I have had/tried all of the feeders you listed. I'm not an expert but here are my firsthand experiences:
ROACHES---I have dubias right now. These are great because they breed readily, have live births, don't climb/fly/smell, and are simple to keep. I highly recommend these. Babies are about 1cm and adults peak at almost 2 inches so they can feed several diff sized herps. I am getting hissers too but I fear they will be pets (kids, remember!) instead of feeders.
SNAILS---I have two clutches of apple snail (aquatic) eggs. I will do a picture thread if they hatch. They are easier to care for than the terrestrial snails but you do have to clean the tank more often (tons of poop) and you should feed them several foods (fish food, algae wafers, fresh veggies) if you want them healthy. Each clutch has at least a hundred eggs so this might be the best
feeder I've tried yet. Trash snails (from contaminated aquarium plants) are easier to get babies from but some of these were EXTREMELY hard and passed through undigested! I don't recommend these unless you have softer shelled ones. I tried terrestrial snails (which are hermaphrodites!) but the only eggs I had were infertile. I will try this again and report back. Lisa has a thread about breeding these.
SILKWORMS---These are difficult to raise if you don't have an incubator/warmer for the eggs. There are websites to direct you. Most stress that everything must be sterile but this wasn't my problem. The newly hatched worms just grew very slowly without a heat source. Leaving them in indirect sunlight works well unless ants find them.
I decided raising these is too much trouble unless you have the right equipment. Also, the adult worms eat a ton so you must have plenty of mulberry leaves (or nice neigbors) or the prepared chow.
Hope this helps.
