hey all ive heard that roaches are liek a million times better than crickets I was looking at blaptica dubia and I was wondering if anyone can give ma a care sheet about thema nd also I am looking buy some so plz help me

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Orange-spotted roaches are one of the better feeders to use cause they aren't able to climb glass. They're not nearly as common as madagascar hissing or giant cave roaches though. Hissing roaches are also pretty good cause they're easy to obtain, and although they can climb, they can't fly.

The upside to roaches is that, like crickets, they breed like crazy and will eat almost anything. Other advantages they have over crix is that they get a lot bigger, so work good for larger critters. They don't stink as bad as crix, and breeding them is less complicated. The downsides they have to crix though is that their larger size also means you need more space to house them, and its more expensive to start a roach colony than a cricket colony. The biggest disadvantage however, is that they aren't as nutritionally balanced as crix. Personally, I'd only use roaches as an extra. Crickets and silkworms are the only two that I'd ever use as a staple in the diet.

What are you planning on feeding them to? Here's a site I found:
http://www.polliwog-design.com/roaches.html

If you do start up a roch colony though, DO NOT use pine bedding. Aspen is ok, but not pine or cedar. I'd look for some more caresheets though. This one doesn't seem to give any specifics on what type of substrate, temps, and humidity the orange-spotted needs. It just has a bunch of different substrates. Here's some other sites that may help you out:

http://www.petbugs.com/caresheets/****roaches.html
http://www.roachdomain.com/
http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/****roaches/index.html

I know this really good roach site, but its in my favorites on my HOME computer. Oh well.

Hey, I'll see if my sis can find that other site. Oh, and the URLs with the **** obviously won't work, but I think you can figure out what goes there

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i am feeding 2 Leopard Geckos 2 tokays 1 bd a crested and soon to be 3 forest chams
can I keep roaches without subtate

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I've read on some sites that since roaches have alot more "meat"/exoskeleton than crickets that they are alot more nutritious for reptiles? I also read you could keep them on a dry gut-load as a substrate, keeping all the proper vitamins and such running through their bodies. I'm not positive this is all correct though....I've been wanting to make the switch to roaches as well...but still dont have enough info...

Whether you'd need a substrate or not depends on what kind of roaches you use. Some are from much more humid environments than others.

I don't remember what it is with roaches, I think they're higher in fat than crix or something. I've got the nutritional content of several feeder insects, but not roaches. If you ever find some, please let me know.

As for the gutload, like crix, variety is very important. The idea behind gutloading is to fill the prey with a wide varity of healthy foods so that the added nutrition is passed on to the herps.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

Matt - the only bug site I can find is the petbugs.com one, which you already listed.

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Rats, oh well, I'll find it sometime.

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+5 bonus points to whoever finds me a job!

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield