Breeding your own feeders

[Manolomuro]

In your personal opinion, Which are the easiest feeders to breed?, by easy I mean the least amount to care for them, the easiest setups, the type of animals that you just let do and they thrive, hope this makes sense

 

[BoyFromLA]

Roaches, the by far.

 

[Manolomuro]

Roaches, the by far.

are they easier than wax worms?, as easy as throwing them in a bin and let them do their thing?, I just started with some dubias but they are still young, I also started some wax worms. and got rid of the crickets as they are a pain in the butt to breed IMO

 

[quirinus]

B. dubia
easier to breed than not to breed (if temperatures are ok for breeding)
and any other roaches as well, i guess

 

[Liquifin]

Dubia's are the easiest to care and breed in terms of feeder roaches. In terms of "leaving them and let them do their own thing", I have to say, you are going to have to do maintenance once in a long while as poop build-up from the colony will attract mites or fruit flies if not cleaned over time.

 

[jc55]

Dubia's in my opinion are real easy to breed and raise but their will be some level of maintenance required no matter what you chose to breed.

 

[Pmurinushmacla]

I guess I get the appeal of having ready to use feeders, but I have a pet store nearby, so I just go and grab whatever crickets I need for a couple of days. A lot easier than keeping and maintaining a colony imo, and crickets are super cheap here. And with slings that need to eat more often, I just keep a container of superworms, who last forever or turn into beetles than you can feed your adult ts.

 

[vicareux]

Mealworms have been easier to breed for me.
They pupate fast, just separate the pupa in a different container so the other worms dont feast on them, and youre gonna have beetles with a lot of tiny mealworms in a few weeks.
Perfect for tiny slings

 

[Smotzer]

In your personal opinion, Which are the easiest feeders to breed?, by easy I mean the least amount to care for them, the easiest setups, the type of animals that you just let do and they thrive, hope this makes sense

How large is your collection? Do you have a LPS near you? I used to keep colonies of roaches to feed and because theyre great on their own, and when I stopped keeping colonies of them I just started buying whatever I need every 2-3weeks and in someways its much simpler if you dont have 100 spiders that is to feed

 

[SkittlesTheJumpingSpider]

I'm not sure for breeding them, as I've never done it before, but crickets are relatively easy to keep. One of the down sides to them is their short lifespan and their unpleasant smell, but overall they're pretty easy to maintain. And like @Pmurinushmacla said, they're usually cheap.

Another downside to them is that they can nibble on a freshly molted spider, injuring or even killing it, so just make sure to remove the crickets if uneaten.

 

[viper69]

I bred crickets on the first try

If you have a few Ts not worth it.

 

[Manolomuro]

How large is your collection? Do you have a LPS near you? I used to keep colonies of roaches to feed and because theyre great on their own, and when I stopped keeping colonies of them I just started buying whatever I need every 2-3weeks and in someways its much simpler if you dont have 100 spiders that is to feed

this is what I have now, and I will be waiting a little while to add more, so I would say this list will stay this size for a while (unless I find an incredible deal on avic, caribena and GBB together, then I'd add those 3)

A. seemanni
B. boehemi
B. hamorii x2
G. actaeon
G. porteri
G. pulchra
G. pulchripes
LP x5
N. coloratovillosus
P. sp. mascara
P. irminia
T. albopilosus
T. schroederi x2

 

[JonnyTorch]

I bred crickets on the first try

If you have a few Ts not worth it.

Did you incubate the eggs? Or just do it room temperature?

 

[Wolfram1]

I keep a colony of Lucihormetica verrucosa, they are pretty much exactly like Blaptica dubia in size and care.

 

[viper69]

Did you incubate the eggs? Or just do it room temperature?

RT mini crickets in no time!

 

[JonnyTorch]

RT mini crickets in no time!

Hmm, everywhere I've read said to do them in 90 degrees incubated. I have no luck keeping crickets alive. I like them as feeders but they always die on me and I hate the smell and the adults chirping. But they are great feeders. Maybe I'll try my hand at breeding them. Are yours just in a big sterilite bin? I've been trying breeding b. Lats. They cannibalized each other last time so trying round 2 for now.

 

[viper69]

Mine hatched at around 74F Room temp with central AC!

 

[DomGom TheFather]

It's all personal preference but runners are easy enough and get great feeding responses. There's a little work involved but nothing you can't throw into a weekly schedule. Takes five minutes. You may find it's not worth it or that you really enjoy keeping them. Either way, if you decide to go that route, get a sterilite bin, screen the lid and do eggcrate on bare bottom. It's tried and true.

 

[l4nsky]

Hmm, everywhere I've read said to do them in 90 degrees incubated. I have no luck keeping crickets alive. I like them as feeders but they always die on me and I hate the smell and the adults chirping. But they are great feeders. Maybe I'll try my hand at breeding them. Are yours just in a big sterilite bin? I've been trying breeding b. Lats. They cannibalized each other last time so trying round 2 for now.

What? How? I literally had to feed off every adult I had to stop them from breeding for a few months so I could attempt to put a dent in their numbers. For reference, those are 15" tongs and that's a 10g in the background.

 

[JonnyTorch]

What? How? I literally had to feed off every adult I had to stop them from breeding for a few months so I could attempt to put a dent in their numbers. For reference, those are 15" tongs and that's a 10g in the background.
View attachment 412737 View attachment 412738

Dang man I wish I had that much. And I'm not really sure. I had about 80 or 90 I was starting with about 4 months ago, I fed off a few smaller ones but left the bigger ones to breed, and after a couple months was left with just 6 larger nymphs. No molts anywhere in sight, none escapes, and they didn't eat too much food. I have about 2" of substrate I moisten about once a week, and egg crate in there. They just slowly disappeared over time. Absolutely none of them escaped, I'm 1000% sure of this as I'm using an airtight lid with mesh hotglued on the top of the lid. Haven't seen any escape at all whatsoever. They just dwindled over time and I assume they ate each other because I definitely didn't feed off that many and only had 6 left, so I just fed those off and bought 150 more and trying again. I used mainly oranges, carrots and water gel. I'm not sure what else to try. But this 150 I'm not feeding any off and feeding crix until I see some ooths and little nymphs. Idk what else to do. I prefer them over crickets though.