# Roaches?? A new food?



## dartdude (Mar 28, 2005)

Has anyone used roaches for food for the bigger frogs?? I was looking at this link and was considering some of the

Phaetalia pallidus
(AKA: Pallid Roach)
Juvenile (Range: 1/8” to 1/4”)

or

Blatta lateralis
(AKA:Turkistan Roach)
Juvenile (Range: 1/8" to 1/4")


http://www.bigappleherp.com/Reptile_Sup ... 30305.html


What do you think?

Cheers!
Adam


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Small enough roaches and/or their nymphs have been talked over as viable food sources for a while. I have yet to intentionally feed any to my frogs but have used various roaches (usually winged wood roaches that can't climb glass) as feeders for various other herps. Frogs like phyllobates and epipedobates which tend to like larger food items should in theory like them very much.

I personally would only stick to non-glass climbers as the glass climbers personally pose more of an escape risk, not to mention being up and away from the frogs reach.

There is actually a species of roach that one of the frog food suppliers was working with that would be a managable size for the larger frogs to eat as adults. Nothing ever came of it tho, and still waiting for people to track it down to see if its worth the effort.


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## mydumname (Dec 24, 2004)

I use lobster roaches, well the younger/smaller ones. I have fed them to my auratus, and mints. The mints really go after them They are not full grown. I am yet to feed them to anything else. They do climb, but some vaseline in their container will handle that. They never have time to climb out of the mints tank though. Ha.


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## Guest (Nov 9, 2005)

I'll second what Greg wrote. My mints also go crazy for the lobster roach nymphs. If you have the time and patience you can also pick out the tiny nymphs for larger tinc species. Lobsters are climbers and fast their only drawbacks. Thick vaseline will keep them in the breeding rubbermaid container. Breeding them is a no-brainer and with the pain, cost, noise and smell of breeding and raising pinhead crickets not keeping them is hard to not try. They also are great for any other herps which most of us also seem to keep.


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## Cory (Jan 18, 2005)

I used to work in a pesticde research lab with roaches. We found the best method to keep them in was to mix vaseline with a little mineral oil. Then an extremely thin coat prevents them from climbing.


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

I raise Blatta lateralis, which can't climb smooth surfaces (glass, unscratched plastic...), they are the same size as lobsters as adults, but smaller as nymphs, and they reproduce even faster than the lobsters. I haven't tried them as dart food yet, though.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

My problem with the climbers isn't keeping them in their roach containers, I'm more than happy to use the vaseline ring to keep them in like I have with hissers in the past. I am not, however, willing to do something like that anywhere near my frogs. Since I can't control that, I'm not going to use those species, I'd rather use another species that doesn't climb.

Another problem is care vs. what I'm getting out of the culture. I've had giant wood roaches as pets where I fed off the offspring when I found them to my lizards. They just required too much care to really be considered a "feeder" plus I thought they were really cool. But catching the babies when they were just the right size to feed out... pain in the ass for a few nymphs. Its time that could be spent on other things.

Now get me a roach that as an adult I can feed out to my large frogs (or frogs that like large food) and I'll be more than happy... even if it climbs glass... but I'd still rather it be a flier than a climber!


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Corey,

Green banana roaches sound like what you want. They can climb glass but typically can't survive for more than a couple of days in a house and the adults are about an inch long. I keep them in a soil based tank, and if I need to collect the nymphs, I just add some water to the cage, the nymphs will climb up on a piece of bark in the cage allowing easy collection. 

Instead of vasoline I prefer to use a paintable teflon product that keeps them from climbing over it. 

Ed


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Ok, I need to define "large frog" for me. The frogs I work with, except for the TFs and oddballs that aren't currently taken into consideration with feeder projects, are on the small side for PDFs. Imitator group, zaparo, truncatus, tricolor. A Green banana roach adult is as large or larger than most of the frogs I work with. By adult being able to be fed out, I meant a size that the before mentioned frogs would eat. I do not want to bother seperating nymphs and larger like I would have to with pretty much all the roaches on the market.

I'm still waiting for that under 1 cm roach to magically appear. I've heard whispers... thats it. Until it, or a similar roach appears, I'm not bothering with roaches.


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## Guest (Nov 13, 2005)

I can breed frogs, I can breed crickets, I can breed magots
(fruitflies), and I can breed worms (mealworms), but if I ever bred cockroaches in our apartment my girlfriend would dump me for sure! :wink:


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

That's why you pick the pretty ones. My wife is not fond of roaches but ones that are lime green or look like fire flies are much more acceptable than the typical roach. 

Ed


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Where do I get these Blatta roaches?

So, tricolors can eat them? I really need a viable alternative to crickets at this point as Mantellas love something a bit larger than fruit flies.


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