Dubia Roaches... I have a few questions.

[herpfreak]

I am officially fed up with crickets. They smell, they die, and they escape. So I really want to switch to dubias. I have been reading online caresheets about them, but I have a few questions.

1. I have one adult beardie. In the interest of saving money, should I breed them? Or would I end up with too many? I read that they breed best while around 88-90*F. If I kept the temps at 85*, would they breed more slowly? I don't want to end up with a million roaches, as I only have one beardie.

2. I hear they need humidity, but the care guides said simply "don't mist unless you live in a dry area", which doesn't help me one bit. I live in the desert, so I'm going to need to mist. What's the best way to mist? Should I worry about getting the roaches wet? I'll be using a CHE for them, which will dry it out even more. Do I mist the enclosure, or just the walls? I'll be using a large bin with a window screen on the top.

3. Does the same "smaller than space between beardie's eyes" rule apply for roaches too? From the pics I've seen, adult dubias look much bigger than the space between Budo's eyes. Would I feed him only young roaches? If I'm going to breed, how many adults should I keep?

4. How many dubias should I feed Budo every day? I'll still be using worms of some sort, but no more crix. I usually feed him 15-30 live 1" crix 6-7 days a week. How many dubias is that equal to?

Thank you all!

~herpfreak

 

[lunatix]

Im new to Dubias myself, I just got them about a month ago. So I will help you with what I know, but you might want to contact TheRoachGuy.com (Jason) he will be able to answer all you questions.

#1 Yes you can control there breeding by lowering the temps a bit.

#2 You will want to keep the humidity in the mid range. Just by placeing water crystal and veggies you should be just fine with the humidity. But if the humidity is still low just mist and sides of the container not on the egg flats it could start mold and that will kill your colony.

#3 Yes the rule between their eyes still applies.

#4 Im not to sure how many you should feed each day but I dont think you can feed them less then crickets because Dubias contain more protien, and are bigger in size.

I hope I answered you questions correctly.
Thanks Jeff

 

[clear]

lunatix answered most of them. I dont worry about humidity unless i start seeing bad molts. Feed your dragon all he/she will eat at each feeding.

Good luck!

 

[jmiller]

I feed full size adult males only to my dragons with no trouble. They are soft bodied and seem to go down just fine.

If you end up with extras you can always sell them or give them to a friend.

 

[patrickb]

I would just like to add that you can never have too many roaches. There are ways to control an overpopulation but only two ways to increase an underpopulation (buying more or waiting). Don't worry about having too many, because you will. You can control the breeding rate by reducing temps which will slow both the breeding and growth, but ultimately there will still be too many for your needs.

Worry not though. At this point you will need to cull some out of the colony to reduce the breeders. You can take extra adult females and give to friends, sell them, donate to local zoos/rescues, etc... The adult females are what control the production amount, so if you have too many nymphs, just start reducing your number of females. If you can't find a friend, zoo, rescue to give them to and don't feel like selling them off then just put them in a container and pop in the freezer overnight for a humane termination, then dispose of them.

 

[herpfreak]

Thank you all! I'm going to order some next week...

 

[herpfreak]

Thank you all again. Running low on crix, so I think I'll put in a dubia order today... however, I have a few more questions (big surprise).

How many males should I start out with? How many females? Like I said before, I don't want a huge colony, as I only have one beardie, but it would be nice not to have to replentish my stock, as they are pretty expensive.

How long should I let the colony build before starting to give them to Budo?

For my crickets, I use orange slices instead of the cricket water gell. Will this work for roaches too, or do I need to get some cricket water?

 

[patrickb]

Judging by the number of crickets you are feeding (15-30 per a week?) you would probably be feeding 10-20 roaches during that time. We will pretend it is 25 per a week, which means you only need to be producing 100 a month. I would say once you get about 6-7 adult females then you should be safe to start feeding from the colony. You would only need one male for that small of a number of females. Whatever you do, just don't feed off the adult females.

Depending on the mix of roaches you get, it could be 2-3 months before you can feed from the colony regularly since the babies still need time to grow to an appropriate size to feed to an adult beardie. I would plan on something like 4-5months though to be on the safe side with no surprises.

Dubia love oranges and they work just fine as a moisture source. Just make sure to remove an uneaten oranges and replace with fresh ones every two days or so to prevent mold, which is bad.

 

[herpfreak]

Thanks!! That's all the info I need... for now. LOL, I'll probably come up with more questions by the time the roaches get here.

 

[gregorydragon]

One point of clarification. Do you feed 15-30 per day or per week? If it is 15-30 per day, then you will need about 50 or 60 adult females before you can feed from the colony.

 

[herpfreak]

I feed 15-30 crickets a day, 6 days a week. Sorry, I was kind of vague there.

 

[patrickb]

:shock: Oh... gregory is correct then, you would need around 50 or 60 adult females in that case. But if your beardie is an adult like you mentioned, you probably should not be feeding as much live feeders as you are. Once they are fully grown, their protein needs plummet and they should be on a roughly 80% veggie/20% live feeder diet. Might be time to consider reducing the live feeders you are offering and transition your beardie to eating more salad now. Around 50 crickets per a week is a common amount for most adults.

 

[herpfreak]

50-60 adult females... Yikes! I guess it might take the colony a while to grow...

The thing is, I'm not exactly sure how old he is. The vivarium says he's somewhere between 1 and 2 years old. I haven't measured him, but he's definitely not 20", so I figure he might still have some growing to do...

Thanks very much, I will reduce his feedings.