Why I Recommend Discoid Roaches: Nutrition and Care

I keep a lot of insectivores, and I also run a feeder business, so I've fed off just about everything: crickets, dubia, superworms, hornworms, the lot. When people ask me what one feeder to build a colony around, my answer for most keepers — especially anyone in the southern US — is the discoid roach (Blaberus discoidalis). This isn't a sales pitch. It's the honest verdict of someone who has spilled crickets across a garage at 1 a.m. and chased dubia that turned out to be illegal in his state.

This guide is the "why" and the basics: why discoids are worth choosing, what their nutrition actually is (including the part most sellers get wrong), and the simple care that keeps them healthy. If you want the deep colony build — heat, humidity numbers, breeding cycle, troubleshooting a colony that's stalled — I've written that separately and I'll point you to it at the end.

What discoid roaches are

Discoids are a tropical roach native to Central and South America, in the same family (Blaberidae) as the dubia roach. Adults top out around two inches, with a flat, glossy, oval body in tan to brown. They're decomposers in the wild, living on warm, humid forest floors eating fallen fruit and decaying plant matter. That ecology is the whole care sheet in one line: warm, humid, dark, fed on plants.

A common mix-up worth clearing up immediately: discoids are Blaberus discoidalis. They are not Blaptica dubia — that's the dubia roach, a different (if related) species. Some listings and care posts blur the two. They're close cousins and keep almost identically, but they're not the same animal, and the legal situation between them is where it really matters (more below).

Why I reach for discoids first

Three traits do the heavy lifting.

They don't climb smooth walls. Adult discoids can't grip glass or smooth plastic, so a plain storage bin holds them with no sealed lid and no petroleum-jelly barrier around the rim. You'll see this overstated in both directions online — some sources call them "good climbers," which is just wrong for smooth surfaces. The honest version: adults can grip rough surfaces like cardboard and screen, and newborn nymphs are pinhead-sized and will walk through coarse vents. So you do still cover ventilation openings with fine metal mesh, but you'll never have an adult scaling the walls of a feeding cup. After years of crickets leaping out of every container, this alone sold me.

They barely smell and they're quiet. A healthy discoid setup is nearly odorless, and they don't chirp. If you've ever kept a cricket bin in a bedroom or living space, you already understand why this matters. Any real smell from a discoid bin means it's too wet or has rotting food in it — not the roaches themselves.

They're soft and easy to digest. Discoids have a low-chitin exoskeleton compared to crickets and especially compared to mealworms or superworms. Less chitin means easier digestion and lower impaction risk, which is why I'm comfortable feeding them to juveniles and smaller species.

The honest trade-off, so you're not surprised: discoids breed slower than dubia and they genuinely need heat to reproduce. If your goal is a fast-ramping breeding colony, dubia get there sooner (where they're legal). If your goal is a clean, quiet, containable, legal-in-more-places staple feeder, discoids are hard to beat.

The nutrition, honestly

Here's where I want to correct the thing nearly every "for sale" listing says. Discoids are frequently advertised as having "more calcium than other feeders" or a "great calcium-to-phosphorus ratio." That is not true, and it's a dangerous thing to believe. Like almost every feeder insect, discoids are phosphorus-heavy with a poor calcium-to-phosphorus ratio. Feeding any insect that's calcium-deficient relative to phosphorus, without supplementation, is exactly how reptiles develop metabolic bone disease over time.

So the rule is simple and non-negotiable: dust your feeders with a calcium supplement, every feeding, no matter how well you've gut-loaded. Gut-loading improves a lot of things; it does not fix the calcium ratio.

With that out of the way, here's what discoids genuinely bring:

• ◆Protein around 20% as-fed — solid, comparable to dubia and crickets, good for growth and active animals.
• ◆Moderate fat — enough to be nourishing without the obesity risk of a high-fat feeder like superworms.
• ◆Low chitin, soft bodies — highly digestible across a wide range of insectivores, from baby geckos to adult monitors.
• ◆Excellent gut-loading capacity — what the roach eats becomes what your pet eats. Feed the colony well and you deliver real nutrition up the chain. Feed it garbage and you're feeding your animal garbage in a roach-shaped wrapper.

That last point is the most actionable: 24 to 48 hours before you feed off, load the colony with fresh produce and a quality dry protein base, then harvest. The roaches will be packed with nutrients at the moment your animal eats them. Combined with calcium dusting, that's the whole nutrition game.

