Anyone feeding these to their gliders?

Reptile show in town this weekend and I thought about picking up some along with mealworms.

Thoughts anyone?

Some people do feed them.

I wont because of the afloxin toxin issue. I just stick with mealies...

Hope that helps

Have FUN!!!

I feed them to my ducks... I won't allow roaches in the house. LOL

I've never fed them to my gliders, my husband raises them for his beardies. They gross me out - I won't touch them.

Ours aren't raised in any type of bedding that could cause aflatoxin poisoning.

I just set up some breeders.

They are AWESOME for gliders - better protein than mealworms and also less chitin.

Have fun at the KRE show! I thought about going, but don't think I will make it this month.

It is perfectly safe to feed tropical roaches to your gliders. As Alden mentioned, they are healthier and have less exoskeleton than mealworms or crickets. You just have to get past the "ick" factor, but your gliders will thank you for it!

Actually, the aflatoxin issue can occur if a corn-based bedding is used to raise mealworms or crickets. It is a mold. There is no bedding for dubias, so very little risk.

Does anyone know a reputable, natural place to buy them from?

A local reptile show would be the best place. Small hobbyists tend to take great care of their feeder insects.

I'll have to let you know if my husband's colony gets too big! I sure wouldn't mind sending these things somewhere...out of my house!

As far as ordering them theres this guy rob or dubideli.com is his website & he had the best prices I've ever seen, it's like $14 for 150 and thats shipped, at a pet shop I recently saw them for $1.50.EACH! And he's been very patient and prompt in answering all my questions reassuring me if I ever work up the ovaries to order- they won't take over the house and kill me. Hes got good reviews on some bearded dragon website forum thingy

I actually bought a few at the store to see if I'd die & so far so good,.they're really not SO bad... No jumping no climbing no biting mo no noise no living out of their container, low maintenance no smell & evidently, very healthy

I've given my guy, Pip, one before and he LOVED it! But there is NO way I'm allowing roaches in the house, lol.

I got one once and i didn't like it and odie (if someone would eat it it would be her) didnt want anything to do with it. On the other hand she will eat a grasshopper (she likes crickets too which are easier to get ahold of) and grasshoppers arent as scarey to me ((the big eyes creep me out but at least I know they wont stay alive if I remove their head))

Just wanted to reiterate this - Nancy is correct, the risk of aflatoxin is lower with roaches than either crickets or mealworms because there is no grain based bedding used. Depending on the diet of the roaches, risk can be eliminated entirely. Roaches are VERY healthy because they are a more easily digest-able (less exoskeleton, as Nancy said) adult (less fat, better protein) form insect than any other readily available feeder insect, that I am aware of anyway.

But yes, the ever present ick factor is definitely there, lol.

Send 'em here, send 'em here

yiyo, I'll have to see if he'll sneak some out for you - cuz sorry! I ain't touchin em'.

Ok, now you guys have me wanting to see if my gliders will eat them. I'm almost out of mealies. Wait, hold on a sec...







Ok, now I'm feeling a little better!




I'm sure if you are talking to him about ordering, he's told you that these tropical roaches cannot survive outside of their container, right? Don't get me wrong, we've had a couple get loose because the egg cartons created a nice little set of steps for them to walk right out when the lid was left open, but they won't survive very long. It's not like you will have a roach infestation in your house ~ so no worries there. If you have their container set up properly, they don't climb out.

But the "ick factor" yeah, that hasn't gone away for me yet and we've had them over a year.

I ended up not going to the reptile show but I think I'm going to order a few and see if my guys like them or not. I only have two pair of gliders so a small colony would keep me in bugs o' plenty.

What I like is that, from what I have read, they are more nutritional than mealies, and they can live from 9-24 months. Producing around 25 offspring per batch.

I've tried raising mealies & crickets (when i had my beardie) but they both stunk up my garage to high heaven. Everything I've read says these guys don't have that stink factor.

The stink factor makes my wife go 'ick'.

LOL - my husband's roaches make this wife go 'ick'.

By the way.... $14 for 150 sounds great. NYWORMS want $32 for 25.

I guess you'd probably want to determine if you are comparing juveniles to adults also but it sounds like a good deal.

LOL! Yeah, my wife doesn't like the thought of roaches living in the garage either.

I'm sure you've already found this out, but your going to need heat for them. Ours are in plastic totes. The lids have the top cut out and screen put on for ventilation. There is a reptile heat mat on the side for heat.

Yep. I read that it needed a heat source. Heat Mats seem to be the most highly reccommended.

I ordered these from dubideli.com that Lisha posted about.

Nymph Size: 7/8": 2 1/2 oz. (~150) for $18.23 after tax w/ free shipping

They also offered 50 each Adult Male/Female for $60. This would get your colony started if anyone is interested.

I'm gonna take baby steps and make sure the fuzz butts will even eat them first.

Sweet diggity I never thought I'd see the day I became an advocate for those nasty things-what a momentous occasion! Seriously though, what a great price! There really isnt a large jump in price between the sizes whatsoever either. I've had the 10 or so that I bought as my "science experiment" for about a month now and I have them in my bearded dragon's old 20 gal. home & so far they are all still alive... I am just using a red "party" bulb I got from wal-mart. I've put forth very, VERY minimal effort towards keeping them that way to see if I could handle a large amount of um and so far I gotta say... the things seem harmlesser than even mealworms-they don't even do that nasty wiggly leave me alone thrashing about thing that mealworms do when u poke at um.

Got bugs! I fed one each to Starlet & Bullock. They ate them like a champ!