A few questions about my dubia roach colony

[jovski]

I got a colony of dubia roaches at the begining of january, and have around 75 females, 25 ish males, 250 + medium/large juveniles and a lot of smaller nymphs. i have a heat mat under their tub and they're over the top of my tortoises tabletop enclosure where it is warm too (very cold victorian style house in the cold north-west of england!).

My beardie is only a little baby at the moment and im feeding her crickets and the odd dubia - when should i expect to be able to feed her just using the colony?

I feed the dubia on a high protein (39%) good quality kitten food, the softer dog treat meat flavour cubes and a bran mix they arrived with. They get any leftover greens from my pet tortoises as well as my unused salad/veggie pieces. They also have orange available every day too for moisture. The food seems to all be being eaten well, is there anything else i should be offering or is this diet ok? Do i need to offer water crystals if im offering orange?

Do i have a large enough colony to sustain 1 beardie or should i add more roaches in?

how often do i clean out the frass/shed skins? I check the food etc every couple of days and remove the finished orange peel. Theres never any old greens or dry food to remove!

How on earth would i clean them and seperate out the nymphs from the frass?

Thanks

 

[Taterbug]

Someone else might have more/better info on it, but I don't feed a high protein diet to my roaches. They can convert excess protein into uric acid that would get passed on when fed out, I can't wrap my head around the details yet so I try to avoid it. Plus, they do fine on just veggies for me. I use chick starter mash when I don't have enough leftover veggies.

Repashy has an interesting article about roaches and protein.
"In one study on German Cockroaches, Field-Collected roaches contained an average of around 15 µg/mg Uric Acid, while those fed a 24% protein rodent chow, had an average level of 125 µg/mg."
http://www.store.repashy.com/can-feeder-insect-diets-contribute-to-gout-in-reptiles.html

I offer water crystals, but don't always have high moisture food like oranges in there and they eat up the water. The tiny babies seem to love hiding under the water tray. The love citrus though.

Once they get going, one colony is more than enough, and will outpace your dragon in no time if they are going strong. I started with probably a similar size to you and I'm up to 7lbs of bugs...

I clean my colony when it gets kinda stanky, or when I've had some die off problems. As long as the frass isn't damp or full of dead bugs, it can go months. Some folks get dermestid beetles going to eat off the dead/molts. When I clean, I transfer all the egg flats to another bin and shake off the bugs if I need to change egg flats. Then I stir up the frass to scare the straglers, and put a couple empty egg flats back in leave some bright lights on. i come back later, shake of the ones who hid on the crates and empty my roach tank. I'm at the point where I don't save every bug. The frass/debris goes in a five gallon bucket, I boil a big pot of water, and pour it in outside. After it cools I pour the soup into my compost bin.

 

[thelonelyzombie]

I got pretty much all my dubia roach colony care information including how to separate them, when to clean, what to feed, and basically everything your asking about from a nicely put together video on YouTube by Classy Herps.
Here is a link. You should watch.
http://youtu.be/nedCYxxfd5g

1 colony should be enough food for a few dragons. You an feed a young dragon nymphs that are small (size if space between dragons eyes) and quit buying crickets any time. As the dragon gets bigger you can give him the bigger roaches.

Hope this helps. And the video should definitely steer you in the right direction.

 

[jovski]

They seem to be growing good and there are quite a few running round in that freshly shed white colour. I may have a go at cleaning them and removing the shed skins later. i hate bugs and can't bring myself to actually hold these yet, but i stayed up to watch them feed and have to admit they're pretty cool.

 

[Taterbug]

That's a cool picture!
They are endearing in their own little way.

 

[Baldwin]

They grow on you. I have a strong affection to my colonies. My wife has two that she keeps in a small cricket keeper on the kitchen counter as pets. It's funny!

 

[william488]

one thing I have heard, maybe someone else can further explain or debunk, but watch your cat/dog food you feed to feeder bugs, look for red dye, as I heard red dye is not good at all to most reptiles, it can be deadly