Dubias

[Navan94]

Well my dubias arrived yesterday from "The Roach Guy". I wasn't home when they came, but my wife was and I managed to get her to open the box up in the tote just to make sure they were ok. She called me after 15 minutes. "THEY'RE HUGE"! My reply was, "Good". This is my first purchase of dubia roaches and I'm already attached to them after a day! :lol: My wife called me numerous times at work after she'd opened the box......... I think fairly proud of herself that she, for the most part, arranged their new living quarters with out even asking me. She told me what they were doing and commented more on their size. I said "You are fascinated by them", knowing well she doesn't really like them. She denied my claim and was just ensuring that they wouldn't get out. I don't buy it, I think she's indeed fascinated.

I'm glad to get my colony under way. My beardie is about 8 inches and is growing so fast, I know he'll be huge when my colony is ready to feed from.

This post is nothing more than to share my excitement about our family's new live ins. I think I'll be a little reluctant to feed them to "Shorty" at first, because I like them, but I'm sure my wallet won't mind as much in the end.

Thanks for the Dubia, Jason.

Proud owner, I must be going crazy. :shock:

 

[clear]

Congrats on them. Sadly as beardies get older they start to eat less and start to eat more greens. People should start buying colonies before they get beardies lol

 

[Navan94]

Congrats on them. Sadly as beardies get older they start to eat less and start to eat more greens. People should start buying colonies before they get beardies lol

Yeah, I understand the beardie will start eating more greens and much less live feeders as it matures, but.... I didn't say this would be the last beardie we would own or other roach eating reptiles for that matter. I'll still get months of feeding beardie from this colony which will still pay for itself. :wink:

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

My only drawback I have found with my Dubia colony is they breed slow. With 6 adults and about 60 babies on the way im going to switch to lobsters or turks because they breed so much fast.

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

My only drawback I have found with my Dubia colony is they breed slow. With 6 adults and about 60 babies on the way im going to switch to lobsters or turks because they breed so much fast.

The downside to Lobsters and Turks is that they are egg layers. You will be SWAMPED before you know it w/ tons and tons of roaches. Plus Lobsters are as bad as crickets. They are escape artists. I'd only keep Lobster Roaches in an outside shed. Turks won't escape but you'll have a way more than you need of them in no time as well.

The trick to Dubia is to start off w/ a good lot of them. If you don't start w/ at least 100 of them, than it's going to be painstakingly slow to see any growth in a colony. That's why everyone always says get as many as you can afford. The other trick is to pour on that heat. Get that tote up around 85-95 degrees and feed, feed, feed them. You'll have a good amount of Dubia of all sizes before you know it.

If you're going to change feeder roaches do yourself a favor and go w/ the Turks. Like I said, lobster roaches are as bad as crickets.

-Ian

 

[zebraflavencs]

I never had issues with them escaping. Some of the males do the flutter fall thing, but that isn't an issue for me. I actually have 3 colonies working, the dubias, as well as lobs and turks.
Janie.

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

My Dubia colony is well established. I started with 200 and didnt touch for 9 months. I just know my beardies could wipe out the colony in a month...lol.

 

[zebraflavencs]

I totally agree, Tom ! My 3 boys whip through around 1000 a month, eaasy !
That is why I have 3 different colonies ! Turks, lobs and Dubias !
Janie.

 

[Ryan Maguire]

Dubias are like a pet at first. You get attached! I still consider them a pet to this day even though I use them as feeders too... :lol:

Ryan

 

[madavies65]

Dubias are like a pet at first. You get attached! I still consider them a pet to this day even though I use them as feeders too... :lol:

Ryan

I know what you mean, I have to make sure the roaches are fed and happy just as much as I do Nim. I have two totes at the moment, 1 I feed out of and 1 i have left alone for 5 months. At the moment you can definately tell which has the most in just by lifting them! There are thousands in one and only hundreds in the other. I did it this way so I could get one tote established and still feed out of the other tote in the meantime. each tote has 100 females in it too...

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

I will agree with you Ryan. The dubias are kind of like pets. They dont have the skeeve factor of the lobsters or turks....lol