Making dubias fatter?

[icelore]

I got a special with my crickets this month, I got 150 dubias to try for $5 including S/H. I had dubias before, and my dragon was pretty "meh" about them, but I figured that since3 he's a bit older and eating a more varied diet that I would try again. All the roaches I got are tiny (about as big as the tip of my pinky finger), so I'd like to grow them a bit before I feed them. More bang for my buck and all.

What should I feed them to get them to grow quickly? And how long will it take to make them at least equivalent in size to 3/4in crickets?

I keep hearing that they're pretty low maintenance, so it would be awesome if I could just get them set up and leave them be for a week to grow.

Also, since it's just a small number, would there be an issue with leaving them in the box they cam in? I cleaned it out and put fresh egg cartons in there, but like I said, there aren't many, and I can just seal the box back up. Advise appreciated!

 

[Soulwind]

You are basically talking about setting up a colony, except you won't be letting them
grow to full adulthood and breeding [ie you'll feed them to your dragon before then].

See the many, many, threads on how to set up a colony -- you can get away with a very
small container, and as long as you keep it at 75+ degrees, you won't need to worry about
heating [for breeding you need 90+ degrees].

Just food, moisture, egg crates in a dark container, reasonable warmth, and time.

Dubia take 5-6 months to go from birth to adulthood - so it depends on how big they are
right now, but assume somewhere around a doubling in size each month.

 

[Sauzo]

Kind of interesting your beardie is meh about dubias. Harley goes absolutely bonkers for em. She will gorge herself on em. She started on crickets from the breeder and then I tried dubias and reptiworms and now she won't eat crickets unless I make her wait half the day with no food, then she will only eat around 5 or 6 and be depressed haha. But like others said, humidity and temps(not so much if you're not breeding) are the things to worry about. You can gutload em with cricket chow if you got that or high protein dog food.

 

[icelore]

Dubia take 5-6 months to go from birth to adulthood - so it depends on how big they are
right now, but assume somewhere around a doubling in size each month.

Oh man, I didn't know they took so long to grow. It will be like 2-3 months till they're worth feeding!

Kind of interesting your beardie is meh about dubias.

He only likes things that he can hunt, and the dubias just run into a corner and sit there. :/ Even crickets, he will poke them and make them jump/run before he'll eat them.

 

[Sauzo]

Lol lucky you. Harley has me conditioned to feed her She will chase a few, then she looks at me like saying "Ok, enough of this, now drop em in front of me so I can just hoover em up". :lol:

 

[icelore]

Lol lucky you. Harley has me conditioned to feed her She will chase a few, then she looks at me like saying "Ok, enough of this, now drop em in front of me so I can just hoover em up". :lol:

That's how I started. He would also only eat in his tank. So....I just decided he would do it my way or not eat. lol I gave him salad only for a day, then put him in a new feeding bin the next with a good supply of crickets, and gave him 20 minutes to do his thing. He ate a decent amount, but that's the only way I would feed him after that, and now he eats more then when I would feed him one by one. And there is the nice bonus of not having calcium powder in his cage all the time., cause that was driving me nutters.