Can someone explain to me why Dubia Roaches are so darn expensive? 1 cup = 11$ from mulberry and they come in cups of 25ish. How many can a beardie eat in a sitting?
Actually compared to the same meat quantity of phoenix worms or silk worms, Dubia's aren't that expensive.
A heck of a lot more than crickets, though. That's true.
Mostly because there's less supply of them. Most pet stores don't sell them,
folks who do a lot of Dubia's tend to end up making thier own colonies, and there's
just less breeders around who can do big orders. Plus, if you're feeding big ones they
take several months of care to reach that size.
On the other hand, once you start feeding the bigger ones, the amount you'll be going
through is much less. Rico (about 9 inches long) easily goes through about 40 little dubia's
per day (~20 per meal). Mellow though (14 inches), who is getting medium+ sizes, only eats about 10 of
those per day (about 4-5 per meal and then she's full).
Start your own breeding colony! It takes a bit of time and money to get it up and running, but you can do it for less than $100 and it's super easy too! The best prices for dubias I've found are right here on the forum in the "For Sale" section, like here...