B. dubia v. crickets

Tremors

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
29
I just bought my first little bunch of blaptica dubia. I actually bought these to watch and observe them first, and then feed them to my bearded dragon and inverts in about a week.

Do people switch over completely from crickets to roaches when feeding their arachnids? Are these roaches good for all sizes of tarantulas and scorpions? I've had it with crickets and all their smell and mess.
 

Vfox

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 1, 2007
Messages
530
I just bought my first little bunch of blaptica dubia. I actually bought these to watch and observe them first, and then feed them to my bearded dragon and inverts in about a week.

Do people switch over completely from crickets to roaches when feeding their arachnids? Are these roaches good for all sizes of tarantulas and scorpions? I've had it with crickets and all their smell and mess.
Bascally yes to all. I use B. dubia to feed almost everything from a baby whip scorpion to adult emps. I do have lats as feeders too but all stages of dubias are great for all appropriately sized animals. First instars are a hair over a quarter inch and most any young T or scorpion would love them.

And yes, although a distant relative with cockroaches, crickets are smelly vile little annoying things. I'll never bring them into my house again.
 

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
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Mar 11, 2009
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I'm throwing in a new contender. I prefer B. lateralis because B. dubia burrow and do not move much, meaning they may go unnoticed. B. lateralis are active, stay on the surface, and roam often, making them ideal prey. I also think B. dubia have too hard of a shell, while B. lateralis are soft. And it could be me, but the cages of my B. lateralis do not emit as much odor as my B. dubia.
 

Bigboy

Arachnoprince
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Nov 18, 2004
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1,234
After I started my dubia colony I didn't buy a cricket for 2 years. It was great.
 

Vfox

Arachnobaron
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I'm throwing in a new contender. I prefer B. lateralis because B. dubia burrow and do not move much, meaning they may go unnoticed. B. lateralis are active, stay on the surface, and roam often, making them ideal prey. I also think B. dubia have too hard of a shell, while B. lateralis are soft. And it could be me, but the cages of my B. lateralis do not emit as much odor as my B. dubia.
My lats actually have more of an odor than my dubia colony. I keep substrate in both but the lats just seem to poop more lol. Honestly if lobster roaches didn't climb I'd say them, I love my colony, they are active, odorless, and prolific. Either that or Periplaneta americana, but again, they can climb. They are bigger though and very easily contained with a Vaseline barrier.
 

Stopdroproll

Arachnoknight
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Aug 27, 2006
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I buy crickets every several months to feed my smaller Ts. My colony stopped reproducing because of the winter weather, so now the large majority of them are too large for the silngs.
 

llamastick

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
155
I switched entirely off of crickets to dubias and haven't looked back. Crickets are just terrible, annoying creatures in every way.

I've had no problem getting my 3i/4i imperators to eat dubias. I just give them small whole roaches, or medium-sized with their legs torn off if I can't find any small ones. They'll often share one, eating from both ends. Lateralis would probably be better for small species.
 

baconmushroom

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
27
yes to all questions, great feeders for T's. its either dubia or lats..my T's love 'em all..crickets are just foul. :}
 

Bugs In Cyberspace

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
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Dec 10, 2006
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721
I don't keep/ship B. lateralis since they're establishing in the SW USA. Aside from that, they're a totally different animal than B. dubia in terms of being a feeder. They're better in some applications because they don't burrow, but different substrate and feeding strategies can eliminate these factors.

I vote B. lateralis in having more of an odor. B. dubia don't smell at all, though their substrate/cage can if uneaten food begins to spoil or substrate isn't changed every year or so.

(Crickets are great feeders too, but I'm with everybody in this thread in preferring roaches.)
 

catfishrod69

Arachnoemperor
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Oct 1, 2010
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i keep latteralis, dubia, hissers, and lobsters....my most used for all the smaller animals is the lats, and they dubia for larger....and yea i hate how the dubis burrow or hide and never get eaten....i try to feed the male dubia to my bigger T's, and for my smaller T's and everything else i use lats and small, medium, and large crickets....
 

BQC123

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
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May 8, 2010
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413
I'm loving the B. dubias.

I have a B. emilia that will not eat them, and they are tough to feed to my D. diadema (tailess whips). Everything else loves them.

As for smell, no issue for me at all. The slight odor I get is actually rather pleasant, but my head needs to be in the bin to smell it.

Watch out working with long sleeves in the roach bin though. I got busted for a nymph that hitched a ride into the house.
 

Vfox

Arachnobaron
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Watch out working with long sleeves in the roach bin though. I got busted for a nymph that hitched a ride into the house.
Lol I had a Panchlora nivea run up my hoodie sleeve last night when I was showing them to my brother. I went "uh, crap...help me out here a sec." he was looking at me like I was insane until he realized what happened lol.


As for the tailless whip, I feed mine male B. lateralis. Mines a sub adult and eats about one a week on average.
 

BQC123

Arachnobaron
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Lol I had a Panchlora nivea run up my hoodie sleeve last night when I was showing them to my brother. I went "uh, crap...help me out here a sec." he was looking at me like I was insane until he realized what happened lol.


As for the tailless whip, I feed mine male B. lateralis. Mines a sub adult and eats about one a week on average.
I'd try the lats, but would be destined for escapes.
Tempting though. I have a brood of D. diadema that is due in the next few weeks. Sure would beat buying pinheads.
 

BQC123

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
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May 8, 2010
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dubia vs crickets...what about mealworms...
I always keep a colony of mealworms on hand. They work well sectioned up for slings. I just always use as a last resort. Probably because I am used to herps, where they are too chitinous for use as a regular diet.
The burrowing would be a problem for me.
 

Tremors

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
29
One last thing I thought of...How come I see a lot of people in youtube videos talking about a barrier to keep the roaches from climbing the sides of their Rubbermaid tote. I don't know what the stuff is - Vaseline or something.

I thought B. dubia were non-climbing roaches.
 

Vfox

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 1, 2007
Messages
530
One last thing I thought of...How come I see a lot of people in youtube videos talking about a barrier to keep the roaches from climbing the sides of their Rubbermaid tote. I don't know what the stuff is - Vaseline or something.

I thought B. dubia were non-climbing roaches.
They are non-climbers but people are paranoid about roaches. I never used a barrier and never had an issue. Now Hissers on the other hand...
 

MauricesExoticP

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
5
http://bamboozoo.weebly.com/the-feeders.html

About 1/5 of the way down there is a chart that compares the nutritional value of common feeder roaches to crickets. You can see how much better dubias are than crickets in this sense too.
How do you quantify better?

In the strictest sense of nutritional value roaches do contain more protein than crickets yes, but is that truly an optimal thing nutritionally speaking?

In the reptile world, consistently high protein in the diet is found to stress kidney function over time. I'm new to the arachnid world so I can't exactly speak to their long term use of high protein dietary feeders.

People do in my experience make the full swap over to feeding just dubia or some other easy to rear insect. I've always combined mealworms or other high fat feeders with high protein feeders like dubia to get a lower overall protein percentage and higher calorie total without having to fall back on crickets.

Maurice Pudlo
 

llamastick

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
155
Arachnids have much simpler nutritional requirements than reptiles.

Anyway, male dubias CAN fly a foot or so at a time, so they can escape an un-secure enclosure. I've had 2 or 3 get out of my rubbermade bin (lazy and just leave the handles un-latched for ventilation), but they just end up squeezing up to the heating pad anyway and don't accomplish anything other than putting themselves at the front of the feeding queue.
 
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