pantherkid2
Established Member
anyone useing turkestan roaches.. Are they good feeders and easy to maintain?
Roaches
- Thread starter pantherkid2
- Start date
ColorCham427
Avid Member
u want easy and good? get dubia!!!
SSimsswiSS
Avid Member
Run away from the reds.
There a super fast roach. Hard for chams to free find/catch. They can climb to some degree. If the adult roaches don't get lose and start infesting your home the tiny babies that hatch out of cases will. Babies can squeeze through screen, and run straight up walls.
This is just my personal opinion.
SoCaliSon
Avid Member
Steve is right... I had a few I received in a batch of Dubia. I tried to feed a few off and they were incredibly quick and tricky to handle. Took me a good while to get the Turks out, and I was finding them in my place (from what I thought was an escape proof tub, just for dubies I guess.).
pantherkid2
Established Member
are any other roaches pretty good and easy to keep up
SSimsswiSS
Avid Member
I've narrowed it down to three.
I've tried just about every roach out there, and presently only keep three kinds.
Dubia - for ease, and good at any size for chams I keep.
Hissers - only feed off the small one, one inch and under. I feel the bigger ones can do mouth damage to chams unless legs are removed.
P. Nivia - Small and slow growing, but the males lime green color will get any chams attention. They fly too, hence the name flying banana roach.
I've tried just about every roach out there, and presently only keep three kinds.
Dubia - for ease, and good at any size for chams I keep.
Hissers - only feed off the small one, one inch and under. I feel the bigger ones can do mouth damage to chams unless legs are removed.
P. Nivia - Small and slow growing, but the males lime green color will get any chams attention. They fly too, hence the name flying banana roach.
Zen Reptiles
Avid Member
Dubias are by far the best.
I keep Turkestan roaches as well, and I use them primarily to feed small frogs and geckos and any baby lizards. The egg cases hatch regularly and I've always got a good supply of them, with about 20 adults (15 females, 5 males).
The dubia are great because they are kind of a lethargic roach, they move a bit, but not too fast.
A big drawback to the Turkestan roaches is that they give off a foul odor when disturbed, it smells like marijuana, but very sour marijuana. They also secrete a VERY sticky substance when they are attacked, and although I haven't had any problems with this by feeding adults to my Tomato Frogs, I'm sure they'd prefer not to deal with the stickiness.
Depending where you live, the Turks will invade your home if let out. Dubias will have a harder time invading your house, and if they do, they aren't nearly as fast or as hard to catch.
I'd stay away from Lobsters, although I use them myself, I spend some time cutting their legs off before throwing them into bowls in my lizard cages (I always bowl feed roaches, because I've found too many adults that survived in the substrate).
Lobster roaches are very hardy and give live birth and they could spread like wildfire if they escaped.
Roaches comparable to dubias are....discoids and giant cave roaches; they all have the same care, produce live young, and are fairly quick, though dubia are the best size as adult males to feed your adult chams.
A major bonus of the dubia is that they are sexually dimorphic; the males have wings, the females don't.
I'd also recommend the hissers, they grow to a good size and they live quite long lives. I sold my colony off because I ran out of room for the roaches, but I regret it and probably will buy a colony in the future again.
Hissers are pretty slow, though they can climb, they won't invade your house unless they have a lot of moisture + humidity to thrive around. They can be contained easily with Vaseline or Teflon paint.
Tip: when you are starting your colony for any roach, leave one male per 3-4 females, and wait until you have at least 20 adult females, it'd be even better to have more of course. If you feed from your starter colony before they are adults, you might have wasted valuable females. I made this mistake at first, so it's worth the wait to get as many females as you can.
Edit: SSimsswiSS, I've been trying to track some banana roaches down for years. You wouldn't happen to know anyone in Canada with some would you?
I keep Turkestan roaches as well, and I use them primarily to feed small frogs and geckos and any baby lizards. The egg cases hatch regularly and I've always got a good supply of them, with about 20 adults (15 females, 5 males).
The dubia are great because they are kind of a lethargic roach, they move a bit, but not too fast.
A big drawback to the Turkestan roaches is that they give off a foul odor when disturbed, it smells like marijuana, but very sour marijuana. They also secrete a VERY sticky substance when they are attacked, and although I haven't had any problems with this by feeding adults to my Tomato Frogs, I'm sure they'd prefer not to deal with the stickiness.
Depending where you live, the Turks will invade your home if let out. Dubias will have a harder time invading your house, and if they do, they aren't nearly as fast or as hard to catch.
I'd stay away from Lobsters, although I use them myself, I spend some time cutting their legs off before throwing them into bowls in my lizard cages (I always bowl feed roaches, because I've found too many adults that survived in the substrate).
Lobster roaches are very hardy and give live birth and they could spread like wildfire if they escaped.
Roaches comparable to dubias are....discoids and giant cave roaches; they all have the same care, produce live young, and are fairly quick, though dubia are the best size as adult males to feed your adult chams.
A major bonus of the dubia is that they are sexually dimorphic; the males have wings, the females don't.
I'd also recommend the hissers, they grow to a good size and they live quite long lives. I sold my colony off because I ran out of room for the roaches, but I regret it and probably will buy a colony in the future again.
Hissers are pretty slow, though they can climb, they won't invade your house unless they have a lot of moisture + humidity to thrive around. They can be contained easily with Vaseline or Teflon paint.
Tip: when you are starting your colony for any roach, leave one male per 3-4 females, and wait until you have at least 20 adult females, it'd be even better to have more of course. If you feed from your starter colony before they are adults, you might have wasted valuable females. I made this mistake at first, so it's worth the wait to get as many females as you can.
Edit: SSimsswiSS, I've been trying to track some banana roaches down for years. You wouldn't happen to know anyone in Canada with some would you?
