Hi all,
I have an adult beardie and although he doesn't eat all that much, I'm thinking about breeding my own insects to keep costs down a bit. I was wondering how difficult are locusts to breed as Steve really likes them? I've noticed though that lots of people seem to prefer roaches, and I was wondering why this is? Also, do they make as good a food as locusts?

Thanks very much,
Ian

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Roaches are prefered by many as its pretty easy to breed them on a small scale, no hassle with laying pots, or high temps and huge ammounts of greens (as with locusts). Theyre also a brilliant food source, enjoyed by many reptiles.

There is a wide range of species of roaches available too.
Theres a few being sold on the classefieds here, (including some of mine!) Blaptica dubia are one of the easiest species available, they cant climb smooth surfaces and theyre not very fast, so can be contained and fed easily.
Theyre amazing animals too, can be left for weeks without care, and can be kept in high densities without smelling all that much (unlike crickets and locusts)

Even if you do breed your own roaches, It would still be good to feed the beardie a variety of insects, roaches shouldnt 'replace' crickets or locusts, but be included as part of a varied diet.

well i breed dubia roaches too and my beardie loves them very much, they are pretty easy to breed, you just feed them and as long as they are warm they just get on with it. i also breed crickes which although is more time consuming than roaches it pays off because once a load of eggs hatch you can get 1000, but then u have to raise them nice and big which might take a few month and lots of cleaning out too. i couldnt reccomend dubia roaches highly enough, my beardie goes mad for them. maybe u can breed roaches as a staple then just buy the odd tub of crickets maybe once every 2 weeks. i dont think many people would recommend breeding locusts as they are very difficult, never tried it myself but they need to get to adult stage, then need to be at perfect temp to lay eggs, and have heard that unless there is a certain amount of food they refuse to lay, and then again u have the problem of raising on the baby locusts, locusts need heat lamps too, which crickets dont.

to breed crickets the first time i got a big storage box and put food n water in it and a laying box, which i used a livefood tub cut down so it was about an inch high,filled with damp sand, then i bought a box of adult crickets from the shop and as soon as i put them in my box, they all started laying, so they had already been gravid. i got about 1000 babies just from that one laying tub, so i didnt really have to do any work, just took out the laying tub and put in inside a bigger box and kept it warm, then about 1-2 weeks later woke up to find crickets everywhere.

i have also bred waxworms too, thats pretty easy too, like the roaches just get them started then leave them to it, just google some care sheets.

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Laura M