Blaptica Dubia

[mcliff1]

So I set up my 125 B. Dubia colony, and have begun to use them as feeders. My only concern is the fact that the roaches are smart enough to "freeze" if they sense anything...like a T....should I be concerned about their play-dead trait, or will it work itself out in the end?!?!?!?! :?

 

[Kris-wIth-a-K]

For one a T's strike is fast that the Dubias legs. T's are sensitive to vibrations and all animals give off some type. So no don't worry about it. I make it easy on them and just drop the dang food right in front of them. They catch it quickly then

 

[troglodyte]

I recently watched my S. rubronitens dine on a B. dubia. The roach froze and flattened itself against the glass, but my T wasn't fooled; she used her palps and pried it off and scooped it into her face. I think for some Ts it might be tough, but not for others.

 

[Krazy Kat]

mcliff1,did yours burrow under the substrate when you put in with your T?

 

[Nam]

Or like a lot of people do pinch the head of the roach....they will run around like no ones business

 

[Mina]

The other thing you can do with dubias is put them on their back. They will fling all of their legs around trying to get back up right. It always attracts the Ts attention.

 

[gvfarns]

It really depends on the T. Some eat them right up. Other T's never really get the idea.

I'm not a fan of squashing heads or any other mutilation. In my experience it's a very disgusting action and it doesn't work all that well.

Lots of people swear by dubia and say the T's will eventually figure it out.

Me? I got impatient with them and replaced them with Blatta lateralis. Never had to be patient again with the food.

Although, I did have a nightmare last night that my lateralis colony overproduced like crazy and escaped, taking over my house. It was pretty traumatizing. I never worried about the dubia.

 

[mcliff1]

mcliff1,did yours burrow under the substrate when you put in with your T?

A couple of them did - yes....

 

[mcliff1]

All this is making me think I should have tried Blaberus Discoidalis. It says (on BestRoach) that they are more active.

 

[Krazy Kat]

that sucks!!I lost one in my obt cage and I'm not digging around in there to find it..

 

[fishwithoutabik]

I can't tell you how many times I have found a roach in one of my Ts containers that suddenly "appeared" and was much larger than the size I usually feed that T. So yeah sometimes the T doesn't eat it and it hides for a while.

I try to squish its head a wee bit and toss them in there on their back. I don't want to be ugly, but... my Ts aren't the brightest crayons in the box when it comes to finding food sometimes. It used to gross me out but since I got some long metal tongs its super easy and I don't have to be so upclose and personal with the mutilated roach heads hehe.

I did try lobsters cause they are so active but after one JUMPED off the inside of the container and onto my hand I decided that they were just tooooo active for me. (I'm not going to lie, I did shake it off and run around screaming for a second)

 

[Mister Internet]

I have a nasty pair of scissors I use to cut the legs off of one side of them when I drop them in... they hobble around like crazy trying to figure out what's going on, and can't dig effectively to burrow as a result. Works for me, anyway...

 

[fishwithoutabik]

I have a nasty pair of scissors I use to cut the legs off of one side of them when I drop them in... they hobble around like crazy trying to figure out what's going on, and can't dig effectively to burrow as a result. Works for me, anyway...

lol! that is hilariously macabre. I actually used to do that with crix for my slings. I dunno why I never thought of trying it with the roaches.

 

[jeepinwu2]

All this is making me think I should have tried Blaberus Discoidalis. It says (on BestRoach) that they are more active.

You should have got lobster roaches.

 

[gvfarns]

All this is making me think I should have tried Blaberus Discoidalis. It says (on BestRoach) that they are more active.

I think you will be disappointed if you switch to them. Good roaches from a tarantula acceptance point of view are the same ones that are scary because they can crawl up your arm really fast or wriggle out of your fingers. Specifically, Blatta lateralis and lobsters.

 

[gvfarns]

You should have got lobster roaches.

jinx.

 

[gvfarns]

Basically from an ease-of-feeding perspective you have to look at the fright response of the roach. dubia and other large roaches tend to freeze or dig, or in some cases, stink. That's bad from a feeding point of view. On the other hand, this type of roach has a lot of meat on it, and they tend to be easy to handle. And many T's figure out good ways to eat them.

Lobsters and especially Blatta lateralis run like mad when they are scared, or experience any other stimulation. In fact I believe if you touch them their legs start running before their brain (such as it is) has even gotten the message that they have been touched.

So fast roach = easily accepted by tarantulas. Lobsters are a good trade off between meaty and fast, but the darn things can climb glass. Blatta lateralis are basically a salad for a tarantula. They have to eat many to get fat.

With all the zillions of species of roaches in the world, you'd think we could find one that is optimal from a feeding perspective.

 

[fishwithoutabik]

.....
With all the zillions of species of roaches in the world, you'd think we could find one that is optimal from a feeding perspective.

Darnit, why can't there be a roach that is fast but can't climb smooth surfaces:wall: :wall: :wall:

 

[gvfarns]

Darnit, why can't there be a roach that is fast but can't climb smooth surfaces:wall: :wall: :wall:

My thoughts exactly.

Although.... If you have many arboreal tarantulas, the tendency to climb might actually be a good thing. I'm actually thinking of starting up a lobster colony to compare my experience to that of using Blatta lateralis. I already verified experimentally that I like lateralis much better than dubia.

 

[fishwithoutabik]

Man, I just can't get with lobsters. After that one jumped on me, I had nightmares for days about them getting loose. I can only handle dubia cause they just don't have that much roachy grossness or whatever. oh well, in a perfect world...
at least i have found a substitute for crix as far as my Ts and my beardie are concerned, cause they are grosser than roaches.