How many roaches

[Musicmeg]

I have one 11 inch beardie that is rapidly growing. Crickets are proving expensive and I would like to start my own colony of dubia roaches. I am pretty solid on their care. I would like to get enough to feed them out within a month, but don't want to have so many that I am over run with roaches. I have found a local source that will get me 100 assorted sizes that includes two winged males and 4 breeding females. Will this be enough or too many? Thanks for your help.

 

[Pixall]

Not nearly enough. 1 female produces only 20-40 babies PER MONTH. And babies take 4-6 months to be old enough to breed.

an 11 inch beardie could easy eat over a hundred roaches in a day.

 

[Musicmeg]

Oh wow, guess I'll see if I can get some more adults. Thanks.

 

[LookinRound]

Not nearly enough. 1 female produces only 20-40 babies PER MONTH. And babies take 4-6 months to be old enough to breed.

an 11 inch beardie could easy eat over a hundred roaches in a day.

What size roaches would those be?
For an adult beardie, they can eat the adult roaches as well, right? How many of those do they typically eat?

 

[BeardedAaliyah]

I'm interested as well!

 

[lauraj1055]

I have about 150 females, and 75 males (since July) and still can't feed off my colony yet. However I am feeding 2 Juveniles and 2 adults and they eat the medium ones so it takes longer for the roaches to get the right size. I can't wait to stop buying feeders!

I say you need 50 females and 25 males to be able to feed 1 beardie.

 

[Pixall]

I haven't gotten an exact count recently but I have around 20 breeding females and 8 or 9 breeding males. I have nowhere near enough to feed one subadult, let alone the baby too! I have a bunch of subadult roaches and some babies in my grow out bin. So hopefully I'll be able to feed one of my dragons out of the colony soon.

 

[Pixall]

Sorry, an 11 inch beardie would eat small medium roaches. An adult beardie can eat adult roaches, males are better to feed off as you usually have too many males to females in the colony. Most people start with a male to female ratio of 1:2 and when the colony gets larger they keep it at 1:5 or 1:10. You don't need a lot of males. They fight and eat all your roach chow if you have too many males.Hope that answered some of your questions.

 

[LookinRound]

Thank you

 

[spikeithard]

I have a colony I have had since october I believe. looks busy in there. I started with about 40-50 adults mostly female and about 40-50 nymphs. There is a good amount of little guys in there now covering the most part of 4 large egg shell flats. should I wait another 2 months or so before I feed off of it. I have one 5-6 month old dragon.

 

[Pixall]

I have a colony I have had since october I believe. looks busy in there. I started with about 40-50 adults mostly female and about 40-50 nymphs. There is a good amount of little guys in there now covering the most part of 4 large egg shell flats. should I wait another 2 months or so before I feed off of it. I have one 5-6 month old dragon.

Here is what I would suggest.

If you can stomach it, take them all out. Separate them by male, female, subadults, and nymphs. make a note of how many you have and then put them all back. I would be curious to see how many you have of each. Remember each female can only produce 20-40 babies a MONTH. How many crickets does your dragon eat per month? If you don't have at least five more females than you need, I would wait another couple of months before feeding just to be 100% completely sure you have enough.

 

[spikeithard]

what do you consider subadults??

 

[Pixall]

Personally, anything too big for my dragons to eat that is smaller than an adult. Most people consider something over an inch, I believe. Anything close to adult size without being an actual adult, though.

 

[spikeithard]

i basically have three sizes in my colony... the tiny babies about almost as big as my pinky finger nail, the mediums that are the size of my thumb nail and the big guys. my dragon who I would say is about 13 inches or so handles the mediums well. chews em right up.

but I only dip into my colony once in a while now to grab 12-14 or so for him to eat if Im out of crix and the store is closed. i give him about 5-6 med's and the rest smaller - not the really small babies but the in between babies and med's.

Ill give it another month or so then maybe go half and half. half roaches and half crix.

curious, are you able to mix crix and roaches together in same bin? obviously with no heat. just the feeder raoches that wont need heat.

 

[Pixall]

I'm sure you could. I wouldn't though. :? Too much of a pain in the neck in my opinion. The crickets seem too dirty for the cleanish roaches. lol