orange head roaches
Table of Contents
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.
What to Expect when receiving crickets in the mail - VIDEO
What to Expect When Receiving Superworms in the Mail - VIDEO
What to Expect When Receiving Discoid Roaches in the Mail - VIDEO
What to Expect When Receiving Black Soldier Fly Larvae in the Mail - VIDEO
What to Expect When Receiving Dubia Roaches in the Mail - VIDEO
Conditional Live Delivery Guarantee
The Conditions
- Customer must be home to receive delivery. Or package must be held at Post Office.
- Destination temps must be 45 degrees F or above. No exceptions.
- Customer must provide correct shipping address.
- Applies to paying customers only. Winners from the CritterFam contest are excluded from the guarantee.
If the conditions for the Live Delivery Guarantee are met, Customer must do the following:
- Send us pics of the deceased. Pics can be sent to contact@thecritterdepot.com
- We must be notified within 24 hours from the moment customer receives package.
If conditions are met, we will ship a replacement package free of charge.
Shipping In Winter - Full Disclosure
- We will not ship when Destination Temps are below 25 Degrees F
- Live Delivery is Not Guaranteed when Destination Temps are below 45 Degrees F
If you are ordering crickets, superworms, or any other live product during the winter, you need to be realistic: we’re trying to ship a live product through sub 30 degree temperatures affordably.
We take extra measures during the winter to try and increase their chances of survival. However, history has proven that customers are 4x more likely to receive perished crickets when shipped in the winter. This is fact.
Shipping in the winter has always been our biggest challenge. And every other crickets vendor has the same problem. No one wants to send you dead crickets. We want to provide you with excellent service, because we know you care about your pet. But the reality is we can’t control the weather. And there’s only so much packaging we can do before we have to increase our costs.
We still have success shipping in the winter.
If you decide to order for a winter delivery, here's what you can do on your end to ensure you receive happy, healthy live products:
- You MUST be home to accept the delivery. The live product cannot be left outside in the freezing temperatures, or it's certain they won't survive.
- If we ship with the Post Office, we highly highly highly recommend that you communicate with your post office. And that you ask them to hold the package for pick up.
- If there is a problem, we must be notified within 24 hours of receiving the live product.
We only ship Live Products on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays
Before YOU and every other customer collectively sends us disgruntled emails on Monday asking where your order is, please know that we only ship live products on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. And this isn't because we're lazy. It's because we need to be proactive, and make sure the live products don't get stuck in transit over the weekend. If they get stuck over the weekend, there is an increased probability that they will not survive the transit. And perished animals in your mail box don't do either of us any good.
When Will My Order Ship?
Great question. In fact, it's too great of a question. This question makes up 80% of our incoming emails! And all we can think of in the office is what better things we could do with that time. So here's the nitty gritty breakdown for when your order will ship:
- If order was placed on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday then your order will be shipped on the following Monday.
- If order was placed on Sunday, or Monday then your order will be shipped on Tuesday.
- If order was placed on a Tuesday then your order will be shipped on Wednesday.
And please know that these shipping schedules can change depending on Post Office holidays. But if you still have questions about your shipment, please do not hesitate to email us as contact@thecritterdepot.com.
Ok Bug-Boy. But What about The Tracking?
Great question. We will upload tracking information within 36 hours after the order has shipped. So if your order ships on Monday, the latest we would update tracking information for your order is by Wednesday morning.
And What About DOA's?
DOA's (dead on arrival) are a part of the business. It's not profitable for us to send out deceased animals. So please know that we take every possible precaution before shipping.
But we care about our customers, because you're the ones putting us in business. And we guarantee live delivery as long as specific conditions are met. So if your order does not arrive alive, please let us know. As long as conditions are met, we will have another order reshipped free of charge on the next shipment date (this excludes winter reshipments, which will be reshipped at our discretion).
We Ship with The Post Office and with FedEx
We ship with the post office for a few reasons.
- They keep their packages inside their climate controlled buildings. This is a game changer. Instead of leaving the packages out on a dock, they are brought inside the building. Which can drastically increase the survival rate for the crickets and superworms.
- They Deliver on Saturdays. Since they deliver on Saturdays, we're able to ship on Wednesdays. Most packages are delivered within 2-3 business days. So if we ship on Wednesday, that 2-3 day window falls in the same week, which avoids any Sunday transit delays.
- Cost Effective. And one reason why we're able to keep our prices so low is because we use the post office. USPS Priority mail is a great, and reasonable priced service. And any savings we gain, we pass right back to the customer.
