I found dubia roaches at my local Petco, which was surprising. Apart from them being outrageously expensive, is there anything wrong with Petco roaches? I know these big box pet stores aren't exactly known for carrying quality items. But I'd like to try them out before I commit to ordering a ton online.
dubias from Petco
- Thread starter Jsw
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As far as we know, Petco is currently the only place we can get dubias here in Anchorage Alaska, and we haven't had any problems with them as far as health is concerned, but they do seem to have some trouble keeping them in stock up here.
If you buy the ones with the most recent pack date, you're more likely to get some live ones. You can also look at the food cube they put in the deli cup, and if it looks like it's still moist as opposed to dried up, you're probably good. You can, of course, also look at the roaches themselves to see how many are still moving
We've found that as long as they're less than about a week old, they're usually still going to be in pretty good shape. Roaches have an amazing ability to survive.
They're more expensive than crickets, but that's about the only disadvantage. They're more nutritious for the dragons and easier for their human slaves to take care of
If you buy the ones with the most recent pack date, you're more likely to get some live ones. You can also look at the food cube they put in the deli cup, and if it looks like it's still moist as opposed to dried up, you're probably good. You can, of course, also look at the roaches themselves to see how many are still moving
We've found that as long as they're less than about a week old, they're usually still going to be in pretty good shape. Roaches have an amazing ability to survive.They're more expensive than crickets, but that's about the only disadvantage. They're more nutritious for the dragons and easier for their human slaves to take care of
JSW...from what I've seen on most Amazon and Ebay sites, Dubia roaches cannot be shipped to Alaska, Florida or Hawaii (quote: Unfortunately, due to state laws, we cannot ship to Florida, Hawaii and Alaska).
If you want to start your own colony, I'd suggest buying the biggest nymphs you can get your hands on from the pet store and put them in a bin, put it in a dark space (closet or basement), heat it to 80-90 degrees and only open it to feed and water them. There are tons of sites and YouTube video's telling you how to keep Dubia roaches, care for them and breed them. Once they start breeding, you probably don't want to start pulling feeder roaches from the bin for about 3 months. I think most sites say to keep something like 1 male for ever 3 females, or 2 males for every 5 females, and feed off the rest of the adult males so they don't compete/fight for the females. I think I read that if you have too many adult males they may also kill the nymphs, but take that with a grain of salt until you read it somewhere or someone confirms this.
Rankins prefers Orange Head roaches over Dubia. If you search through his posts I believe he may have explained somewhere why he prefers them over Dubia.
If you want to start your own colony, I'd suggest buying the biggest nymphs you can get your hands on from the pet store and put them in a bin, put it in a dark space (closet or basement), heat it to 80-90 degrees and only open it to feed and water them. There are tons of sites and YouTube video's telling you how to keep Dubia roaches, care for them and breed them. Once they start breeding, you probably don't want to start pulling feeder roaches from the bin for about 3 months. I think most sites say to keep something like 1 male for ever 3 females, or 2 males for every 5 females, and feed off the rest of the adult males so they don't compete/fight for the females. I think I read that if you have too many adult males they may also kill the nymphs, but take that with a grain of salt until you read it somewhere or someone confirms this.
Rankins prefers Orange Head roaches over Dubia. If you search through his posts I believe he may have explained somewhere why he prefers them over Dubia.
Sorry, I thought I had replied already.
I ended up buying them just to see how he liked them. I did get a cup of mostly alive ones - at 35c per roach! He ate ten. :shock: He hasn't eaten hardly anything since I got him a couple of weeks ago. I guess he likes them and I will be ordering some from online.
That was what I expected to hear.
I ended up buying them just to see how he liked them. I did get a cup of mostly alive ones - at 35c per roach! He ate ten. :shock: He hasn't eaten hardly anything since I got him a couple of weeks ago. I guess he likes them and I will be ordering some from online.
JSW, try this link. Plenty of fresh information on Dubia roaches, the enclosures, heating, humidity, food, egg crates, etc. A plethora of valuable information. :0)
https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=225240
However, if you are thinking about starting a breeding colony of your own, check out the information the user "Rankins" posted about Orange Head Roaches. They are a bit meatier than Dubias so you get more meat to exoskeleton.
https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=225240
However, if you are thinking about starting a breeding colony of your own, check out the information the user "Rankins" posted about Orange Head Roaches. They are a bit meatier than Dubias so you get more meat to exoskeleton.
Jsw":3t2jina3 said:
This is where I've been buying mine the past couple of times until my colony is large enough to start robbing.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182374914352
Ebay - Username is Aman-Bent (Amanda Bentley). She sells 200 small/medium sized roaches for $12.00, and $6.95 (I think) for expedited shipping. My order was more on the medium size than the small, which was good as my dragon "Monster" is over 20". The last order I did I clicked "Make Offer" and asked her to send me 400 instead of 200, and I only had to pay once for shipping. She is very nice and easy to work with if you want any other size orders too.
Tell her "Taffer" sent you (Or Troy, my real name).
My 2nd order should be here today, but my first order arrived with a heat pack, in two plastic containers filled with oats and a few carrots. I didn't watch the tracking and they arrived 2 days sooner than expected and sat outside in the mailbox for 36+ hours, and over half of that time it was below 32 degrees. I expected a lot of dead roaches, but I opened each container and sorted through them one at a time and 100% of the roaches were still alive, and in the couple of weeks it took to feed them off only one single roach died which I believe was during molting. I asked her a few questions and she was quick to reply and happy to share information.
Yeah, Petco dubias are usually dead or dying. But if that's the only way to get them its worth buying them. It will take awhile to build the colony up. Hopefully you can get someone to send you some. As others have mentioned I do like orange head roaches a lot better than dubias, but they might be even harder for you to get.
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