Adult Dubia

[PastelBeardie]

I bought some dubia last summer, hoping to get a colony going to feed my geckos and beardie. They're in a 20 tall aquarium in the laundry room where it's dark and warm. I have way more adults than babies, and am wondering what you do with all the adults. Some are needed for breeding of course, but what do you do with the extras? Can you feed them to beardies? They are longer than the space between my beardies' eyes. Thanks!

 

[unkempt1]

You can feed adult dubia to fully grown, adult beardies. I would not recommend feeding them to a smaller dragon. Most people feed their adult males to their adult dragons. Just make sure your ratios for males to females are good.

 

[PastelBeardie]

Thanks. My beardie is a little over 6 months old and 16 1/2 inches long. Would he be large enough to eat the extra adults?

 

[Lindz0518]

You could always sell them on craigslist or on here.

 

[unkempt1]

Thanks. My beardie is a little over 6 months old and 16 1/2 inches long. Would he be large enough to eat the extra adults?

My understanding is BDs don't reach adulthood until they are 1.5 - 2 years old. Around that time their digestive tract gets big enough to where impaction from food items is lower. I wouldn't advise it, but maybe one of the more experienced owners can offer you more concrete advice.

 

[Soulwind]

At 16 1/2 inches he can probably handle adult males. You probably don't want to make
adults his staple food yet, but he should be able to handle one per feeding.

I'm feeding an occasional adult male to Mellow now and she's only about 12-13 inches
and she digests them just fine (I've been checking constantly to make sure). She only
gets 1 adult male per feeding, and the rest are smaller nymphs, but she's handling it just fine.

Although adults have more chitin than nymphs, it's still a LOT less than the same meat weight
in crickets would be. With Dubia's, you're more worried about width than length -- as long as
he chews them up good -- and adult males are actually thinner (but longer) than large nymphs.

It's just my opinion, but I'd try giving him an adult male, just one to start with, along with his
normal meal and see how well he digests it.

 

[PastelBeardie]

Thanks. I won't try him with an extra male until the weekend when I'm home and can watch him, then it'll only be one. He's already had a small one and seemed to like it. He won't be getting more than one adult male once in a while until the colony is producing well. At the rate that seems to be happening, he might be a few years old before he gets more than an occasional dubia snack.

 

[unkempt1]

Makes sense. Just remember to keep proper husbandry (especially hydration in the form of misting and bathing).