Roaches, crickets, worms and confusion, oh my

[Aanayab1]

Okay so, I am guessing I will need to order my starter colonies soon. I will be getting four, 4-5 week old ackies in about a week or two. Now my questions are;

A) how soon should I get them before my group arrives?

B) how large should the starter colonies be?

C) what types of insects other than the roach and crickets should I get?

Antonio

[Gatorhunter1231]

Get some dubia from Aaron Pauling roaches. He has a good starter kit to cover all sizes and you get more then he advertises. Crickets suck to breed and just stink. Mealworms and superworms have turn into a beetle before breeding. The beetle is not normally on a monitors yum yum list so you'll have adults and not much of a way to get rid of them. I would get a roach colony and order crickets from a good supplier or from your petstore. Just feed the crickets before feeding them to your monitors. You can get a ton of superworms also by mail. I tried phonix worms once but my ackies or tristis didn't really care for those.

[Gatorhunter1231]

A) asap-takes a month or two for roaches to establish in their and breed like crazy.
B) Aaron Paulings starter colony has 30 adults, 300 mediums, and 500 smalls I think for $89'shipped. That should get u on the right track. He overcounts and seems to twice as many.
C)you can feed the occasionally mealworms/superworms. Just don't bother with breeding them.

[infernalis]

will Ackies take earthworms?

[Pirarucu]

will Ackies take earthworms?
I don't see why they wouldn't. I'd just offer a wide variety, they'll probably eat most of the things you can offer..

[Gungirl]

Question.. Isn't it best to keep Ackies in a trio? I was always told 3 was the best group size to keep them in to avoid issues.

[Lankyrob]

When we had our Ackie we had a colony or Dubia roaches which were his staple diet and we would then give him Locusts or Crickets on a semi regular basis for a change.

[Gatorhunter1231]

Worms could be a hit and miss. Always try it out.
You buy trios in hopes of getting a pair. If you get two female and a male then that's called the jackpot lol.

[Aanayab1]

Ok I'll order soon as I'm off work tonight some roaches, is dubia the only kind they will eat or just the best for them? Just wondering if I should maybe do two types of roach colony. I have pretty easy access to night crawler worms I could try as well, they breed super easy. Yea I'm getting four in hopes to end up with a 1.2 trio or two 1.1 pairs.

[Lankyrob]

Dubia are just really easy to breed, dont fly, cant climb a plastic sided tub :)

[Aanayab1]

On that aaron Pauling site he has got 11 different species of roach that don't do any of that either. That's where my question is based from.

[varanus_mad]

Id buy the biggest roach colony you can afford and leave it alone for 3 months then start feeding off it.

[Gregg M]

In my experience, ackies are not big on worms. Feed lots of crickets, roaches (I like Turkistans Blatta lateralis because they do not burrow and breed twice as fast as dubia) and do not forget pinks. If the ackies are too small to eat whole pinks, cut them up into bits it can swallow.

[infernalis]

That's what I figured Gregg, not going to be any worms up in the rocks of the red heart.

[Aanayab1]

I can not remember off the top of my head but in one of the Biawak quarterlys it says that in one of the studies involving 100+ Ackies beetles,locusts, roaches, small lizards are their main diet... Any thoughts on that?

[Gatorhunter1231]

Dubia are just the best all around. Easy, don't climb, don't fly, slow, an adult dubia is a mouth full for an adult ackie. They are easy to sex as well. Males have wings (even though they can't fly) and females just get nice, plump and wingless. Have live babies.

I would maybe suggest lobsters. They breed fast but can climb. They stay small and monitors like them.

I hate Turkish roaches Aka rusty reds. Monitors like them Because they are active. I dislike them because they are so fast, lay eggs, and will climb a slighty dirty surface that dubias can't. They look to much like a house roach to me and I won't chance any egg layers in my home. (google a pic of one)

Discoids are good but going to be on the large size.

I'm currently experimenting with orange-head roaches. They breed faster and get larger then dubia; however they have an odor. My adult ackies do not like adult orange-heads. They are a little large, spiny, and other people say monitors don't like the taste. That said; my baby ackies are putting a beat down on young orange-head roaches. Orange heads are a little faster and out going vs dubia. Several times my little ackies have passed over a dubia to get an orange-head. Time will well how they pan out for me.

Hissers are to large and breed to slow.

No personal experience with other roaches.

[infernalis]

I can not remember off the top of my head but in one of the Biawak quarterlys it says that in one of the studies involving 100+ Ackies beetles,locusts, roaches, small lizards are their main diet... Any thoughts on that?

That's exactly what I read, and I think it's on Lizard Kings too if I recall correctly.

[Aanayab1]

Dubia ordered.

[Gatorhunter1231]

That's exactly what I read, and I think it's on Lizard Kings too if I recall correctly.

I also think it is on lizard kings.
Monitors eat lizards and other monitors. Ackies search the roack crevices to over power smaller lizards and any bugs they can get. Imagine that they would ground and pound small snakes as well.

[infernalis]

I also think it is on lizard kings.
Monitors eat lizards and other monitors. Ackies search the roack crevices to over power smaller lizards and any bugs they can get. Imagine that they would ground and pound small snakes as well.

Did you see the thread on RepticZ where someone wanted to provide an "all natural" diet to an Argus?

People get some silly ideas.

[varanus_mad]

Did you see the thread on RepticZ where someone wanted to provide an "all natural" diet to an Argus?

People get some silly ideas.

So australian fauna thats highly valued over here then?

LOL think i missed that one what a plank.

Id like to know how he was going to feed venomous snakes to it.

LMFAO

[AjaMichelle]

Haha! ^^^ this is great!