10-12 Dubia roaches enough for my 10”?

Hi all. So after getting our Bearded Deagon for my 6 year old’s birthday couple of weeks ago, I quickly realized there is a bit more to this than what I was anticipating We’ve had fun learning, researching and trying to provide the best enclosure for our new beardie.

So, my question is surrounding amount of food. After realizing quickly that crickets are not sustainable, and I don’t want to breed them, we quickly bought 700 medium Dubia roaches, and are beginning to set up a breeder colony.

But, my Beardie only seems to eat about 10-15 roaches a day. I see on other places that theirs can eat as many as 30-50? Mine will eat anywhere between 3-5 at a time then won’t eat another one. He gets 2-3 feedings a day.

Is this enough? He is about 10” Long so I presume he’s about 4 months old. The roaches are probably on the larger end of medium... about 0.5 to 1.0 inch nymphs. He seems to get full quickly. He is pooping everyday and seems happy.

Thoughts?

Thanks! Excited to be a new owner!

Hi there, it may be that the dubias are on the large side so he is getting filled by a lesser amount than if they were smaller than the space between his eyes. If the dubia were smaller he'd possibly be eating double that. Be careful that he doesn't get impacted, but it sounds like he's doing very well + is healthy.

Can you post pics of him, his set up and the sizes of his dubias that he's eating ? Here's how :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

Okay, that was what I was thinking. I try and pick the smaller roaches when I can... Maybe It’s a wrong assumption, but I read that by using dubias as feeders one doesn’t have to worry about the size/impaction so much due to the low chitin ratio. Thoughts? I make sure he eats a bit of his salad too (carrots, kale, turnip greens and occasional strawberry) to make sure he’s staying hydrated. No signs of impaction or choking with the larger bugs. We’ve given him a few baths too...

I will post some pictures tomorrow.

As for his setup, We got the reptisun bearded dragon 40 gallon starter kit from petsmart, then quickly realized it was nearly useless after doing the research I should have done at the get go (threw away the Reptsun 10.0 compact uvb bulb that’s known to do bad things, threw away the sand, and haven’t used any of the “food” that came with it. The dry food actually is being used as some roach chow supplement lol)

It came with the dual dome ceramic light/reflector kit. I am using the basking light that came with it, and put in a standard 100w incandesant bulb in the other fixture. It’s setting on the screen pointed at the basking surface. I see my beardie gaping so I presume it’s warm enough. The thermometer in the area says is 90-95, but I don’t know the actual surface temp of the basking Log. I don’t have a CHE, and right now the temps are dipping to about 67 at night, so I may get one soon. He sure is cute how he sleeps all stretched out though.

As for UVB, I went with the reptisun 10.0 T5 HO 22” rod with reflector housing. It is sitting on the screen, which I know is not ideal, but I was afraid of too much UV with this high powered light with the close distance (8”) near the basking area. I haven’t taken any UV readings through the screen yet... I’ve seen the pictures using the undercabinet hosuing, but couldn’t that damage his eyes since it’s not fully above him?

Thanks again for all the help! I love this site btw.

Any large insect can cause impaction, it's not just the chitin but the mass itself. Crickets + dubias both can cause impaction if they are too large but most impactions happen with smaller babies.

And your Reptisun t5 with reflector will be fine on the screen, no problem there. People have gotten a bit of misconception because that idea is passed around so much. A weaker bulb is best mounted inside the screen in some circumstances, but even then it doesn't always apply.

Attached are the requested images. His/Her name is "Lister". We can thank our 3yr old for that

Yes, those are mostly too large. The smallest one in there is O.K, a 10" dragon like Lister will be fine with that size but not the large ones.