E. distanti, pros and cons

[Vanan]

Just looking for more info as to why people raise these guys and why not. Them being non climbers is a big plus for me. Is their diet higher in protein than most, like E. prosticus? How fast do they reproduce compared to lobsters and discoids?

IMO, B. dubia's seem to fit the bill of "perfect" roach, but I just wanna get more species going too. Sometimes I dunno which I enjoy keeping more. My feeder roaches or my T's and scorps.

 

[scorpio]

They do produce like crazy, but ive noticed they dont seem as clean as other roaches. Mine tend to wing bite quite a bit.

 

[Merumontanus]

E. distanti

We have found the E. distanti to actually be one of the slower producers of all the Eublaberus/Blaberus species that we keep.
The advantage of this species is that they have a larger stomach mass which is great for gut loading.
They will wing bite though, just like most of the other species, if kept in close contact with each other or if adequate protein is not supplied.
We have found that they do like a deeper substrate as the nymphs prefer to burrow and hide in it.
I'm glad to see that you are feeding a variety of roach species as each species seems to offer a little different nutritional value.

I hope this helps.

www.justbugs.com

 

[Vanan]

Thanks for the replies. About wing biting, would it help if I switched from cat food to dog food? I've heard that E. prosticus are more notorious for wing biting. Either way, if they don't end up being great feeder roaches, they'll become great pet roaches, like my giganteus.

 

[Merumontanus]

distanti

We found that if you give them adequate space and don't put cardboard tubes, like paper towel tubes in their habitat, that they are less likely to wing bite.

Dog food or cat food either is adequate protein and don't seem to make much difference. We also supply ours with fresh natural vegetables on a daily basis. Our belief is that if they are given an oversupply of food items they won't have a tendency to eat each other.

Personally, we use the Solid Gold Brand, Holistic, All Natural, Hundchen Flocken Puppy Dogfood which has a minimum 28% Protein. Nothing to good for our roaches. :} But remember that these roaches are fed to our reptiles and they are what they eat.

 

[GoTerps]

I use Science Diet Nature's Best kitten food (min 35% protein) for my Eublaberus... and also supplies fresh fruits/veggies daily.... this really minimizes the wing bitting in my colony.

 

[xelda]

Kitty chow is higher in protein than dog/puppy formulas. I spent a long time looking at ALL the labels, and Purina kitten chow had the highest amount of protein. I believe it was 40% but don't quote me on that.