Cricket bin

[Zombiepanda]

That's a lot of my problem as well is that I keep the temp in my house pretty low. During the winter I turn the heat to like 68-70 just to keep the chill off the house. So heathing three different bins of crickets is just not reasonable. Now I could probably do one bin of roaches though, I'm wondering if I could wrap the bin up in an electric blanket? So another question. I've read that dubias don't have to be as small as crickets(the eye rule) so what size dubias should I use? Maggie is eating 1/2 crickets and has pretty much no interest in anything smaller. Do I get the same size crickets or upsize to 3/4-1"? Also what the differences in orange head and dubias? Where do you buy them? Where is the best site for dubias since I've only bought once before?

As for the baby crickets... I'm going to go out on a limb and say they probably died. I never took them out of the bin and I haven't turned the heat on to heat them. No to mention no way I was dragging out another bin. I'll keep the sponge in there til all the crickets are gone, but I'm not too horribly worried about it. Maggie loves them, but alas I do not. Small batches of 150 was fine but when I unintentionally ended up with 1,500 all of my feelings towards them drastically changed.

 

[Rankins]

I would try to keep the roaches about the same size as the crickets you have been feeding your dragon. Folding a heating blanket over itself isn't a good idea. They are not suppose to overlap...they can overheat. At least that's what it says on my heating blanket on my bed. Some people use lightbulbs, heat tape, foot warmers, heat rope, or ceramic heaters. I use ceramic heaters for my bins.
As for where to get roaches, ABdragons have orange heads and dubias at decent prices. I don't remember where I bought my orange heads from, it was a couple years ago. I have dubias, orange heads, and ivory heads. The dubias are my least favorite. Ivory heads are pretty expensive, the cheapest I have seen them is $1 per roach. Orange heads are about the same price as dubias. Orange heads are fatter than dubias, they are pretty plump, so you don't have to feed as many to your dragon. They also breed quicker.

 

[Rankins]

The only drawback with orange heads is they eat a lot!! Better for gut loading, but they eat about double what dubias eat.

 

[Zombiepanda]

Glad I didn't try the blanket then ? lol I'd end up with no roaches and no house! so you think a heating pad on the bottom or side would work? What I'm realizing is mostly just that I need a bigger house!!!

Do the orange heads have infestation potential? The eating a lot I won't mind horribly because I usually end up throwing out most of the food because it doesn't get eaten. I'm going to look into these a little bit. Why don't you like dubias? The best price I've found for those is about .04 cents each but those were 1/4"

 

[Rankins]

There is little chance of orange heads infesting your home. They are not a pest species and need to be kept warm to breed. Besides if food and water are not available in your home that they can get into they won't survive.
Main reasons I don't like dubias is that they don't breed very fast, and they don't have much mass. They are kind of flat, orange heads are chubby and breed faster. They actually are kind of pretty...dubias are ugly.

Orange head nymph and adult.
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(Edit..forgot to address the heating pad...most have a automatic shut off. They don't stay on all the time. Someone was using a foot warmer, apparently they don't shut off. I use heating elements. But my Colman cooler bins are insanely over built and are on thermostats. You don't need anything near as fancy.)
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[Zombiepanda]

It's actually kind of cute! Lol! So I've been looking around and it looks like the orange heads are a little more than double (if not triple) the price of the dubias. But if they're that much fatter and breed quicker, then it seems like a good investment. I'm going to keep looking around and see if there's anyone local who would sell off a small amount to breed and maybe use dubias in the meantime. How long does it take a small orange nymph to reach breeding age?

That cooler is insane! I love it! That's definitely ingenuity at its finest. Also thanks for the heating pad/ foot warmer heads up! My mom has a few of those so I'll snag one for her. She won't be thrilled, but oh swell.

