You all would be proud, but I'm still grossed out!

[ajacobson]

So, I've said on here, on multiple occasions, that I would never ever touch roaches as feeders.

Well, never say never. I haven't been able to order crickets online b/c no one is home during the week and the temps are 100+ degrees out, so I've had to go to a pet store to get feeders. I went in today, and FedEx had killed 95,000 of their crickets in shipping. No crickets! I didn't know what to do and they suggested roaches; I cringed at the thought. But the babies have to eat. So they got them for me and I started to think that it wasn't so bad. Until I got home and put them in a container, which they started frantically crawling out of. I'm so used to crickets not being able to climb up the sides of containers so I pretty much freaked when the roaches started doing it. I think I'm pretty well traumatized by this....Don't think I could do roach colonies for feeders or anything.

What do you guys keep roaches in so they don't get out?? Ugh. luckily I only got like 10 and they all made it to the food dishes of my chams... hopefully they eat them right up.

 

[Thompson]

That's great! Your chams will thank you. I keep mine in a large tupperware with a clip on lid. Put a heat mat under the cage and you'll have babies in a couple months.

 

[ajacobson]

That's great! Your chams will thank you. I keep mine in a large tupperware with a clip on lid. Put a heat mat under the cage and you'll have babies in a couple months.

How do you keep them from crawling out when you take the lid off to get some?

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

How do you keep them from crawling out when you take the lid off to get some?

Try taping the sides and corners of the bins with duck tape. I think they can't climb up it. Crickets can't so I doubt roaches can

 

[Thompson]

Well if you have lobsters then what I did was put vaseline on the top of the cage so they'll fall when they try to climb out. If you have dubias they won't be able to climb.

 

[ChameleonRave]

use a ten gallon aqauria it helps you can stack the egg crates up higher and then the bigger the colony gets the more hiding places it has for them and then put the heat mat under it.. it is very helpful! they gross me out too! so don't feel as if you are the only one!

 

[ajacobson]

Thanks Thompson for that. I think I got lobsters at the store today, bc they were climbing everywhere! I won't totally give up on the roach idea, I think today just traumatized me a little.

Glad I'm not the only one ChameleonRave.

 

[ajacobson]

My worst nightmare just came true. I was just looking around on the internet when a roach crawled across my screen! EWW! No idea how it got out of my cham cages. Shh...don't tell the hubby.

 

[Coby]

Haha, Id freak out. Im not a fan of roaches.

 

[laurie]

I was not a fan of roaches for a long time, but the breed easy, they don't escape, make noise or stink. Now the don't escape part put them in a fish tank with a screen lid. I have a 100 gal tank full of them & that is a lot of roaches!! I order egg crates out of the classified here on the forum, those a tank and a heater and you are good to go. I feed them just like I do my crickets. They are a bit gross but if you get dubias they aren't bad, they don't climb glass or fly. Both of those are good things.

And yes I am very proud of you for putting your chams first.

 

[Coby]

Do they make a significantly crunchy sound when being devoured?!

 

[ajacobson]

I didn't see my chams eat them... So I dunno. I definitely didn't get dubias though because these suckers climb everywhere. So if I do get them I'll get Dubs. My chams are still pretty small though so I'd need little ones for a while.


How fast do they breed typically?

 

[Thompson]

Dubia is way better than lobters in my opinion. Lobsters breed way faster and can climb just about everything.

 

[laurie]

It always seems to me they are fairly slow to start. Then you get lots of tiny one that take maybe a month to adult's. I am not really sure, I have so many I just go get what ever size I want. I fed tiny ones to by baby quads at about a month old.

 

[Elizadolots]

oh, gawd...now we have to worry about LOBSTERS!!!!!

 

[dreamforthedead]

Do roaches bite? I'm scared of them, its the legs their legs freak me out. Even picking one up with tweezers is awful.

 

[robmd1]

Do roaches bite? I'm scared of them, its the legs their legs freak me out. Even picking one up with tweezers is awful.

nahh they dont bite, i havent kept lobster's cause they can climb only dubia...

 

[Benton1576]

hey all,

Whats best to feed roaches? I live in Germany and buy dubias from my local reptile shop. they breed like crazy but never seem to grow at all, just lots and lots of baby roaches. i use sellotape ( probably not the correct spelling but you know what i mean! ) around the top of my plastic tub with a clip on lid. it stops them from getting out should they somehow manage to climb the 45cm plastic sides!!