Is Dubia Roach Better than Cricket?

Animal protein is essential for health and well being of your pets. There are several sources through which anyone can provide protein to their  pets. Mostly, owners use Dubia Roaches, crickets, mealworms, superworms, or Madagascar hissing cockroaches in this regard. In this article, we will make a comparison between Dubia Roaches and Crickets from different point of views.

Breeding and Care

It is easy for anyone to breed Dubia Roaches because they are not so picky eaters and can eat anything except potatoes. You also don’t need to provide them with water, because they can also get water from crystals or even from fruits and vegetables. Moreover, they are dimorphic means the difference between a male and a female can be distinguished clearly. They can’t climb on a smooth surface, fly or jump, so it is easy for any breeder to keep them. Crickets on the other hand, difficult to breed. They require almost double working hands than Dubia Roaches. They can also jump from their container, so there are also maintenance problems in case of Crickets.

Nutritional differences

Dubia roaches have much more amount of dry matter present in them then crickets. On average, Dubia roach has 40% total dry matter in it while cricket has only 26% of dry matter. Total protein and fat contents in Dubia roaches are much more than Crickets. Dubia roaches have more than 21 parts of protein in their meat and total fat contents are about 7.7%. On the other hand, there is only 15 % protein present in crickets and only 5% of total fat contents. Crickets also have much amount of chitin in their exoskeleton –about 9% of total body contents- which make them difficult to digest. The mineral profile is also better in case of Dubia roaches and they have balanced calcium to phosphorous ratio, which makes them a more nutritious diet. Dubia roaches also have a larger size than crickets: on an average, a single dubia roach is equivalent of 3 or 4 crickets.

Other Differences

The major advantage of dubia roaches on crickets is of smell. Crickets are stinky and produce a foul smell that can be irritating for owners. This unpleasant smell does not come from live cricket but from dead ones. This is also due to their shorter lifespan of a few months and growth differences. Carcasses of crickets take much smaller time to dehydrate leading to a higher danger of death of a lizard.

Crickets can produce a tremendous amount of noise in their breeding equipment, which make them difficult to breed in a common room. Anyone, who have kept crickets is quite familiar with the noise that crickets can make. Dubia roaches, on the other hand, are quiet creatures and don’t make a noise in any way.

The most importing thing about cricket is, it can bite or sting to your pet reptile. However, despite the size of Dubia roaches, they can’t make this type of activity.

Final Verdict

Dubia roaches are better for any pet than crickets. This is not only due to their better nutritional value and mineral profile, but also due to easy-care, no smell, and quietness.