Cockroaches as food

[Richard Gallon]

Anybody have any words of wisdom about breeding cockroaches as tarantula food? I maintain lobster-roaches, but want to try a bigger roach species too. Any tips on good species and keeping methods would be very useful

[Leon Lane]

I use Blaberus discoidalis, the False Death's Head roach. They don't get as big as B.cranifer (the True Death's Head) but I think they have a less hardy exoskeleton.
I keep them in a tank with dry peat and a shallow curved piece of bark, which they nest under. This is important, many species won't breed unless they are in a confined space. Sometimes they dig in the peat, nymphs especially.
They live off slices of potato, couldn't get them to eat tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and so on, haven't given fruit a try yet as it goes stinky pretty fast. I give them dry fish food for protein, apparently dry dog food works too. The only problem I get is those annoying little black flies (fungus gnats?) but they only crop up occasionally.
I have about 15 adults and they should start breeding and producing live young after a few months. Apparently breeding happens much quicker when they are in big groups, 40 or more.

If you go to this forum CLICK HERE and search for "roach" you will find a lot of informative threads as they are a popular food source in America

PS, my big T's love them

[Richard Gallon]

Cockroaches

Cheers Leon - I'll have to give them a go

Next question - can anybody set me up with a starter colony of these? Obviously I'd refund postage or exchange something for them

Anybody using other species?

[Martin G.]

Hi Richard,

I keep five species of roaches for feeders...

I have some Giant Cave Roaches (Blaberus giganteus)... those I use for my big terrestrial Ts, like T. blondi, X. immanis, etc. they make a substantial meal for them. They breed very easily, the only downside that is that I find them to be a little defensive and have decent "spikes" on the legs... I never had any T injured though...

I also keep the Discoid Roach (Blaberus discoidales). Those are my favourite... quite prolific, although not as much as the lobsters but close to... they reach a very nice size... and the best, they do not climb glass... they are also quite shy and not defensive at all, great source of food...

I keep the Madagascar Hissing Roach (Gromphadorhina portentosa)... some argue that they have a harder exoskeletton and that they make a poor choice of food... but most of my Ts relish them... specially the Asian species! I have one H. schmidti female that only accepts this, weird... they breed at a medium rate so I do not use them very often...

I keep the lobsters, you already do, so I will not comment those...

And I keep some Surinam Burrowing Roaches (Pycnoscelus surinamensis)... those are very small roaches... the interesting is that they are parthenogenic... they breed like crazy... I only use the adults as food... the main problem is that as the name says they always bury... so you really have to make sure that the spider eats the animal right away or you are looking for trouble during your spider's next molt...

Here is a link that you can go and see:

http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/Roaches/

I hope this helps

Martin

[Improver]

I´m also breeding roaches for my tarantulas. i´ve been doingthis for about half a year and now i don´t buy crickets or any other food for my spiders, i can only rely on my roaches At the moment there are 6 different Species in my stock.
Blaptica dubia : the standart roach, they breed quite fast and all my terrestrial Spiders (first of all my Pterinochilus spp.) like them.
Blaberus craniifer: these roaches breed like hell. they have a very soft body, but one big disadvantage: they burrow very fast. Sometimes they don´t come out for about one week...
Nauphoeta cinerea: This is my favourite roach, cause it breeds really fast and it climbs glass. those little wretches love to climb and thats their advantage, cause you can feed arboreal living spiders with that roaches. First of all my african spiders (Heteroscodra maculata and Stromatopelma calceatum) like those roaches, the american (Psalmopoeus cambridgei and Avicularia metallica) don´t seem to like them that much
the other two species (Eublaberus distantii and Gromphadorrhina portentosa) are no very relieable breeders, so i don´t use them as food. Sometimes oe of my bearded dragons gets one of the hissing roaches, but that´s it.
I have all my roaches in large tanks, compared to tarantula tanks. The biggest one (Blaberus craniifer) is about 40*30*25cm. I use to feed them with dried cat food, so they don´t get a lack of protein, from time to time they also get vegetable, so they get moisture. The best breeding Temp. is about 25-28°C.
If u have glass climbing roaches u only have to smear some petroleum jelly on the upper margin (about 5cm wide). those roaches will be stopped, for they can´t climb further upwards on that petroleum jelly margin, they just fall back into their tank.
I hope I could help u.