Panchlora nivea as feeders

[KingCampy]

I'm very pleased with my banana roach colony as feeders for my tarantula slings! They are very soft and don't seem to have any ability to really injure my baby t's. I use the very small males for my smaller slings and the bigger fatter females for the larger ones.

The main downside I've found with banana roaches as feeders is that it's very difficult to harvest nymphs because it involves digging through substrate and checking the most buried pieces of cardboard. This is a problem because it wakes up the entire colony and then I've got roaches flying out, escaping, and inevitably being found by my wife (who is far from amused by it.)

Basically if I need something smaller than an adult male banana roach then it's a matter of cutting one in half because digging for nymphs just ain't gonna happen.

 

[Pounces]

*melts over the tarantula toe beans* I'm having a bit of a senior moment - is that a C. versicolor on the bottom pics?

I had wondered about the nymphs of these particular roaches for feeder potential. I hate to say it, but it does cross my mind for any potential roach I get. >.< Good to see they take them readily. I do like to give them varied diets, so that would work out nicely.

Your poor wife, lol. I can picture the scowl in my head now.

 

[KingCampy]

is that a C. versicolor on the bottom pics?

Yes it is!

 

[KingCampy]

I had wondered about the nymphs of these particular roaches for feeder potential.

If you can find a better way to harvest the nymphs it's worthwhile for a couple of reasons. The obvious reason of course being if you need really small feeders, but on the opposite side of the nymph size spectrum; the subadult nymphs are significantly chunkier/meatier than the adults, so actually if you're needing a little more substance than the adult females can provide or if you don't have any extra females you're willing to feed out, they are a great choice.