Blaptica Dubia Roaches

[Godzirra]

So i did months of research before i bought some, mainly because i have a fear of roaches - because my mother had a fear of roaches, because her brothers used to collect them and throw them down her shirt when she was younger.


Ok, so maybe i missed something.
I know you can have a win-lose situation with certain tarantulas not adapting to them.

So i placed one in my roseas cage, and she attacked it, so i was like.......cool.
Then she put it aside like she usually does with her kill, i came back another hour later, and it was up and about..........i was shocked.
So then it went by her again, and she attacked it, once again it did the same thing.....played dead.
So i went in there and made sure to try and kill it by crushing it's head.
I DID THIS SEVERAL TIMES!!! These things are so strong. So i was like, ok it's now dead.
Come back to find it alive!!!!!!...........i used tongs.
So i removed it and put it back into the cockroach tub, in a separate small container.
It is still alive.

Here are some facts,
It was an adult female, it was large.


What size am i supposed to be feeding my tarantulas, was this just bad luck, I'm not too happy about my investment so far.


I ordered them from mullberryfarms.com
they had awesome packaging, in priority mail boxes that were especially made for live silk worms, i thought that was cool.

 

[codykrr]

ok. well even if you squish their head they can still "live" for a long time....crushing their head only helps them stop burrowing. your doing everything right just let her eat it in time...i know alot of my Ts dont eat them imediatly because id say they dontlike the movement of the roaches legs touching them while thir trying to eat. also when it comes to size, i usually just pick one i think is going to be adecent meal, andi never feed my mature femle or male roaches. occasionally i do feed a mature female but not often, i never feed males though because for some reason my colonies seem to produce alot more females than males. just throw it back in their and let her eat it in time. and good luck. oh and also on my pic link there is my setup if you wanted to take a gander.

 

[DreadLobster]

I just switched to them about 6 months ago. They are little tanks. I've had several times where a T will bite them and let go for whatever reason, and I'll end up removing the poor thing with tongs and putting it back in the roach cage... they'll have holes in them from the T's fangs but they seem to just go right back to their usual selves. They are notorious for playing dead, which is probably what happened in your case. The head crushing will usually stop them from playing dead (I never do it so I don't know for sure but thast what I've read) but it won't kill them until they starve to death if I understand right. I still prefer them over crickets... Your T will figure it out when it gets hungry enough. Just keep trying.

They're super easy to breed and they'll eat just about anything. Just keep them warm and dark and you won't be able to stop them from breeding (which is nice cause you can sell them off... its pretty much free money).

The only thing I use crickets for now are slings and my trap door spiders, because they don't seem to ever notice the roaches. I guess they don't make as much vibration.

 

[hasani1408]

If your T's don't take to eating them right away wait until your T molts and try again. They usually will take them with no problems after a molt. But it seems there are always a stubborn T or 2 that won't eat them.

 

[bamato]

I had a P Irminia that didnt want anything to do with roaches. I realized that I was feeding her roaches that were too big for her "taste". I think although the body of the roach is not very big, the wings from the males I was feeding gave the T the feeling of it being a bigger meal.

After letting her do her fasting thing for about a month she finally started taking to the roaches.

Also, if you want to hinder the roaches from burrowing, aside from crushing their head, you can also break their antennae off. I know that sounds horrible, but it makes for less headaches. Just be prepared that every once in a while the head may come with an antennae. blech....

 

[carl]

i have ts that would only go for roaches...

i had experienced some ts not eating the roach that i gave them because it was too big for them..

just try giving it a smaller roach and see what would happen

i maintain 3 diff kinds of roaches: dubias, lateralis and lobster roaches.... so i try to mix their diets up a bit.. so my ts wont get tired of eating the same food over and over again..

 

[Moltar]

Try feeding her smaller nymphs. Also, crush their head just a little, grab their "shoulder" with your tweezers and place them on their back near the T. They'll scramble frantically to flip back over and that usually draws the attention of the T.

I've seen a MM survive repeated envenomations from a 5" pampho before and apparently do fine for days afterwards. Maybe it was a dry bite, it turns out the T was in premolt.