Hey Scorch1! =]
In my experience, 500 small dubia barely lasted a month when my boy was 3 months old and that was when I was feeding him a big variety of feeder insects and a salad everyday!
How big are the dubia you ordered? I've been trying to breed dubia the past two months and according to my research :study: , the babies take about 5-6 months to reach breeding age. They are slow growers. And it takes a lot of time to get a starter colony stable enough to heavily feed out of. I personally feel that my dragon is going to be an adult by the time I get a colony going to feed out of and by then salads will be his main course of meal.
lol
I can guarantee 1000 dubia won't last you 6 months and they'll all be long gone before they're too big to feed to your baby. They have ferocious appetites as they're growing!
My boy is 5 months old now and he will eat up to 45 dubias ranging from small-medium AFTER he's had his filler bugs and salad.
When my boy was 3 months old, he was the same size as your baby. (I have a log for his daily feedings and weekly measurements for both length and weight that goes back to when he was just 7 weeks old and 6.5 inches long) At 5 months old and 16 inches long he could easily eat large dubia now.
I just ordered 1000 medium dubias and my best guess is they will be gone in the beginning of next month but I am working to make them last longer by feeding hornworms, silkworms, superworms, crickets.. and phoenix worms even though they are small... as fillers on top of the daily salad I offer to him first before the dubias everyday so I can allow the dubias more time to grow to be even more filling for him. I'm hoping to reduce how many he eats a day with time and strategy.
I'm afraid to even see how many dubia he can eat in a day without the fillers.
As far as your question as to how many you should buy at a time... I would say as much as you can afford to especially if it's the main feeder insect you will be using. And for a setup, it's pretty similar to that of a breeding setup, yes. Provide heat, food, ventilation, and a water source in the container you plan to house them in and you'll be set. =]
But also consider doing what I do and ordering other things that have a decent shelf life like phoenix worms, silkworms, hornworms etc. You can control how fast each grow with temperature so they stay at a decent size for your little baby and are really easy to keep. Also, they are soft bodied so you can excuse the feeding "rule of thumb" of prey no bigger than the distance between their eyes. Of course keep it within reason though and they will make excellent fillers before offering your dubia. I only feed crickets maybe once every couple weeks for a few days usually when I'm waiting for an order of feeders to arrive to me if I don't order ahead of time.
Also, you can get really good deals if you look around enough for feeders. I just bought 1k small-medium dubias, a pod of 30-35 silkworms and a pod of 30-35 hornworms (all with overcounts) for 60 bucks! Phenomenal price!
I hope I was of some help to you! Let me know if you have anymore questions I can attempt to answer!
