Dubias VS Crickets

[Theroachguy]

Does anyone have a good rule of thumb about how many you need to start feeding off? I know one of you said it took about 4 months, but is there a way I can look at mine and see progress? LoL I just ordered 125 mixed nymphs and may be coming with about 5 pairs of adults - still working that out. I can't wait to stop feeding those nasty little buggers (crickets).

patrick has it nailed in the above message he posted here it is for you.

But yes, Dubias do breed like rabbits once you get them going. Even at 50 a day, that's about 1500 insects a month (beardies are such pigs heh). I like to count on one adult Dubia producing 15 babies a month (its more like 22-25 really, but I go conservative to replace the older dieing breeders and allow the colony to expand a bit), so you would need approximately 100 mature females to sustain your beardie

 

[augsburg1530]

I bought lobster roaches from http://www.aaronpauling.com as an alternative to crix while waiting for my dubia colony to get going. Lobsters are not nearly as good, imo, as Dubia but are way better than crix. Now that my Dubia are "breeding like rabbits" I have all the feeders Spike can eat. I only wish I had known about Dubia before we got Spike so I could have had a colony ready to feed him when he was a voracious juvie

Eric

 

[tbelanger]

Does anyone have a good rule of thumb about how many you need to start feeding off? I know one of you said it took about 4 months, but is there a way I can look at mine and see progress? LoL I just ordered 125 mixed nymphs and may be coming with about 5 pairs of adults - still working that out. I can't wait to stop feeding those nasty little buggers (crickets).

patrick has it nailed in the above message he posted here it is for you.

But yes, Dubias do breed like rabbits once you get them going. Even at 50 a day, that's about 1500 insects a month (beardies are such pigs heh). I like to count on one adult Dubia producing 15 babies a month (its more like 22-25 really, but I go conservative to replace the older dieing breeders and allow the colony to expand a bit), so you would need approximately 100 mature females to sustain your beardie

Sounds like a plan! I tend to like having concrete guidelines to go by and adjust when I need to. This way I can tell my b/f what the rules are so he doesn't feed our whole colony right away! He doesn't understand the importance of waiting. I will impart this wisdom on him.

 

[patrickb]

Sounds like a plan! I tend to like having concrete guidelines to go by and adjust when I need to. This way I can tell my b/f what the rules are so he doesn't feed our whole colony right away! He doesn't understand the importance of waiting. I will impart this wisdom on him.

Tell him that if he is patient and waits long enough, he will have so many roaches he won't be able to feed all of them to a single beardie. Might even have to get another one to help with the roaches.... heh For every female nymph (or adult) roach you feed off, you are losing anywhere from 200-500 future roaches to feed later. Give him the math and maybe he will see the light.

 

[tbelanger]

Haha, sounds great! Maybe even will convince him to get me a beardie for my b-day. Been eying those beautiful citrus and hypo-citrus babies. Thanks for the numbers, that will definitely help!