The American Cockroach as a feeder???

[ljr38]

Has anyone ever used the american cockroach as feeder or tryed to breed them. I read they eat decaying matter an live in sewers. So wild caught would be out of the question but they would probrably make a good feeder for herps. If bred right in captivity an their life span is a little over a year

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[Mentat]

They are pest carriers... so how do you plan to clean them of pathogens? Also, the males fly very well !

[ljr38]

Eeeee Oooh no not me I read where someone else was doing it

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[MatthewM1]

Yeah I would just stick to buying roaches that come from captive stock,they did all originate from WC at some point though technically it would be possible, but not worth the risks with all the species available. Also pretty cheap when dealing with other hobbyists or some dealers that specialize in roaches.

[JeffreH]

You could probably order lab-reared or captive cultured American Roaches... They would be just fine to feed. Roaches seem to have little variation in nutritional content, even from vastly diverged groups (Malagasy hissers vs. Blaptica dubia, for example). I'd still feel obligated to rear a couple of a generations out (removed from the parent colony) to be 100% certain there wasn't anything nasty transferred between them, unless I was confident in the source. Definitely wouldn't feed anything wild-caught, as noted.

The nuisance of flight depends on the person. There are plenty of great feeder roach species out there that can fly, and some herps prefer them that way. But not every keeper wants to deal with flyer, and a known pest species to boot! Although with that being said, they apparently aren't as common INDOOR pests as the german roaches, and infestations are only likely to occur in rather unsanitary conditions.

Anyway, I'd just stick to the known goodies as suggested previously. Lobster roaches or turkistan roaches would be a good alternative. Blaberus species, Blaptica dubia, Eublaberus species... Most roaches make for good feeders.