Beneficial to start a Dubia colony for one dragon?

[shawnalansmith77]

I will be getting a baby in a couple weeks once they are good to be released. He/she is currently the size of an adults pinky finger minus tail. I have noticed that "bugs" are a bit hard to find locally unless I want the stick with crickets. I have been looking at a few sites for feeders. I'm leaning towards a mixture of BSFL, Dubias and crickets as a stable. Once he is a bit bigger I'll add in supers and silks. My question is; if I am only going to have one dragon, is it still beneficial to breed dubias. I had a colony a few years ago and it got out of hand once my dragon got older.

I know it takes a while for colony to be large enough to feed off of, especially for a baby. So, is it worth the time and effort to start a colony if I will not be able to feed off for a couple months.

 

[CooperDragon]

It's probably worth it. Especially during those growth spurt phases when the little ones tend to eat a ton. They do become less useful as the dragon gets older, but are still manageable. My colony is large but stable. I have a heat projector for them but that's it. They live in the basement and eat veg scraps (which is a nice bonus - less kitchen and uneaten salad waste). The conditions seem to keep them in check a bit since the temps are a bit lower than ideal. They seem content but not overwhelming. I've found that a handful of superworms in the substrate/frass helps to keep things fairly clean and hassle free too.

 

[shawnalansmith77]

It's probably worth it. Especially during those .......

Thanks for the info Cooper. Can you point me in some directions as to where I might find a good starter colony? I'll order today to get it going. I know dubiaroach.com is down for the week.

 

[CooperDragon]

I got my colony going using a mix pack of about 500 or so from ABDragons and it worked well. I didn't order any adults so it took several months to get established though, so if you get some adults along with it then the colony is likely to get going more quickly (for a price).