I should clarify - you really shouldn't see cannibalism in B. dubia so long as you are providing adequate moisture and food resources, and space. In the event that they do start to become stressed or overcrowded, you'll start seeing slightly smaller litters and sometimes a bit of cannibalism (hence my speculation at a couple of roaches per litter). In the long-term, adult body size is sacrificed when conditions aren't ideal. You can get a feel for when you are stressing out the cockroaches by looking at the quality of the adults and the size of the litters. In smaller cultures under good conditions, cannibalism in this species is essentially nonexistent. My example with the Orange Heads (E. posticus) was a comparison under even ideal conditions, where the orange heads will readily munch on each others wings at almost all times, and who will cannibalize each other rapidly under stress. So in terms of cockroaches and being a threat to themselves, B. dubia are not comparatively to other insects. I rarely separate nymphs from adults and have never had an issue with a colony eventually booming out of control.

Speaking of booming out of control, LOL - that particular colony pictured is the result of "neglect", believe it or not. I have a heated rack system for my cockroach collection, and the more exotic species have first priority. Adjacent to this, I keep my largest bins with the feeders, such as B. dubia and E. posticus. Once the colony hits a size of about 10,000, they probably need separated into separate bins. I began doing this years ago with B. dubia and these particular bins are kept cooler (around 80 degrees) and are fed only about once a week. Believe it or not, that colony started as about 2500 individuals and over the course of about a year, maybe year and a half or so attained a weight of 21lbs of pure, living cockroach meat. I don't even want to imagine how many roaches would have been produced if I had kept them warmer and tended to them like I tend to the others.

My herp interests have changed over the years; I used to breed geckos and during this time roach production was essential. Over the last few years, my interests have shifted more heavily into pythons and boas, and I ended up moving quite a large chunk of my insectivores. I actually do give a lot of cockroaches to friends - I've ditched my turkistan colonies (lats) on a frog friend and moved most of my lobsters to a guy in Utah. That particular bin with all of those roaches was sold years back to a friend in Kentucky who was starting to breed bearded dragons...and anyone who has raised a baby beardie knows just how much they can eat in a single day. A juvenile bearded dragon was actually the reason I started looking into cockroaches in the first place - they are bottomless pits and I was sick of buying 1000 crickets a week to feed. That being said, when colonies are out of control nowadays, I pretty much just leave them be. When the weather is nice and if I can get the free time, I'll do some counts and may make them available, but roaches have already provided me with a great return on investment in both feeder and cash form.

Red Runners AKA Turkistan Roaches (Shelfordella [Blatta] lateralis) are excellent feeders. Interestingly, cockroaches don't appear to differ much in overall nutritional composition. Blaptica dubia and lats are almost identical in protein and fat composition, and are likely very similar in their calcium: phosphorus and chitin mass.
Feeder Insect Analysis

They are fairly quick, but they cannot fly or climb smooth surfaces. They also lay oothecae in the open environment rather than self-incubating, which makes things a little trickier as well. I've found they perform best with a substrate for reproduction and to prevent the ooths from drying out... getting the humidity just right can take a little tweaking. Once you've got the system down, they breed like mad. Personally, I think they are a better species for herps who are very visually stimulated. Dubia frequently bunker down and some herps lose interest rapidly in them as a result; and lats usually do a bit of scurrying before they run off to find a hiding place somewhere in the enclosure. They also seem to be softer bodied and less scleritized than dubia, which may improve overall meat: shell ratio.

I think that covers just about everything for now = )