Hates dubia roaches?

[outcold434]

I have been working on a feeder colony of dubias for about 6 months now. It finally got to the level where I could use it as a daily feeder, and have been trying to since around late-December. The issue is that Cortana seems to hate them.

Cortana is around 10 or 11 months (craigslist purchase so no exact age) and ~240g and 15" head to tip of tail. Basking spot is usually 106ºF and cool side is ~85ºF and plenty of UVB. I am almost positive that temps and lighting are not the cause of this since they had not changed when this first started happening ( lights were less than 4 months old at this point)

She has been in partial brumation (sleeping most of the day, not really eating much) for the last few months so I wasn't really worried about it and thought she just wasn't really hungry. I did take her to the vet when she first got lethargic and she went on antiparasitics for 2 weeks to clear out anything bad in case she did actually brumate. I wasn't really worried that she wasn't eating since her weight was stable and even went up around 10g in the last few months. She would eat 5-10 dubias maybe once or twice a week and her greens every few days.

Over the last few days I noticed that when I gave her a few waxworm treats she would sprint across the feeding area and gobble them up as soon as they were in the tank but completely ignore dubias. Curious, I put a dubia underneath a waxworm and held it in front of her. She lunged for it and gobbled up both. She ignored a dubia when it was held in front of her and gobbled up a waxworm when it was held in front of her. I did this a few more times with the same results, she was only interested in waxworms.

Now I am wondering if she hasn't been eating because she hates dubias. She was raised on crickets and only switched to dubias about 2 months ago, just after she started her brumation thing. Around that time I introduced her to waxworm treats and the occasional superworm. She will practically fly across the cage when she sees a worm but ignore roaches. I am going to pick up some crickets later this week and test out if she will still eat those but I doubt that will make much of a difference. She wasn't really eating crickets either before I made the switch to roaches.

I guess my question is, will she eventually start eating roaches, or do I need to find another feeder? I'm guessing I'm going to need to find another feeder but I thought it was worth a shot to ask.

Have any suggestions for feeders that are as easy to breed as dubias? I really do not want to go back to crickets (smell bad and noisy) and all of the worms I have looked at seem to be fairly difficult to care for.

P.S. Bonus Question #2: Did I ruin any feeder except worms when I let her have waxworm and superworm treats?

 

[scm133]

It maybe the age.
As they get older, their diet is mainly greens, and less bugs. Hugo turned 1 year in January. He will occasionally eat a cricket or two. His main protein is now dusted supers, and he loves the white molted dubias. Oh, and he likes Hornworms. He will not touch the brown dubias. I will spoil him with waxworms, but only occasionally. It is like candy to them. But his main diet is now greens. I stopped getting crickets for him, because it was a waste. Superworms last longer, and I can always find a few molted Dubias in my bin to keep him happy.