Dubia vs Turkistan roaches

[z0mbiebabykiller]

I'm currently raising both dubia (Blaptica dubia) and Turkistan (Blatta lateralis) for my beardie. From what I've seen the turks are just as good and waaay cheaper than dubia. They also are much softer, hardly any shell really. None seem to escape, they are in a plastic critter keeper. I haven't seen any climb the sides either. They are super fast and don't play dead like dubia. Pretty hard to catch since they go to a crevice immediately. They will sometimes come out during the day ( a few that I dropped into dragon's viv) and he catches them by ambush. I really just wanted to hear other people's thoughts, it seems everyone is all about dubias and they are great, but expensive and breed so slow.

 

[CooperDragon]

From a nutritional standpoint the Turkistan roaches are fine. I don't think they're as common because they're fast and they can breed at room temperature and are more likely to become a pest if they escape than a dubia roach. If you're not worried about that, then they'd probably be a good option.

 

[z0mbiebabykiller]

we always smash the Turk's heads before getting them out BC they are very fast. they also look like roaches even as nymphs where dubia nymphs could be mistaken for some type of beetle. I would advise being extra cautious with the turks and have them with a secure lid and a container that can't fall over and open. being egg layers, they breed super fast . probably double dubia reproduction. . the price is the big difference. 500 adult/near adult turks were $25 shipped from www.dubiaroaches.com. that many dubia would be close too, if not over 50$.