cost effective feeding

[thatcrazyone]

Hi guys.
Feeling a bit lost tithe mo with regards feeding. It seems to be costing a lot for my locusts and it's a long walk toothed pet shop when inrun out or they die.
I was thinking of buing in bulk but then the issues keeping them alive.
I was also thinking of buying a tank to keep them in but then how do you separate enough for one feeding without touching them or having them hopping all over the house?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

 

[XtinaBeardieMom]

I would recommend breeding roaches instead. There's tons of info about it all over this section of the forum & it's super easy too! Have you thought about doing that?

 

[thatcrazyone]

I did think of it as then you cut out the hopping problem but roaches scare me lol. Are they as nutritious as
Locusts?

 

[Soulwind]

Roaches are several times more nutritious than crickets or locusts.

Breeding them is really rather easy, once you get over the creepy factor.

 

[thatcrazyone]

Oh wonderful. I managed to getbover the creepy factor with the locusts. As long as i don't have tontouch them I'm sure I'll get over it.
So do I just buy them a tank and some gut load etc , buy a bulk of them, chuck them in and leave them to it?
And do I need the Dubia ones I keep reading about?

 

[fluffpuffgerbil]

The dubia ones are the most common/most healthiest. I've not fed them to my dragon yet, but I just bought some and should get them next week.

And to make it easier to transfer enough locusts/roaches from their home bin to the feeding cage or wherever they need to go to be dusted, you can use a toilet paper tube to scoop them up and drop them in, or tongs. That way you don't actually have to to touch them. (Thank goodness for tongs... there's no way I'd touch a 2" superworm with my barehands... Crickets and roaches, yes, I will, superworms and beetles, no way on earth.)

Oh I forgot to mention, the other roaches people use that I know of are discoids and lobster roaches.

Now I'm not sure if either of those are the same things, or if there are three different types of roaches to feed them, but Dubia would probably be the easiest to get a hold of, and possibly easiest to breed if you want to.

 

[thatcrazyone]

Excellent thankyou so much for your help.
I'll get a box of roaches and see what my baby's make of them and if they like them I may start breeding them

 

[Jayson745]

best way to get over the creepiness of bugs is to force yourself to hold them a lot until your desensitized to it. When we clean bins my brother still uses gloves. I think its funny. I scoop them by the handfuls and dont even care if they are crawling up my arms, as long as they dont try to escape. hehehe.

At first I wasn't a big fan of the speed of males, or the suprizing gripping power of adult females. But once you sit there and let them walk around on you a while, you calm down and realize they aren't going to bite you or get up your sleeve and end up in your shirt or any of the other things that run through your head when they freak you out. They are quite harmless as long as your not allergic or something.

 

[thatcrazyone]

Haha thanks but I think I'll pass. I think I'll stick with the locusts lol. I've only ever seen one cockroach and it made my skin crawl lol

 

[Boss12]

I have fed my beardie almost every type of feeder and Dubias by far excite him the most!

 

[midwestdragon]

Dubias are one of the only thing that will make my beardie leave her log. Turkistan Roaches breed much faster than dubias and can be bought cheaper. They reach the size of a large cricket and they are really fast. I read somewhere that they will lay an egg sack every 2 weeks, where the Dubias will typically produce once every 30 days. I bought one of these linked below for my wife who refuses to touch any kind of bug and she says this is the only way she is able to feed our beardie.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2943523&CAWELAID=142358829&pla=plat&cagpspn=pla

 

[Boss12]

I've never touched any dubia, though I don't have any sort of ick factor around them. They cling pretty hard to paper towel rolls and egg crates. I just shake them into the feeding box. Can't speak for Turk roaches though...never heard of them.

 

[thatcrazyone]

Thanks for your help guys. Iv been looking into it and now I realise your feeders need their own lights etc. Imay try my babies with a few different things and see what they like the most and then consider breeding feeders lol

 

[Zeusmybeardie]

If a dubia roach escapes can they eat through wood an stuff like other roaches

 

[Boss12]

They won't survive long outside of the container.