Asparagus for dubias?

[randommonks]

I have some hard stems left from cleaning asparagus for dinner. Can I throw those into my dubias bin?

 

[Carnivorouszoo]

Since roaches are one of nature's cleaning crew I do not see why not, but I would like to know too because I make asparagus sugar cookies now and then and could give the hard parts to them if it is ok.

 

[randommonks]

Well I looked on the nutrition content website, and asparagus is listed under feed occasional. So under the assumption of "feed your feeders what you would feed your beardies", I assumed it was ok. If my colony dies, I'll let you know (knock on wood).

 

[Sherri]

They will eat anything lol. I would not, however stick a raw onion in there! :roll: oooweee. Plus I believe they are toxic/bad for beardies. Tomatoes are toxic to beardies as well, so obviously things that are toxic are a no.

Most things I do not give them are b/c they will either make the colony stink or be too *messy* or are toxic to our beardies, other than that, anything goes LOL

 

[randommonks]

They will eat anything lol. I would not, however stick a raw onion in there! :roll: oooweee. Plus I believe they are toxic/bad for beardies. Tomatoes are toxic to beardies as well, so obviously things that are toxic are a no.

Most things I do not give them are b/c they will either make the colony stink or be too *messy* or are toxic to our beardies, other than that, anything goes LOL

Lol fantastic. Good to know about to tomatoes thing. I had some cherubs that were wilting and was going to throw those in there in a couple of days. Thanks! ...I guess that means that leftover pizza is out too...

 

[Sherri]

The biggest problem really is putting those things in and having some of it still be *on* the dubia from them running through it etc. I had that happen with some water crystals and almost did not see them (the water crystals) so the same thing could happen with tomatoes when you plop a bunch down quickly :shock: . Some things they can eat such as oranges (citrus) even though our beardies should not eat citrus although personally I limit it with my feeders...just use it for the colony that is breeding

The dubia metabolize things such as oranges so there is not really anything left in them to harm our beardies, and oranges are a great source of water for adult dubias when having a colony if that is what you are doing?

 

[randommonks]

I've had this colony for about a month now, and have been feeding exclusively from it, about 10 per day. I kept them outside for a week in a storage closet that was about 95ish during the day, so I figured it would be good for them to breed. I go every night when I get home from work to pull feeders for the evening meal and the following morning. Friday, I came home and found the cat food covered in mold and the humidity of the enclosure to be at 100%. It had rained every day last week for about 10 minutes, not enough to lift the burn ban but enough to make it miserably hot and humid. So overnight the mold had covered everything, since I had not noticed anything wrong the night before. I bought a new bin, and transferred as many of the roaches as I could without transferring nastiness into the new bin. I'm guessing I lost about 100 or so, but managed to get out all the adult females.

Now I keep them in my closet, I have a giant walk-in but nothing in it, so I can keep the humidity more in check. And now I'm oober paranoid about what I put in there, in case it will kill of the rest of them. Between the new babies and whatnot, I figure I have still about 300 left. Blah but Darwin loves these things so I can't just throw them all out, although I don't freak out or hate them as much as when I first got them.

 

[Sherri]

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about the mold! yuck. Thank goodness you did not lose the whole colony...but still, losing that many is a pity

In the beginning I had 1/2 an orange develop the beginning of mold on it but I caught it fortunately!

Since then I am careful to only put what they will eat in a day or 3 at most. I did, however, put a screen in the top...before I just had holes drilled :roll:

Once I put the screen on and put mine in a closet as you have...they exploded. There are always at least 4 or 5 giving birth whenever I give fresh food

Sometimes I don't believe it is really me.....taking such good care of roaches! :laughing6:

 

[randommonks]

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about the mold! yuck. Thank goodness you did not lose the whole colony...but still, losing that many is a pity

In the beginning I had 1/2 an orange develop the beginning of mold on it but I caught it fortunately!

Since then I am careful to only put what they will eat in a day or 3 at most. I did, however, put a screen in the top...before I just had holes drilled :roll:

Once I put the screen on and put mine in a closet as you have...they exploded. There are always at least 4 or 5 giving birth whenever I give fresh food

Sometimes I don't believe it is really me.....taking such good care of roaches! :laughing6:

Ugh I know exactly what you mean. If you had told me even 3 mohths ago that I would actually be caring for roaches and worried about their well-being, I would have probably taken you to a mental facility. I was one of those people that would see a roach and run the other way. Texas has these GIANT ones that can fly, omg shudder. Thank goodness dubias aren't that bad.

Next time I go to the grocery store, I'll get some oranges (probably clementines, I love those). I'll for sure keep a closer eye and give them smaller quantities of food.

I had holes drilled in my last enclosure too! I put a screen that my roommate had cut out of a screen door in the new bin so hopefully that'll filter out the darned fruit flies (the bane of my existance) and keep the humidity lower.

 

[Sherri]

Hey randommonks...I am near Austin Are you near there?

Yep, about 33 days in a row OVER 100...I hate it. I believe that you should *Bloom Where You Are Planted*...but I don't want to bloom here any longer lol. Can't bloom. Too hot and all dried up except for my hair turning moldy :mrgreen:

 

[randommonks]

Hey randommonks...I am near Austin Are you near there?

Yep, about 33 days in a row OVER 100...I hate it. I believe that you should *Bloom Where You Are Planted*...but I don't want to bloom here any longer lol. Can't bloom. Too hot and all dried up except for my hair turning moldy :mrgreen:

HAHAHA yeah it is just nasty. I'm down in Houston, but went to college at UT-Austin. Hated leaving the town, I loved my time there.

 

[HuberNS92]

Hey couple questions for you guys. I'm beginning to raise dubias roaches for my beardie. I bought about 50 medium. any idea when they will molt? Mine seem to be taking forever to turn into adults! Also, mine seem to eat very little. I'm confused. I mix dog food, cereal, and brown sugar and they don't seem to eat much. They just bury in it when I open the lid. Any advice or tips?

Thanks.

 

[Carnivorouszoo]

I feed mine cat food, orange slices and greens. I started with 50 mixed, fed off almost all the small ones. I need more dubias, but the two I was talking to about them are sold out, I need mixed sizes so I have some to feed and some to raise. Anyway, I feed the same greens that I give my beardie.

 

[randommonks]

Hey couple questions for you guys. I'm beginning to raise dubias roaches for my beardie. I bought about 50 medium. any idea when they will molt? Mine seem to be taking forever to turn into adults! Also, mine seem to eat very little. I'm confused. I mix dog food, cereal, and brown sugar and they don't seem to eat much. They just bury in it when I open the lid. Any advice or tips?

Thanks.

If you can afford it and have the space, try getting around 200 mixed, 40ish females, and about 15 males. That will get you a good breeding colony pretty quickly. Make sure that they have proper humidity to get them to molt. I bought about a pound of Soil Moist (found at Lowes but no Home Depot here) for $12, and I use about a teaspoon a month to water my dubias. That keeps the humidity up, which they need to molt and grow. If you don't want to do that, keep fresh veggies in there and oranges a couple times a week and spray down the side of the tub every day to keep it humid. 50 mixed probably won't eat too much. You don't want to put too much food in there so that mold starts to grow. I had that happen with my colony and lost about 100. Not good. They'll eat what they want when they want. Moniter how much they consume in a couple of days and just put that down. I just use leftover cat food from my cat's bowl, carrots, oranges, and leftover veggies from Darwin. I've had them a little over a month now, and noticed several new babies since I transferred them to their new bin after the mold hit.