How many Dubia/how long will it take to have enough.

[Niexist]

Hey I'm considering buying dubia roaches because they seem to be the best feeder's along with phoenix worms. I have a couple questions though as I've never kept my own food source. First, how many will I need to buy, second how long until I have a steady enough supply to start feeding them on a daily basis.

 

[mpbrown2]

I recommend buying as many as you can afford if you want to start feeding asap. The more adult females you start with the faster your colony will grow.. I believe it takes about 4 ish months for the babies to become adults... but someone with more experience can correct me if I am wrong. If you have a Juvie dragon they can eat alot of food! I am figuring it will take about 45 to 60 adult females to feed one juvie berdie. An adult berdie will eat less. I may be wrong with my estimates as I have not started feeding off my Dubia yet.. Soon... very soon!!

I think I started with the 145 mixed received probably 180's ish from the roach guy in the middle of February. I also bought 10 adult pair from buyroaches.com and got 13 adult pair. Right now I think I am around 40 ish adult females with lots of almost adults.

 

[Amoore311]

I just ordered 300 Mixed Lot + 15 Additional Adult Pairs from a member here.

They come in tomorrow, I'm looking forward to not buying anymore live feeders for my Beardie and Gecko.

 

[iNubs]

I've also been curious as to how hard it'll be to breed these roaches. I don't think my roommates would be to keen about having a box of roaches in the house. Can I just chuck them in the garage? lol

 

[Niexist]

So basically, regardless of how many I get it's going to take four months to get my supply up and running? So I have 2 beardies, one is about 3 months old, and the other is about 7 months old, how many should I buy to have a working supply in 4 months time.

 

[Amoore311]

I plan on feeding from my colony within a couple days. I'm only feeding one small Beardie and a Juvie Leopard Gecko though.

 

[mpbrown2]

So basically, regardless of how many I get it's going to take four months to get my supply up and running? So I have 2 beardies, one is about 3 months old, and the other is about 7 months old, how many should I buy to have a working supply in 4 months time.

You are going to need say anywhere from 135 to 180 female Dubia to feed your 3 berdies (this is an estimate from what I have read). If you get a mixed 500 nymphs or so that should equal out to 250 ish females in 4 months. I try to keep my ratio of male to female to around 1 to 10. To many male's causes competition which can stress the females and equals less babies. To cut the 4 months down a bit if you try to get some adult pair it will help speed things up a little bit.

It has been about 3 months for me and within the past couple weeks I have noticed a large jump in the number of babies I have seen. The best things you can do to get them breeding good is give them food (dry food), water (water crystals), heat (85 - 95Deg.) , and neglect. Make sure you watch out for mold it can kill your colony.

A good source of information:
http://www.theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

 

[forgiven]

I think if you knew what you were doing 4 months is optomistic. I am at prolly 6-7 months and would feel good about feeding 3 if I had to. I have been feeding one for a few months now so prolly 5 months with no feeding. You will have adult males depending on size of the beardies you can feed instead of selling/cutting up.

 

[mpbrown2]

You may be right that 4 months is a bit optimistic... but I would think that with the correct setup it shouldn't be to far off.

 

[scalesandtales]

I have the same question. How long until I have a stable colony to feed out of? I have 90 adult females. 7 Beardies.
Jessica

 

[clear]

This is how I tell my customers to figure out how many they need and when they can feed off.

Figure out how many feeders you need in one month, and divide that number by 15. That is how many adult females you will need. Adult females can have 20+ babies each month so 15 gives you a good number to go by.

Once you have the adult females and as long as your not feeding them off you have an established colony. For my feeder bins I like to have 10% more females than what I actually need and this will help make sure that you do not over feed on your colony.