 

[Rankins]

Just checked prices of ABdragons...
It looks like orange heads are cheaper $16 for 100 verses $20 for dubias. Hard to say how long it takes for the orange heads to grow up and breed. Its temperature dependent, but they do breed quicker than dubias. I have never timed it, but the difference is noticeable.
The Colman bin idea came about in a weird way. I was trying to come up with a cheap incubator for cricket eggs for a friend. I made her one out of a small cooler...then realized it would be awesome for roaches.

 

[Zombiepanda]

I buy dubias from someone local $20 for 400 nymphs. Which is why it's so hard to shop around :/ darn good prices and what have you *grumble* the more I read about the orange heads though the more I love them? One thing I have come across is that they have carnivorous tendencies. If one were to slip by the tank clean out could it chew on Maggie like a cricket would? On another forum I saw someone mention "they can clean a small mouse to bones in 24hours" is this true??? If so I'm tempted to grab a few just to have as pets! Yeah I'm very impressed by the cooler. Already has insulation so a little heat goes along way and stays in the enclosure. It's really neat.

 

[Rankins]

Another good place to buy roaches is from Kyle at http://www.roachcrossing.com
He has a ton of info on a bunch of different species. Its my main site to gleen info from. He had to move his business and was shut down for awhile, he is now able to start filling orders. I'm going to buy a couple orders of deaths heads from him.

 

[Rankins]

I haven't noticed the carnivorous issues. They can chew on each others wings if they are not getting enough moisture, people say its protein related also. But like any feeder, you shouldn't leave them in with the dragon overnight. Superworms, crickets, dubias can all decide to try to munch on a dragon. I have had several go unnoticed in an enclosure pretty frequently without issues. But its always best to remove any uneaten insects.

 

[Zombiepanda]

Cool I'll definitely check his site out! What are death heads??? The name alone makes me happy lol

I've only had a big straggler here and there hide up inside of the hiding rock. But typically the only leftovers are the tiny itty bitty crickets that are maybe 1/4 size of a pinky nail. Those little buggers usually end up just getting squished with a tissue so I don't have to deal with them. << I'm obviously an irresponsible and cruel cricketmaster.

 

[Rankins]

Deaths heads are a non-climbing black roach with a jack-o-lantern design on their head. There are false death heads that don't look anything like a true deaths head...so not sure why they call them false death heads. I'm interested in the university of California cultivar. They are bigger and blacker, but the jack-o-lantern pattern isn't as defined as the smaller species.

 

[Zombiepanda]

I googled the pictures at they're pretty neat looking. Seems like it would definitely be an interesting pet!

Ok so since you have a colony I want your opinion. I was looking up colonies and such last night. There is someone local who no longer has a reptile and is wanting to sell they're established colony. He said 30 breeding adults and 100 neat adult nymphs and then an undetermined amount of babies. Is buying someone's colony even a good idea? He wants $50 and they are dubias. I'm still looking into finding maybe a breeding set of orange heads. My local supplier wil do 400 for $20 dubias and I thought breed the orange and supplement with dubias and crickets in the meantime

 

[Rankins]

The dubia ready-made colony sounds like a decent deal. It would save you a lot of time raising them up.
If you go that route there really is no reason to bother with orange heads unless you really wanted to.
I'm just a bit odd, I have always liked roaches but I got horribly allergic to a huge hisser colony I had. I thought I would be allergic to all roaches and found that I'm not...so have just collected a few species. Besides I can sell them when I'm at the reptile expos. Its almost like free money....

 

[Zombiepanda]

That is pretty awesome!! I actually found out that my local dubia seller will sell a colony set up of 45 adults and 300 mixed for the same price. I just worry I'll invest and Mags will have zero interest in the roaches. How long before you had enough to sell? I could always creep around the local petsmart "hey kids you want some dubias? I got all kinds super cheap man.. the real deal" have them taped inside of a trench coat.

Wow so you're allergic to hissing roaches but not the other breeds?? That's crazy! I wonder what it is about those that causes the allergic reaction??