Dubia hiding...?

[Onlymediocre]

I recently introduced Dobby, my house dragon :lol: , to Dubia Roaches... Problem is they are crawling under his substrate (im using Vinyl Flooring) and hiding.. So he's only getting the few he nabs b4 they get under there... I tried taking them out and putting him and the roaches in a storage tub where they cant hide, and he has no interest in them in the tub.. (this is also his tub that Ive been using to let him sunbathe outside) He now turns his head up at crix since hes tried the dubia.. So my quetion is IF i continue to stick him in a bin with the dubia will he eventually get the point and start eating them in there? Or since hes used to eating in his viv, will I have to find a different substrate that the dubia cant get under? Has anyone else had this issue, and if so, what did you do to fix it? I think my little guy ate maybe 6 small dubia total so far today I dont want him to go hungry

Oh almost forgot... and how do i get the calcium dust to stick to the dubia? Do I need to mist them with water first or what... the calcium dust didnt seem to stick to the roaches near as well as it did the crix...

 

[Tonja]

I put a little in the bottom of Geico and Em's food bowls..when they go to get the dubia they inadverdantly lick up some of the calcium..and it seems to stick a bit to the legs of the dubia...once in a while I will take a q=tip with a bit of honey and dab it on the backs of the dubia and a dot of calcium to that <its unpasturized raw honey I use when I do> Twice a week when I give them their vitamins I will put just a dot in their vitamins so they get it that way to...I use the calcium with d3

 

[esn]

I dump a crate of dubia into a shoebox and shake out the ones I like into a jar that used to hold baby food. The tall Gerber ones are perfect. I have a bunch of calcium dust in the bottom (usually one or two spoon-fulls if I'm feeding a lot of dubia) and I just shake them around a bit. They're usually frantically trying to crawl the calcium coats them easily. It should stick perfectly. As for the hiding, I set or hold the jar on its side in front of my dragon and she picks them out from the jar one by one. It takes them a while to crawl out of the glass, so your beardie should easily be able to handle it if you do only 4 to 5 one to one and a half inch dubia at a time. That should fix your hiding problems. Dubia naturally go to the darkest place possible to hide since they abhor light. Try feeding out of a jar on its side instead and you'll find that it works much better.

Plus, it's hilarious to see a dragon trying to stick their head in the jar. I pull it away so they can't get themselves stuck and shake the roaches closer to the top. That's how I feed all my roaches to all my various lizards.

 

[Brieana]

Dubia can't climb smooth surfaces, so you can use a shallow, sloped bowl. I'm going to buy a small stainless steel dog bowl just for feeding roaches and worms.

 

[Onlymediocre]

Good idea, I just grabbed a bowl outta the cabinet, as I had got a set that had some pretty shallow, maybe 2'' deep, Ive always just used them for snacks and whatnot for my youngest.. theres some calcium dust in the bottom on one side/edge, so the dubia walk thru it and it gets on them.. plus I figured maybe he'll lick some up when he grabs them... It took a day but he knows where the roaches are now, lol

 

[DragCity]

Aside from my full size 12" x 12" egg flats I usually keep 2 or 3 flats cut in portions of 4 egg hold sections. I find that anywhere from 5-10 large roaches usually take up residence in that 4-cut flat. I pick it up with a tong and shake the roaches off into a bucket. Then I sprinkle calcium and/or vitamin powder onto the roaches. I then just pick up the roaches one-by-one with the tongs and feed them off to my beardie. Some I feed directly from the tong to his mouth. Others I drop in the viv once I have his attention for him to chase and get some exercise. I even sometimes hold one or two up high above my beardie with the tong and have him jump up to catch the roach (he loves doing this).