Dubia Care

[Hemberger]

Hello, I am a new beardie owner and have some questions about the roaches . I bought 100 roaches from Dubia Roaches.com. I opened the box they arrived in like it was a bomb! Was not prepared for them to be out and about when I opened the box! But got them in the tub I had and all was good. They sent a little container of what I am guessing is roach food?? Put that in there along with an apple core and some leftover veggies. Kept the egg crate they came with and all of that is in a tub. Lid has holes in it. I don't want to start my own colony, not just yet. Maybe later down the road. Just want to know if what I am doing is correct.

 

[CooperDragon]

Yeah that looks good. If your top has good ventilation then just put in veg scraps for them to eat and get hydration from. There is some more in depth info here if you decide to start a colony down the road. https://www.southtexasdragons.com/dubia-roaches.html If your house is reasonably warm you don't really need to bother with heating or anything like that especially if you're not trying to breed them.

 

[Hemberger]

Okay thank you! I plan on having the husband drill more holes in it, drill died this morning.
When they say gut loading, what exactly is that?
I guess also, how long will they live in the tub? They just keep growing?

Feeding Reptiworms (BSFL?) as well, just keeping them in the container they came in for right now. I can put them in a wine fridge to keep longer right? Arrow seems to like them more. Ones I got seem to be a little small for him, so he eats a lot at a time (10-15 min time frame). Roaches he will eat about 4-7 at a time.

 

[CooperDragon]

With my second colony I just cut a big square in the top of a rubbermaid bin and taped on some screen and that works just fine. Gutloading just means offering food that is nutritious for your dragon so it's in the bugs system when they are eaten, passing it on to your dragon. I just keep the bugs on a diet that is healthy for the dragon all the time. I dump leftover salad in with the bugs at the end of the day. They love squash and will eat greens as they're going bad. They'll eat banana and orange slices. They're great general composters. If you keep them fed they should just keep chugging along if you leave them in the bin. Pretty low maintenance which is why I like having them as feeders.

I also leave the BSFL in the container they come in. You can put them in a wine fridge but I leave them at room temp. If they wind up hatching into flies I just feed the flies and my dragon loves them. They're pretty slow moving and easy to catch if they get loose.

 

[Hemberger]

Oh okay good deal! I was planning on keeping healthy food in there, so that works! Yes, so far I am pretty happy with picking roaches and BSFL. haha oh boy I can only see my face now if I open the container and a fly comes out! EEK! But good to know they will eat it!

Thank you for all your advice!!