Is a dubia colony worth it for one?

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TeddyLC

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I have a five month old beardie who loves dubias - they're his favourite food. However, I know that they eat fewer roaches and more greens as they get older, and he's just one beardie, so I was wondering if a roach colony is worth it for him. I've spent several hours reading into what goes into starting and maintaining a roach colony, and that seems fine (plus, A+ way of getting rid of scrap veggies, yay!). I just happen to have extra 10gal Rubbermaid tub sitting in storage from my last move, I've always got piles of egg cartons because I shred them for my guinea pig, and I eat mostly vegetarian at home so I've always got fruit and veggie scraps to spare.

My problem is, the colonies I've seen - once they get going - are pretty big, and definitely well beyond what my one beardie would eat. My local pet shop already has plenty of roach supply so I doubt they'd be inclined to take more. Selling them online and shipping them to other beardie owners isn't feasible, as my work schedule is such that the post office is closed by the time I get off work and it's too far for me to get there and back on a lunch break. I don't want to wind up with hundreds more roaches than I actually need come 6mo or a year, and I'm pretty sure my significant other would kill me in my sleep if I got another dragon just because I had too many roaches. :roll: Obviously I don't want to dump them outside (even if they wouldn't survive - I'm in the PNW, so it's too wet and cold for them), but roaches at the store or online are so expensive! I can afford it, of course - wouldn't have gotten him if I couldn't - but naturally, I'd rather not have to pay that much every week if I can avoid it, especially in the winter when the weather is deplorable. :p He doesn't really like crickets, so I can't just use crickets as a staple and supplement his diet with roaches. =\

I know that you can slow down their reproduction by keeping them in a cooler environment, but I'm not sure how cool is cool enough and how cool would kill them. I also tend to lead a super busy lifestyle and I have a terrible sense of smell (allergies and sinuses, yay!), so while I spend time with my beardie every day, I'm a little worried if I'll be able to tend to the roaches adequately - I don't think I'd notice that some are dead, for instance, because I wouldn't pick up on the sweet/vinegary smell. I don't have a car, so regularly driving out to drop them off with a herp vet isn't plausible, either (not that I know of one - I looked up a few in my area, but the information seems out of date, as they're not listed under the staff directories for the clinics they're listed under).

Thoughts? Advice? Is it probably just not for me, given my lifestyle and my fella's age, or would it still be a good route to go? I wish I'd started a colony before getting the lizard so it'd be up and running now when he wants roaches all the time, but at this point he'll probably be closer to 9mo by the time the colony is producing young, and then I'd have to wait for those ickle ones to get big enough to be worth feeding, and if I can't get the environment right it may take even longer to produce young feeders...
 

BrendaKay

Juvie Member
I trade my excess for chicken eggs. Her chickens love them. I have just one beardie and getting a big colony going again. I've since found two local people that have beardies, and two people with chickens. I'll get rid of excess that way.
 

TeddyLC

Member
Original Poster
That's awesome! I would totally trade roaches for eggs - alas, I live in the city, so I don't know anyone nearby who happens to keep chickens... :)
 

Taterbug

BD.org Addict
At your dragons age (when the colony establishes) it may not be worth it, depending on what you want to do for the roaches vs the continence of just buying them. I have had my colony for two or three years and sold half at one point and have two tanks now (and wanting to sell the second eventually). Craigslist may have people who will be selling them cheep or looking to buy if your colony gets unmanageable. In my situation, Pepper doesn't eat enough to really warrant it cost or volume wise but I do like keeping them as pets and they make a good scrap bin (they eat up unwanted veggies).

I would limit the population by controlling how many breeding adults you have, rather than temps. It's probably healthier for them to be at their desired temp (and thus healthier down the food chain). You can also freeze them, but please don't dump them outside. They are a non-native species and could pose a problem if they establish.
 

TeddyLC

Member
Original Poster
Not being sure what to do with the roaches is precisely my problem... although - selling the entire colony off via Craigslist is an idea! For some reason, I was only thinking of selling them in 20/50-count batches rather than just getting rid of the whole colony that way!

I'm not really worried about keeping them cost-wise, since I, too, wind up with unwanted scrap veggies even with a largely vegetarian diet, a guinea pig, and a lizard. I didn't know freezing them was an option! It's fine for them to eat them once they've been frozen? They need to be thawed before mealtime, I assume? I'm pretty sure everyone around me would never trust anything I cooked again if I began popping roaches into my fridge freezer with our food, but it's definitely a possibility. At the moment, my fella pretty much ignores roaches that aren't moving, but if his appetite picks up it's a definite possibility. I certainly didn't plan on throwing them outside!

Thanks for the advice!
 

Taterbug

BD.org Addict
Oh I meant freezing for culling them, then they can go in the trash or compost bin. I think some people have done frozen thawed for food too?

When my colony gets too big I'll sell off about half or 2/3 at a time. I can't be bothered to count, haha.
 

TeddyLC

Member
Original Poster
Yeah, counting moving roaches would be tedious. :p I think I'd just count a portion and approximately multiply it if I need to, or just... idk... sell or give away an egg carton's worth of all the roaches that are on it at the time, haha. For now, I think I'll just stick to buying them. I found a pet shop less than half an hour from my place that sells good-sized roaches 50 for $10 and give discounts for returning the containers. My dragon's already eating salad daily and has shunned crickets entirely, so I'd hate to go through all the time and planning of a roach colony just to have him refuse to eat more than a few of them at a time, too.

I ordered one of those online sets of roaches that was a hundred for $10, but they were so small - smaller than the "small" size at the pet shop. I figure with the hundred medium-sized ones my dragon's eating now, by the time he gets through those, the little ones will be at a good feeding size as well. I just transferred them over to one of those 32oz AromaSeal Folger's coffee canisters with steel mesh in the lid - I figure since they're small feeders and I have no breeders, a ten gallon Sterilite would be excessive for storage. After transferring them all over today, they still appear to have plenty of room. A few of them apparently molted recently, so they were all pale and pretty!

Thanks for all the advice! :)
 

TeddyLC

Member
Original Poster
I actually find discountdubias.com to be quite pricy even with their price matching due to their $7 shipping... compared to buying 50 mediums for $10 at a pet shop, 50 mediums on dd.com is $12.50 + shipping, or 50 larges (as my lizard eats closer to dd.com's large) are $17.50. On Amazon there's a vendor who sells 100 small ones for $9.95 with free shipping, so I think that makes a good backup stock to raise while my current set is being eaten off. My dragon can easily eat 15-20 roaches on a good day, so my stock never lasts long. =\ In any case, I've decided to try and start a small colony because buying them takes so much time and/or money, and I figure at the very least, there's no harm in trying, right? :D
 
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