I'm making the switch...
- Thread starter Lathis
- Start date
repdog
Member
Good for you Lathis. You will find the roaches are so much easier to feed and care for. I still use the tongs for the adults but the little ones I have no problems touching. I only have to touch them when i clean out their bin though. I have so many in the bin its easier for me to use the tongs to get them out and feed them off.
Lathis
Chameleon Enthusiast
Yeah.... But... Roaches, man, roaches!!!
lovelychams
Member
Lol! I am thinking about making the switch too. Ewww!
jajeanpierre
Chameleon Enthusiast
You have to see a "roach tree" shimmering in the pouring rain to fully appreciate their beauty. I lived for years in the Caribbean where roaches are everywhere. I kept a compost bin in the back yard.....
One night during a very heavy rainfall, I went to the compost bin. The ground was flooded, so the roaches had all climbed up onto my lemon tree beside the compost bin. The tree was covered with roaches, all shining and shimmering in the moonlight. It was actually very beautiful.
The creepiest bugs are centipedes. They are the Chuck Norris of bugs. In the Caribbean they are a good 8/10 inches long and have a nasty bite from one end and a sting from the other. You can chop them up into tiny one-inch pieces--you have to use a machete because they are so tough a hammer on pavement won't squish them--and leave them on the baking black pavement in the summer sun. If you come back a day or two later and touch those inch-long pieces, they will still curl their legs like something out of a horror movie. They FREAK me out.
Cockroaches are clean and don't smell. I really don't like crickets.
GCash
Avid Member
The nastiest thing about roaches are how prolific some can get from crawling around in human filth. Remove the filth from the equation, replace it with veggies & gutload(which they ravenously devour and fill up on) and they aren't all that bad, I think they look like stubby mantids from the side. In fact, when I first started my cultures, I must admit, I had a hard time feeding them off after taking care of the for so long. You get over that as quickly as they reproduce though. Good luck!
MelissaB
Avid Member
Lathis, I'm totally with you on the ICK factor. I didn't think I'd be able to have them in my house. My panther, Otto, gobbles them up like candy. He even eats the full grown males! 
Oscar is more picky, he only likes the medium sized ones.
They still creep me out, and my worst nightmare is that bin tipping over. They're a nice, easy to keep feeder, though. Even my Uroplatus sikorae like them. I feed crickets, too. More crickets than roaches, to be honest. I don't think I'll ever not have crickets, they're a PITA but a good feeder.
It's nice to have a back up that everyone will eat, in case I run out of crickets.
Oscar is more picky, he only likes the medium sized ones.They still creep me out, and my worst nightmare is that bin tipping over. They're a nice, easy to keep feeder, though. Even my Uroplatus sikorae like them. I feed crickets, too. More crickets than roaches, to be honest. I don't think I'll ever not have crickets, they're a PITA but a good feeder.
It's nice to have a back up that everyone will eat, in case I run out of crickets.
MelissaB
Avid Member
Oscar wouldn't touch them, at first. It took a little trial and error with different stages of roach. Otto is a garbage disposer, that guy will eat anything.
Mike Fisher
Established Member
I've tried the roach breeding thing a few times. I couldn't get enough production going fast enough. Crickets are so easy to breed and are very clean. They don't stink unless they die, which means you are doing it wrong.
Panther mania
New Member
I can grow Dubias and silkworms that don't stink. If the crickets stink when they die then I don't know what can be done different....dubias are thriving! But, Chams. don't like the Dubias like they do Silkworms and Crickets. When they shoot a Dubia they sit there with it in their mouth before chewing and swallowing. Silkworms and crickets they don't waste anytime..
Mike Fisher
Established Member
Keep them alive until you feed them off or they die of old age. When you have some that die, get them out of the bin. Simple daily maintenance.
