Can I buy subadult Dubia Roaches and make a colony?

[SgtAnarchy]

I'm planning on making a colony of roaches for my bearded dragon, but buying adult dubia breeders are insanely expensive, and I don't have the money for them. If I were to buy adults I'd also have to buy other smaller dubias for my bearded dragon to eat while the adults breed. That would cost over 100 dollars. On dubiaroaches.com, they sell extra large dubias that are 1-2 months from adult hood (I think). If i were to feed some of the younger ones to my beardie and let the older ones mature into adults, would that work? I don't know if the female to male ratio would be good enough to breed since I'm not buying these roaches specifically to breed. Can I get some opinions before I buy 150 roaches?

 

[MrSpectrum]

In a word, yes.

IIRC, the ratio of M:F is 1:4, and they're very easy to identify.

They'll take care of the rest. :wink:

 

[Claudiusx]

You definitely can. You could even buy babies if you wanted. The only difference is the time it takes for your colony to get going.

-Brandon

 

[CooperDragon]

I started my colony with sub adult roaches. They came in a mixed group of sizes. I ordered several hundred on special. It took from about September until February or so until I started seeing babies appear. I like having several generations so that I have all different sizes all the time. If you have time available, ordering non adults is a good affordable way to get started.