickets at a time. They seem to have a lot of little poops but I just dump those out.

I knew feeder roaches were different than household roaches... the roaches that I have seen around here freak me way out. One time when I was in high school I woke up in the middle of the night to a roach the size of my palm crawling up my thigh.

But for the sake of my chameleon I have been seriously thinking about starting some roaches, I find it awesome that they're so clean, and they seem less ugly than huge weirdo crickets...

Can you feed small roaches to a small chameleon?
 
Absolutely!
In fact, I would go so far as to say: you should be feeding well gut loaded, appropriately sized roaches to all chameleons ... if you have access to them.
Great meat to shell ratio, very nutritious, Awesome feeder!

-Brad
 
spatulars said:
Oh, I see now. That does make sense. You guys keep LOTS of crickets. Probably the big ones too. I keep about 50 small crickets at a time. They seem to have a lot of little poops but I just dump those out.

I knew feeder roaches were different than household roaches... the roaches that I have seen around here freak me way out. One time when I was in high school I woke up in the middle of the night to a roach the size of my palm crawling up my thigh.

But for the sake of my chameleon I have been seriously thinking about starting some roaches, I find it awesome that they're so clean, and they seem less ugly than huge weirdo crickets...

Can you feed small roaches to a small chameleon?
Click to expand...

Yes.
just make sure it's not bigger than the width of his forehead.
I assume this small chameleon is 3 month old or older. :)
 
IndyFan said:
Not sure what anyone else thinks but i get my gutloads from cricketfood.com, they sell worm cricket and roach food kind of expensive but when you look at what is in it you couldnt make it for what they sell it for just a suggestion i havent ever done anything with roaches yet but when i get a cham i will so i have been reading a little. when i say i get my gutloads it is for a bearded dragon and the crickets i feed it they dont need as much a variety as chameleons seem too want.
Click to expand...

How often do you use d3 and vit on your dragons?
 
we sell a roach chow that does not contain either of those, but depending on what roach you have u may get away with just veg. or leaves even. take a look at our site for more info on 16 dif breeds of roach maybe it will answer ur questions

Tony
 
Cockroach usage!

Hi all.....

Just a quick one, I am able to obtain death head and Madagascan hissing cockroach to use as feeders for my adult male ambilobe....
Do you guys use these two species with success?

He currently refuses crickets which doesn't offend me and generally feeds mainly on locust, morio worms, wild caught moths/butterfly and the odd pachnoda grub, I feel it would be nice to mix his diet up a bit!

I'm planning to try him on some ponderosa spp. stick insects and potentially some mantid species in the future....
Who else uses stick insects and mantis as feeders and what species?

Thanks
x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Troodlesn
how to reintroduce clean up crew to my feeder roach colony
Replies
9
Views
500
elizaann2
elizaann2
salish_31
Cham Diet help
Replies
11
Views
418
Beman
Beman
ChameLeon_
Lil boy won't use his run feeder
Replies
18
Views
665
Beman
Beman
KailieBug
Kailie, the tongueless chameleon
Replies
12
Views
286
kinyonga
K
Gryllidae Per Kcal
My Conversation with Mark Finke.
Replies
1
Views
365
regal81455
R
Back
Top Bottom