Orange Head Roaches for Sale - Free Shipping

How do we Ship Orange Head Roaches?

With care and thoughtful consideration.  Our team has years of experience breeding, rearing, and packaging live orange head roaches for our buying customers.  Whether you are located in frigid Minnesota, or blistering Arizona, our team will package and ship your order to account for the weather.  Temps too cold?  We will add a heat pack.  Heat wave in the forecast?  We will request the post office to hold your package.  

Either way, you can buy your orange head roaches from The Critter Depot, knowing they are packaged with the highest probability that they will arrive in excellent condition for your pet's satisfaction. 

Which Carrier Do We Use?

Orange Head roaches are shipped with the United States Post Office.  Some may cringe at this thought.  However, USPS provides cost effective solutions, which helps us keep these exotic feeder insects more affordable, so that more pet parents may buy them for their amazing pet.  Additionally, this gives us the opportunity to have your live feeder held at the post office office for pick up.  The benefit of this is that your orange head roaches can sit in the post office instead of a hot or cold truck, which is one of the leading causes on transit fatilities.

Where do we ship from?

We are lucky enough to have multiple facilities, strategically located to minimize shipping time and cost.  We ship from our locations in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, the west coast, which greatly reduces transit times, and helps get your orange head roaches in your hands faster.  

Are the orange head roaches you sell guaranteed?

Yes, we have a conditional live delivery guarantee.  If your order does not arrive in great condition, please email us at contact@thecritterdepot.com.  And we will promptly get back to you with a resolution. 

When do you Ship?

Orange head roaches ship on Mondays.  We try to minimize how often we harvest them, because it disturbs their breeding cycle.    

How Many Orange Head Roaches should I buy for my pet?

Orange head roaches have many nutritional benefits over other feeder insects, including dubias.  They have more soft tissue, which makes them easier to digest than other roaches. 

But all that being said, they are not a perfect feeder.  One of their biggest drawbacks is that they can prefer meat.  When breeding orange head roaches, it is common that they will nibble on each other to get additional protein.   This will also happen if the orange head roach is left to roam in your pet's habitat.  A prepared reptile owner should understand this, however.  Because crickets will do the same.  So make sure you are only offering enough roaches for your pet to eat in one sitting.  

Orange head roaches will also emit a defensive odor when disturbed.  Many herp veterans have compared the smell to a wet horse.  One way to keep the odor down is to keep the habitat extremely dry.  This will help eliminate the orange head odor. 

How Many Orange Head Roaches should I buy for My Bearded Dragon?

• Young Bearded Dragon (1-3 months old) = 30 - 50 small orange head roaches (1/4-inch nymphs) three times per day. Twice per day is acceptable, but your dragonwill grow more slowly.  Make sure to have about 1,000 roaches on hand per week.
• Juvenile Bearded Dragon (3-9 months old) = 25 - 50 orange head roaches (1/2-inch nymphs) twice daily. 
• Maturing Bearded Dragon (9+ months old) = 3-5 adult roaches (1" adults) almost daily.  Dubia roaches have a higher fat content than crickets.  Which means that obesity may be a result if the beardie is fed adult roaches 7 days per week.  Skipping a day or even two may be needed.

Young bearded dragons need a lot of protein to serve their high metabolism and growth rate.  And orange head roaches offer an excellent amount of protein.  This protein will help the bearded dragon reach maturity at the proper rate.  But it's also important to note that roaches don't provide the calcium levels that reptiles need.  So it's important to dust your roaches with calcium dust to avoid lethal diseases like metabolic bone disease.

What Size Orange Head Roach Do You Sell?

We sell 4 sizes of orange head roaches: small, medium, large, and extra large.  Their sizes have a wide range due to the mechanics of harvesting orange head roaches for sale.  They are raised and rotated based on age.  And the size of their age can be influenced by temps, diet, acclimation in their environment, and a variety of other factors.

• Small - smalls generally average around 1/4".  However they can be slightly smaller depending on those factors.
• Medium - 3/8" - 3/4" - Our mediums will fall inbetween this range.  
• Large - 3/4" - 1" - Our larges will fit inbetween this range.  Once they get over 1" in size, they begin to display their wings or stumps, which indicates if they are male or female, making them great for breeders.

Which Size Orange Head Roach Should I Buy?

The rule of thumb is that your dubia roaches should be no bigger than the space between your pet's eyes.  Since dubias are meatier than crickets and superworms, you don't need to feed as many dubias as you would crickets.  So it's ok if your roaches are smaller than the space between your pet's eyes.  

Most reptile pets will need the nymph stage of the dubia roach life cycle.  Nymphs are dubia roaches that are not sexually mature.  Nymphs start out as 1/8" in size, and will grow an additional 1/8" every 3-4 weeks.  They will stop growing when they reach 1.5" in length, which is when they reach sexual maturity. 

How do I Gutload Orange Head Roaches I just Purchased?

Orange head roaches will eat anything, including meat.  But since you're using them as feeders, you should feed them a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables.  One advantage that orange head roaches have is that their intestinal track is longer and larger than a cricket's.  This means they can hold more gut-loading nutrition, compared to a cricket or superworm.