Need advice on Dubai Roaches

[Klawzor]

Hello! I'm not sure what to do here. Roy has gotten parasites due to me being unable to keep up with so many dead crix in the feeder. I want to avoid that again and switch to Dubai roaches, but there are two main issues here:

1. I don't know why they're dying.
2. I want to switch to Dubai roaches, but I have no knowledge about them.

Issue one. I have no clue why they're dying, and I don't know if the same would happen to Dubai roaches. My room is usually 70-90 degrees, so I keep them on a cooler side near the floor where it's 60-70. I have a feeder that's about a foot long and I only keep around 30 crix in there at most. Usually, it's around 15-20. I buy crickets every 4 or 5 days. I feed them those orange cubes that supposedly give them water and food. The feeder is plastic and there are two tubes they crawl in so I shake it out into the beardie cage. There's never dead crickets in the tubes, only the bottom. Sometimes a few die, sometimes nearly 15 will die.


Issue two: Dubai roaches. I have no clue how to keep them alive. Is it like crickets? No store around me sells them, so I'd have to buy a month's worth via online stores. Since I would have to buy bulk, like a month's worth, would I need a special tank for them? Or can I just put them in a big plastic box with food? I have no interest in breeding them since I'm going to college soon.


Thank you! I may ask more questions as I go.

 

[LewisBD]

Hello! I'm not sure what to do here. Roy has gotten parasites due to me being unable to keep up with so many dead crix in the feeder. I want to avoid that again and switch to Dubai roaches, but there are two main issues here:

1. I don't know why they're dying.
2. I want to switch to Dubai roaches, but I have no knowledge about them.

Issue one. I have no clue why they're dying, and I don't know if the same would happen to Dubai roaches. My room is usually 70-90 degrees, so I keep them on a cooler side near the floor where it's 60-70. I have a feeder that's about a foot long and I only keep around 30 crix in there at most. Usually, it's around 15-20. I buy crickets every 4 or 5 days. I feed them those orange cubes that supposedly give them water and food. The feeder is plastic and there are two tubes they crawl in so I shake it out into the beardie cage. There's never dead crickets in the tubes, only the bottom. Sometimes a few die, sometimes nearly 15 will die.


Issue two: Dubai roaches. I have no clue how to keep them alive. Is it like crickets? No store around me sells them, so I'd have to buy a month's worth via online stores. Since I would have to buy bulk, like a month's worth, would I need a special tank for them? Or can I just put them in a big plastic box with food? I have no interest in breeding them since I'm going to college soon.


Thank you! I may ask more questions as I go.

Crickets die off quick because of their short life span of 9 weeks. Literally. They put of a smell which is the stinky smell, that tells other crickets to die too. Dubia roaches are the easiest things to take care of, and you can use less of them, meaning more money for you, and a happier well fed beardie. I breed dubia roaches, and I'm saving a lot of money by doing so. They don't die off within 9 weeks, males live around 12-18 months while females live around to 2 years. They don't have a disgusting smell when they die off, and a large roach is equal to around 4-8 crickets nutritional wise. They have a high meat to shell ratio, meaning less roaches to fill up beardie. Just keep them in a plastic ventilated bin with some egg cartons, food (roach chow) and water crystals and they should be fine. I definitley recommend buying in bulk, they're pretty expensive overtime everytime you want to buy 100 roaches. I buy from dubideli.com, they're cheap compared to most places and have good customer service. Since the roaches can't climb, it's pointless for having the cricket keeper that you have with the tubes, they won't be able to use it. Your beardie will most likely enjoy eating them once you introduce them to him. .

 

[SHBailey]

I agree, roaches are better than crickets in almost every way -- easier to take care of and better for the beardie (ditto everything LewisBD said, except that I do keep my roaches in one of those "cricket keepers" with the same food and water gel that I use for the crickets, and they do just fine. The tubes are roughed up on the inside so that both crickets and roaches can climb up in there. I haven't tried breeding my own, so it might not work for breeding them, but you can use it to keep the small ones for feeding your beardie. I would make sure that you wash everything thoroughly with plain water (avoid chemicals) and dry it out after all the crickets are gone, and then it should be find to use for roaches.