B. Discoidalis

[Dyn]

I hear alot about B. dubia and B. laterallis as feeders. I've seen the chart compairing them to mealworms and crickets but discoids werent on the list.

How do discoid roaches rate among feeders. I was thinking of getting some to start a colony because they are the easiest for me to obtain. (Already have access to them)

 

[Pacmaster]

Discoids have a much tougher exo.
They get bigger than dubia.
Both males and females have wings.

I keep discoids, along with a few other species, and I only feed them to my biggest frogs.

The nymphs are strong and tough.
They dont seem to reproduce or grow as quickly as dubias.
They seem to "dry out" mopre than other species too.

There are better choices . . . but if thats all you have, theyll do!

 

[jmiller]

Every species has its place. So you need to figure out if that particular roach species is going to meet the requirements of what you are trying to feed it to. Discoids are rather large in comparison to the others you mentioned. If you have a bunch of large adult T's then they might be OK. But if you are trying to feed slings or small juvies then you might want to look at something else. I feed discoids to my adult pokies and L. parahybana on occasion and that is about it.

 

[Takumaku]

Discoid use to be the primary feeder before B. dubia and B. laterallis became popular. I prefer to use discoid because they are more skittish and aren't prone to freezing, like dubia do. Not the mention, I get a bad rash with dubia frass, but not discoid frass.

 

[Matt K]

I use all of them as feeders, but ultimately reserve Blaberus for full grown Lasiodora difficilis or larger lizards that I have. Medium and smaller T's would get dubia and/or lateralis, lats particularly for slings.

 

[Dyn]

It's not that they are all I have. A friend just happens to be starting a colony at the moment and I could grab a couple adults to get started.

I was just hoping they would go a nice choice so I didnt have to order a diffrent kind. =P

I was reading that some T's dont like dubias so I wasnt sure about them and lateralis seems alittle small for some of the T's I will be getting in the near future. (pokies, haplopelmas, and some other rather larger ones.)

 

[gvfarns]

I haven't used discoids but I used B bolivensis, which is very similar. I liked them better than dubia because they are pretty active and draw a lot of attention from the T's (I got annoyed with the dubia freezing and getting ignored). They are a bit larger also, which sort of makes them good only for quite large T's. They do take longer to grow to adulthood than the other roaches mentioned here, but they are a really big meal when you do feed them.

As people have mentioned they have more exoskeleton and I would add that their legs poke you when you grab them. They run way faster than dubia (not as fast as lateralis, though). As adults they are not likely to burrow, but when they are young that's pretty much all they do, so I ended up never feeding the young off. If you use them I would suggest also having some lateralis for your smaller T's.

As for lateralis being too small, they are definitely not large roaches. On the other hand, they are not so small that they get ignored. If you want to feed big T's you can just toss more than one in at a time...they all get eaten.

I eventually got rid of my B bolivensis and dubia roaches. One colony of lateralis works for me. I don't think my large T's mind.

 

[Dyn]

So a colony of lats and one of the discoids would probly end up being best.
Lats for smaller T's and discoids for larger adults.


I just dont want any climbers sounds like too much of a pain.

 

[wraith]

So a colony of lats and one of the discoids would probly end up being best.

The biggest thing you need to be aware of are lats ootheca desiccating. I didn't have a single hatch in my first three months due to them drying out even though I had significant moisture in the enclosure. Be sure to put your heat on the side of your enclosure and not on the bottom. That's the mistake I made.

 

[Dyn]

Yea I liked discoids as well because of live birth.

I'm thinking of starting some colonies soon

 

[Moose9]

I have all 3 of the main types mentioned above. As mentioned, I use the B. lateralis for my slings, juveniles and scorpions, B. dubia for my large Ts and bearded dragons and the Discoids for son's Savannah monitor and my Lp's.

The biggest thing you need to be aware of are lats ootheca desiccating. I didn't have a single hatch in my first three months due to them drying out even though I had significant moisture in the enclosure. Be sure to put your heat on the side of your enclosure and not on the bottom. That's the mistake I made.

I agree, they won't hatch very well without moderate humidity/moisture. I have never had a problem though with my heat pad on the bottom hooked up to a thermostat set at 95°F. I just keep a 16oz container of water gel in there. In 4 months I went from a 1000 to I est. 5000- 6000.

Greg