About how many dubias will a baby dragon eat?

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, I'm not really sure where to put it

So I'm considering getting another bearded dragon this January(we have 2 adults right now) and it's been since I got Scout in August of 2010 that I had a baby dragon since we got Riza as an adult, and I know when I had him he was eating <100 crix a day. I've got a fair sized dubia colony which I started almost a year ago, but has been really starting to pic up since April(because at some point all my males but one got fed off so I had to wait for nymphs to grow up and breed and etc, and now there are a ton)



there's a pic of it just so you can see about how many there are just on one side of their several egg crates(which are packed usually and there are a lot crawling on the ground)

Anyway, I know it can vary from baby to baby, but generally aren't baby beardies little eating and pooping machines? I just don't know how many roaches a young baby(maybe a 5" long kid) will eat. I feed our adults a mix of Dubia and Superworms, and my leopard gecko eats soley dubias, but he doesn't eat enough to put anything close to a dent in the population.
I guess I'm just curious how much dubias a hatchling can typically eat(50 a day? More? Less?) and am hoping that my colony will be enough to supply one plus our adults and my leo.
If I get a baby dragon, it will be around the 22nd of January from the Reptile Expo

 

[Zaxtor99]

I've only had my beardie 9 days now, and never owned any other reptile before. Today, as I posted in a new thread moments ago, he ate a total of 47 dubia nymphs. This was by far his biggest eating day thus far, so I don't know if it will go down tomorrow and today was an abnormality, or if tomorrow it will be 75, lol. I guess we will see. 47 seems like an insane amount to me, especially considering how filling and how much protein dubia roaches are supposed to have.

I am also trying to breed dubais now, and just for this little guy. Only got 4 adults now, 3 females and 1 male and one the females is starting to spit out an egg sack, but it still gonna be a good while before i have any baby's big enough for our beardie to eat. So any advice you have about the breeding would be great, hehe.

Anyhow I will keep you posted if he continues to increase his daily intake of dubia nymphs. :shock:

 

[Soulwind]

At the small to medium dubia sizes - a growing juvi can eat anywhere from 40-60 (sometimes more if he's a big'un) a day.

Once he grows up enough to handle the larger nymphs (inch+ upwards to adult males), the total quantity will decrease some as they are more filling than little buggies.

A nice round estimate [from my experience at least] is that you need about 50 adult females per baby/juvi dragon, and about 15-20 adult females per adult dragon. That typically lets you fully feed from the colony and still maintain a growth/aging/dieoff leeway for the colony.

I've got no idea how much leo's eat, so adjust accordingly for that.

 

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Thanks~ I'll see about getting a quick estimate of how many females I have. I have a good amount of them, though, and a ton of adult males(which I typically feed Scout and he can eat about 4 or 5 of them before he's done, along with some superworms to add some variety, which I don't feed more than 8 a day to if I'm not adding dubs in with it). Since my colony has been solid for about 8 months, (but about a year old), I think it should be fine, though, and my leo eats typically 6 small/medium dubias a day/every other day before he turns his nose up at them... he's a weird eater....only likes being tong fed.

I might also pick up another container of dubias from the reptile expo if I am allowed/do decide on getting another beardie