when is it worth keeping your own feeder colony?

[Haksilence]

my collection has been growing fast (30 or so specimens currently)and its starting to get annoying runing to petsmart, as well as id rather not give them any of my money.

at what point does keeping your own roach, mealworm, or superworm colony worthwhile? im just worried i wont have the need for the feeders frequently enough to keep the population at a reasonable level.

how many ts would you expect to be required to make keeping a colony worthwhile?

 

[Walter1]

Ultimately, species, body sizes, and your feeding schedule all come together in a grand mind crunch to answer definitively. So, how about a target to shoot at- even one tarantula can make keeping a dubia colony worth it because you'll always have the right size and number of feeders and the cost of keeping them is almost 0. As for extras, sell'em! Obviously, I'm a fan of maintaining roach colonies.

 

[sdsnybny]

I have 100+ T's fitting all size ranges and still buy feeders. I have gotten away from crickets and only have one stubborn T (i'm looking at you rcf rosea) that wont eat red runners.The last time I bought them they were on sale half off and received 500 adults shipped for $16 I can house them easier they, last longer, don't smell 1/10 as much.
Its still easier than breeding them. Try Dubia roaches dot com they are still on sale. They will sell small quantities and package sizes separately if you ask. I bought smalls, mediums, and large. I keep them separately to make feeding easier.

 

[EulersK]

It became worth it to me a long time ago, back when I had specimens numbering in the teens. Between working full time and going to school full time, going to Petco every few days got very old very quickly. I love the versatility of keeping a dubia colony. I get to feed exactly when I feel like it. I can't tell you how often I feed a single spider in the morning before work - I only do "bulk feedings" maybe once per month. The rest of it is just plucking out a roach when I have time.

However, I wouldn't recommend a colony to someone with fewer than 25ish spiders, because it's not like there isn't maintenance on the dubias. There was a time when the work put in to the dubias matched the work put in to the spiders.

About your concern with keeping their numbers at bay... you won't. I don't care if you've got over 100 specimens - the roaches will breed faster than your tarantulas can eat them. I recently cleaned out my colony and took out as many mature males as I could find. That added up to about 150-200 males, give or take. All that did was slow them down, as I've already got mature males scurrying around in there and walking over hundreds of newly hatched nymphs. I've only done it once since my colony started, but I'm getting ready for a massive kill-off pretty soon. Their numbers get out of control pretty quickly.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I raise them small scale just for the convenience of not having to worry about picking them up. It isn't the problem it once was for me now, I can get them very easily these days, but I'll toss 4 or five males and females into a container with a smaller container loaded with soil and get between 100 and 200, which is a good bit of overkill, given that I only have 5 tarantulas and one scorpion. I still buy 10 or so every once in a while if the ones I've hatched haven't grown to feeding size by the time I need some.
I believe one advantage is if you raise your own, there is less worry about introducing mites, assuming you practice good husbandry with the crickets. The ones I raise seem to have a lower mortality rate too.

 

[louise f]

It is worth it, when you think it is worth it
I think it is worth it when you have to race to the petstore more than one time at the week. I have roaches and meal worms as feeder colony, the crickets i have to go to petstore to get, because i dont have succes keeping them.

 

[Denny1st]

It took me a lot of time to start a small mealworm/darkling beetle colony. Actually I kinda gave up on the idea of breeding them. It takes some patience. But I checked the container a year later and there are mealworms and darkling beetles in there that maybe hatched from the petrified potato without me knowing..Or substrate.. Right now I have three mealworms and a pupa... Not that impressive of a colony. lol
It's probably worth it if you do it right and have patience though. Beats going to the petstore.

 

[Poec54]

Depends on how much space and time you have. There's a point at which it's practical, and eventually a point at which it isn't. I go thru several thousand adult crickets a month and can't dedicate enough space in my house to churn out that many. Since I get them for $17.50/1,000, there's no big incentive to turn half of my house into a cricket ranch.

 

[TownesVanZandt]

It depends whether you have the space and time to keep them. Crickets smells bad and makes a lot of noise, superworms are easy to keep, but they make the eeriest sounds that is when they move, so you need a sound proofed room in order to prevent your house having a constant atmosphere of a horror movie. Some roaches are easy to keep and they don´t smell as bad as crickets and mealworms you can keep for a long time in the fridge. Apart from mealworms which I keep from time to time, keeping feeders is not an option for me personally.

 

[louise f]

you need a sound proofed room in order to prevent your house having a constant atmosphere of a horror movie

That`s why i use a shed, to keep all the smell and the strange noise away

 

[Sarkhan42]

I've only got 11 feeder eaters as of now, and I've started a colony of orange head roaches and it's been pretty perfect, (except for those occaisional picky eaters) as they haven't really exploded in population, but have retained their numbers. The smell is also non existent if kept on soil, with just some cardboard on top. I imagine if you kept them with a heat pad you could get them breeding faster if needed. I'm also trying to start a Lat colony, but man are they stubborn...

 

[Trenor]

About your concern with keeping their numbers at bay... you won't. I don't care if you've got over 100 specimens - the roaches will breed faster than your tarantulas can eat them.

I started raising Dubias for my bearded dragon long before I had tarantulas. Now that I do I can easily feed whatever size is needed. When they start getting out of control I drop the feeding size for the beardie and feed him twice as many. Going that way it is easy to keep the colony in hand.

With just tarantulas though unless you have a lot you wont be able to keep up.

 

[matypants]

I don't have a real need because I don't have that many tarantulas. But I keep a sterilite container with a cricket colony anyway because I like having them on hand and I like knowing that the food is being kept well and fed properly. I buy about 20 - 25 crickets every three or four months and I'm always set up well.

 

[eminart]

I'm only feeding 7 T's. At that number, there's no need to raise your own feeders unless you just don't have a local supply. However, my daughter also has a breeding trio of leopard geckos, and babies are hatching out now too. So, I'm happy to have the endless supply of dubia. Plus, it's actually kind of fun to raise them. But, I have a lot of surplus right now, and am about to sell some off so they don't go through so much food. I also have a small tub of mealworms, but they're such slow breeders that they can't keep up with the geckos at this point.

 

[mmfh]

I started a feeder roach colony when I started getting spiders on the bigger side that could eat 4-5 crickets at a time, it was just easier to throw in a large roach. I only breed small time though and have less than 100 roaches. I still get crickets though because I like to feed variety.

 

[viper69]

my collection has been growing fast (30 or so specimens currently)and its starting to get annoying runing to petsmart, as well as id rather not give them any of my money.

at what point does keeping your own roach, mealworm, or superworm colony worthwhile? im just worried i wont have the need for the feeders frequently enough to keep the population at a reasonable level.

how many ts would you expect to be required to make keeping a colony worthwhile?

Man, the more time you spend with feeders, the less time you have for everything else in your life.

The more feeders you raise, the less space you have for NEW critters!

 

[Iska]

I have several reptiles and tarantulas and I have my own cricket colony within a small rubbermaid tote I keep in the garage. I feed them leftover veggies, fruits, and commercial cricket food for protein. They are on a bio-active soil so the smell isn't very strong because the springtails clean it (I just took soil from outside - no pesticides in it). I purchase 1 dozen crickets every 4 or 5 months to introduce new genetics to the colony but thats about it. Its pretty self sustaining and incredibly easy to do!

 

[ArkanoviTigrovi]

I have 100+ T's fitting all size ranges and still buy feeders. I have gotten away from crickets and only have one stubborn T (i'm looking at you rcf rosea) that wont eat red runners.The last time I bought them they were on sale half off and received 500 adults shipped for $16 I can house them easier they, last longer, don't smell 1/10 as much.
Its still easier than breeding them. Try Dubia roaches dot com they are still on sale. They will sell small quantities and package sizes separately if you ask. I bought smalls, mediums, and large. I keep them separately to make feeding easier.

Quick question, what are "runners"?

 

[shawno821]

I have 2 big bins of dubias going,and I can't keep up with the demand of just a few people who buy from me.I live in a rural area,and,with Craigslist,I never have a problem getting rid of extras.They cost next to nothing to raise,give them cricket chow and water gel with occasional leftover veggies.I keep the bins up high in my T room to keep them warm.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Quick question, what are "runners"?

Turkestan roaches, are sometimes called "red runners" I believe...so I'm guessing 'runners" are shorthand for those.