What's a cheaper food source than crickets?

[kueluck]

I sent the info to ya. The Turkish roaches don't dig down and bury themselves like the dubia do. They do run and hide but come out when it's dark and the toads & frogs enjoy hunting them. But I serve mine to the toads in a glass dish sunk into the ground and they seem to know where to find them, but then I always have wanderers so they can hunt them down. My frogs I hand feed since I haven't seen them ever go to the glass dish, but I keep some in there just in case they they get hunger during the night when I'm not up. For me it's easier to just order some instead of raising them since I'm feeding 4 amphibians.

The roaches sound like a better idea. except since my toads live on about 3-4" of coco fiber bark, wouldnt the roaches just dig down and be gone? the crickets are dumb enough to just walk around the surface until they get spotted and ambushed.




could you PM me the info too? sounds like a good idea!

[kueluck]

Here's a pic of Rufus ready for "roach down in glass", get it, roach down in glass like pheasant under glass. I crack myself up!!

[Dunian]

I've been trying to find a good alternate to crickets for my toad since all my crickets keep dying. I am rather interested in these roaches. What stores sell them? And how many do you feed a day to a small sized toad?

[Curb71]

most "stores" don't sell them. you can call the local smaller pet stores in your area and ask if they can special order them for you but they are rather expensive. Other option is finding them online like Gail above mentioned.
As far as how many, toads will stop eating when they are full. when you say small I remember the old fruit fly days so not sure without something to compare it to.

[kueluck]

I get mine from Welcome to Gulf Coast Crickets - I love this place and my toads love the roaches also. I put them in a bowl and let them eat what they want to. I change out the roaches each night so they have fresh ones. And roaches are sooo much easier to take care of, don't smell, and don't die off like crickets do.

[KingCam]

I breed my own lobster roaches and dubia roaches. They are extremely easy to culture. Water + Heat + Food = Unlimited numbers of roaches.

I've heard turkish roaches (red runners) can breed at room temperature, which makes them a possible threat for infestation if they got loose in your house.

Lobster roaches and dubia have to be hot to breed, so escapees are much less likely to reproduce.

I'd be happy to ship you several thousand lobster roaches to get a colony started for super cheap, PM me if you're interested. I don't have any dubia to spare (they breed much slower than the lobsters)

The roaches sound like a better idea. except since my toads live on about 3-4" of coco fiber bark, wouldnt the roaches just dig down and be gone? the crickets are dumb enough to just walk around the surface until they get spotted and ambushed.

Yes, they will burrow. I feed all of my animals with forceps. This way I don't have to worry about escapee roaches, plus I get to bond with my animals a little more than I would by dumping the food in and leaving.