The post office is our preferred shipper. But depending on your proximity & time of year, we may upgrade your shipping service to FedEx for these reasons:
- The Post Office is unreliably slow during holidays. The drawback with the post office they don't guarantee delivery dates. They will advertise 2-3 days for their Priority Mail shipments. However, the don't guarantee you package will arrive in 2-3 days. And this becomes painfully obvious during the holidays, specifically between Black Friday and New Years. Which puts us in a tough spot because our preferred shipper with climate controlled facilities is no longer dependable. So we'll ship with FedEx for this reason.
- Faster Shipping/Shorter Transits. Faster shipping and shorter transits have obvious benefits. The live product will get delivered faster, and in a preferred habitat. And FedEx does guarantee their delivery dates, which is beneficial for the customer.
Unfavorable Shipping Conditions
Temperatures are a big consideration when packaging and shipping live products. And at any time, we may decide to postpone deliveries if we feel the live product will not survive the transit. If that is the case, we will make our best effort to contact the customer so that can make other arrangements if desired.
But if the temperatures are too cold, we can package the crickets with heat packs. And if they are too hot, we can package them with cold gel packs. But these alone doesn't guarantee live delivery.
But either way, we need to keep a close eye on the weather when we get into the extremes. So please keep that in mind when expecting deliveries.
Winter Shipping Policy
- We will not ship when Destination Temps are below 25 Degrees F
- Live Delivery is Not Guaranteed when Destination Temps are below 45 Degrees F
If you are ordering crickets, superworms, or any other live product during the winter, you need to be realistic: we’re trying to ship a live product through sub 30 degree temperatures affordably.
We take extra measures during the winter to try and increase their chances of survival. However, history has proven that customers are 4x more likely to receive perished crickets when shipped in the winter. This is fact.
Shipping in the winter has always been our biggest challenge. And every other crickets vendor has the same problem. No one wants to send you dead crickets. We want to provide you with excellent service, because we know you care about your pet. But the reality is we can’t control the weather. And there’s only so much packaging we can do before we have to increase our costs.
We still have success shipping in the winter.
If you decide to order for a winter delivery, here's what you can do on your end to ensure you receive happy, healthy live products:
- You MUST be home to accept the delivery. The live product cannot be left outside in the freezing temperatures, or it's certain they won't survive.
- If we ship with the Post Office, we highly highly highly recommend that you communicate with your post office. And that you ask them to hold the package for pick up.
- If there is a problem, we must be notified within 24 hours of receiving the live product.
Remember...
Dead crickets or superworms don't do you (the customer), or us (the cricket grower) any good. So let's work together to ensure your live product survives the transit.
We can only ship Live Products on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays
We want to get your products delivered quickly just as badly as you do. But the reality is that shipping live products isn't the easiest task. And that means we have to be disciplined and strategic when we ship. Otherwise, there's an increased probability that perished crickets will show up on your doorstep. And that doesn't do any good for the customer or shipper.
We Ship with The Post Office and with FedEx
We ship with the post office for a few reasons.
- They keep their packages inside their climate controlled buildings. This is a game changer. Instead of leaving the packages out on a dock, they are brought inside the building. Which can drastically increase the survival rate for the crickets and superworms.
- They Deliver on Saturdays. Since they deliver on Saturdays, we're able to ship on Wednesdays. Most packages are delivered within 2-3 business days. So if we ship on Wednesday, that 2-3 day window falls in the same week, which avoids any Sunday transit delays.
- Cost Effective. And one reason why we're able to keep our prices so low is because we use the post office. USPS Priority mail is a great, and reasonable priced service. And any savings we gain, we pass right back to the customer.
The post office is our preferred shipper. But depending on your proximity & time of year, we may upgrade your shipping service to FedEx for these reasons:
- The Post Office is unreliably slow during holidays. The drawback with the post office they don't guarantee delivery dates. They will advertise 2-3 days for their Priority Mail shipments. However, the don't guarantee you package will arrive in 2-3 days. And this becomes painfully obvious during the holidays, specifically between Black Friday and New Years. Which puts us in a tough spot because our preferred shipper with climate controlled facilities is no longer dependable. So we'll ship with FedEx for this reason.
- Faster Shipping/Shorter Transits. Faster shipping and shorter transits have obvious benefits. The live product will get delivered faster, and in a preferred habitat. And FedEx does guarantee their delivery dates, which is beneficial for the customer.
Unfavorable Climates
Temperatures are a big consideration when packaging and shipping live products. And at any time, we may decide to postpone deliveries if we feel the live product will not survive the transit.
Often, the live product will only survive extreme temps if they are held in an air conditioned post office for pick up. At any time, we may have the package marked "Hold for Pick Up." In these situations, the package will be held for pick up and the customer will need to make arrangements to pick up the live product.
But if the temperatures are too cold, we can package the crickets with heat packs. And if they are too hot, we can package them with cold gel packs.
But either way, we need to keep a close eye on the weather when we get into the extremes. So please keep that in mind when expecting deliveries.