Compared to the other common feeders: superworms carry roughly double the fat and belong in the "treat" category; hornworms are mostly water (great for hydration, can't carry a diet); crickets are nutritionally similar to discoids but louder, smellier, and escape-prone. Discoids sit in the sweet spot as a staple you build a rotation around. If you want the full feeder-by-feeder breakdown, that's in the comparison piece linked below.

Sizing — match the feeder to the animal

Discoids are sold by size, and matching size to your animal is the single most important feeding decision:

• ◆Small (~1/4–1/2") — hatchling and juvenile reptiles, smaller geckos, small amphibians.
• ◆Medium (~1–2") — most adult geckos, juvenile bearded dragons, mid-size insectivores.
• ◆Large / adult (~2") — adult bearded dragons, monitors, tegus, large frogs and toads.

The standard rule of thumb: a feeder should be no longer than the space between your animal's eyes. Too large is an impaction and choking risk; too small just means feeding more of them. When in doubt, size down.

Basic care — keeping them alive

Whether you're holding a batch of purchased feeders for a few weeks or starting a small colony, the basics are the same and they're forgiving.

Housing. An opaque plastic bin is ideal — cheap, dark (which they like), and easy to modify. Cut a ventilation window in the lid and one high on a side, and cover both with fine metal mesh, hot-glued in place. Plastic mesh gets chewed; coarse screen lets pinhead nymphs through. Stand cardboard egg flats vertically inside for surface area and hiding spots.

Temperature — survive vs. breed. This is the detail the source material I see most often gets muddled. Discoids survive fine at normal room temperature, so if you've just bought feeders to use up over a few weeks, you don't need to heat them. But they only breed in the mid-80s to low 90s Fahrenheit. Below about 80°F, reproduction slows to a near-stop. So "store at room temperature" is fine for holding stock; it is not how you run a producing colony. If you want one, heat from the side (never the bottom — discoids cluster low and bottom heat cooks them) on a thermostat. The full breeding setup is in the dedicated guide.

Humidity. Aim for moderate humidity — a damp corner or a dish of water crystals does the job. Too dry stalls nymphs; too wet invites mold and grain mites.

Water. Use water crystals or hydration gel, never an open dish. Nymphs drown in standing water easily. Crystals give steady hydration with zero drowning risk and no mess.

Food. Keep a dry protein base (commercial roach chow or a whole-grain mix) always available, and rotate in fresh produce — carrots, squash, sweet potato, leafy greens, apple. Pull anything before it rots. Skip heavy citrus, anything salty or oily, and obviously anything that's been near pesticides. Wash produce first.

Cleaning. Don't over-clean. Frass and shed skins are part of a healthy bin and nymphs feed in them. Spot-clean mold and old produce; do a full clean-out only a couple times a year.

That's genuinely it. A discoid setup done right is the most boring thing in the animal room — and for a feeder, boring is the goal.

A word on legality before you order

The biggest practical reason discoids are popular, especially in Florida, is that dubia roaches are restricted there while discoids are an accepted feeder. Florida regulates non-native species that could establish if they escaped into its subtropical climate, and dubia and discoids are treated differently under those rules. If you're in Florida, discoids are very often the legal, practical choice.

But "legal in Florida" is not "legal everywhere," and these lists change. Some states and cities regulate which roach species you can keep or ship. Confirm your own state and local rules before you buy — don't rely on a forum post about somebody else's state. A reliable non-commercial starting point is your state agriculture department or land-grant university extension service; the University of Florida's entomology and nematology department is a good resource for feeder-insect and invasive-species questions.

Where I get mine

When I need to seed a colony or just top up healthy feeders sized for direct feeding, All Angles Creatures stocks well-started discoid roaches across all three sizes. (Full disclosure: that's my own feeder store — I keep the colonies the same way I'm describing here.) Whatever your source, look for active, glossy roaches across a range of sizes, and quarantine new stock for a couple weeks before merging it into an established colony so you don't import grain mites or mold.

The short version

Discoids are my default staple feeder because they don't climb smooth walls, barely smell, are soft and easy to digest, gut-load beautifully, and are legal in places dubia aren't. Their nutrition is solid at around 20% protein with moderate fat — but ignore any claim that they're calcium-rich. They're phosphorus-heavy like nearly every feeder, so dust with calcium every time. Hold them at room temperature with food and water crystals if you're just using them up; heat them to the mid-80s–90s if you want them to breed. Match the size to your animal, keep them clean, and they'll be the easiest part of your feeding routine.

Ready to run a colony instead of just buying feeders? See my full discoid roach care and breeding playbook, or compare your options in discoid roaches vs. dubia: which feeder reigns supreme.