Dubias vs crickets

[suzjohnson]

My 8 wk. old BD, Rufus, is 10" long and weighs 55 grams. He usually eats at least 20, 3/8" to 1/2" crickets at each meal time. I have a healthy dubia colony from which I can pull an almost unlimited supply of nymphs. I hand fed Rufus 5 nymphs this morning and he loved them! Now, my question is: How many dubias would it take to replace 20 crickets? This is assuming that the dubia size is between 3/8" and 1/2" in length. Should I just keep putting them in until he stops eating? Do I use nutritional value as a guideline or his capacity?
Has anyone completely replaced crickets in their BDs diet? Thanks for any input!

 

[Claudiusx]

Why don't you let him decide?

Just keep feeding until the speed at which he is eating them decreases or stop completely. However keep count of the number hes eating, if hes at like, 50 and shows no sign of stopping, you obviously might want to stop him yourself.

-Brandon

 

[thegreybush]

using accepted ratios of 6:1, 3-4 dubias would replace 20 crickets. My baby boy eats 2-3 and gets full and he loves them.

 

[thegreybush]

also, to clarify, the size of the dubia will be a relative factor. obviously a 1/4" dubia roach will not have 6 times the meat of a cricket.

 

[Claudiusx]

I've never heard of that ratio. Can you add some links to verify it?
I'm not saying your wrong, but I always like to verify new things I hear about.

EDIT: My adults can easily eat 6 or 7 adult male dubias. So your saying that my adult dragons could eat 36-42 large crickets? I don't think so :|

-Brandon

 

[thegreybush]

oh its something that i've seen thrown around these forums. i'll see if i can dig something up later. i'm at work.

 

[Claudiusx]

I edited the above post before I saw you posted again.

Here it is below so you see it:

EDIT: My adults can easily eat 6 or 7 adult male dubias. So your saying that my adult dragons could eat 36-42 large crickets? I don't think so :|

-Brandon

 

[thegreybush]

no i think more accurately it could be said that a dubia roach provides 6 x the protein value of a cricket, hence 6 crickets may be equivalent to 1 dubia roach.

 

[suzjohnson]

Why don't you let him decide?

Just keep feeding until the speed at which he is eating them decreases or stop completely. However keep count of the number hes eating, if hes at like, 50 and shows no sign of stopping, you obviously might want to stop him yourself.

-Brandon

Lots of good advice here. Thanks so much!! Believe I will keep an eye on the number consumed with eating enthusiasm as a final guide. LOL!! Yes, I believe 50 might be a bit much. About to run into town to pick up a cricket order but am happy to consider future purchases will be much smaller in number. Thanks again!!

 

[wes]

I've never heard of that ratio. Can you add some links to verify it?
I'm not saying your wrong, but I always like to verify new things I hear about.

EDIT: My adults can easily eat 6 or 7 adult male dubias. So your saying that my adult dragons could eat 36-42 large crickets? I don't think so :|

-Brandon

An adult male dubia typically weighs about 5-6 times as much as an adult cricket. When you factor in the dry mass (crickets have more moisture than dubia), I think it is safe to say that one adult dubia is equivalent to more than six adult crickets. This ratio is only valid for adults. If I recall, a 3/4" dubia weighs just a little under what an adult cricket weighs.

Six to seven adult dubia is a lot for one dragon. It's possible your dubia are on the small side. You could weigh them and see. But if your dragons can put down that many dubia, it wouldn't surprise me that they could down 36 adult crickets if they liked them as much.

 

[Claudiusx]

Adult males are much lighter than the females. So if your getting the weight from a females body, that needs to be taken into consideration.

No I don't own a colony of dwarf dubias

Tbh I think the best way, if people are this worried about it, is to weigh there dragon every day. If the weight gain is too much, you know to cut back. If weight gain is not happening, or the beardie is loosing weight, step up the amount of dubias.

-Brandon

 

[wes]

Adult males are much lighter than the females. So if your getting the weight from a females body, that needs to be taken into consideration.

No I don't own a colony of dwarf dubias

-Brandon

Yes, it is the adult male dubia that weighs 5-6 times as much an adult cricket. I checked my notes. I had pulled twenty adult male dubia, weighed them on a kitchen scale, and they averaged 1.85 grams. (Yes, this was using the tare weight.) According to Great Lakes Hornworms, an adult cricket weighs 0.333 gram. IDK, maybe Great Lakes is off. I feel good about the accuracy of my scale.

I didn't mean anything about undersized dubia. I know even within a single colony, the adults are different sized. I'm just surprised at how many adult dubia your beardies eat. We offer them daily, sometimes he doesn't want any, sometimes up to five if he hasn't eaten them the day before. Maybe he got up to six or seven once.

 

[Claudiusx]

Oh I don't feed them everyday, far from actually. Just when im making my male:female ratio right do i ever feed off the males.

-Brandon