Phoenix worms vs. Dubia roaches.

[Laurmann2000]

Okay you guys are mentioning breeding totes. Are you supposed to have separate totes for them and how do you set up a breeding tote vs. just a regular one?

 

[gregorydragon]

Okay you guys are mentioning breeding totes. Are you supposed to have separate totes for them and how do you set up a breeding tote vs. just a regular one?

I plan to keep a 36 gallon tote for breeding and then a large critter/cricket keeper to hold my feeders. You could probably do this with a small tote, but I want to be able to watch them (freaky roach people). It is easier this way. You can sort out the ones you want to feed to your BD and keep them in the "other" container so you don't have to disturb your breeders. After all, they are trying to take care of business in there and don't want to be disturbed. There is quite a lot of info available. I will refer you to the roach masters:
Jason "TheRoachGuy" (RG) at http://www.theroachguy.com
Chad "BestRoach" (BR) at http://www.bestroach.com

 

[augsburg1530]

O.K. I use a large tote for my breeders and a smaller tote for my feeders. I left my roaches alone in the breeder tote until the colony exploded at about 5 months. Then I sat down and separated my females and a few adult males by hand who stayed in the breeder tote. I then set up a separate smaller tote to be the feeder tote. So I can dig through the feeders daily and not disturb the breeders.

You can check out more info on how my colony has grown and was separated at this link viewtopic.php?f=18&t=88680&hilit=

Hope that helps,

Eric

 

[patrickb]

Yep, the less you have to disturb the breeder tote, the better they will reproduce. It isn't absolutely necessary, but it does make a big difference. I separate out a weeks worth of roaches to put in the feeder tote which I have to do because I need specific sizes right now. Having to go into the breeder tote everyday and get the sizes I need is a pain, so just keeping the ones I need to feed in a different feeder tote is so much easier. I imagine that when I get to the point of needing multiple sizes for various animals I will have a few different feeder totes going with the sizes ready to go. One great thing about the roaches is you could do enough for a 2 week, maybe even up to a 4 week supply and not worry about them growing too much, as unlike crickets they grow slower and stay a certain size for longer.

 

[stephenrose06]

I do have a larger pet carrier I am keeping the feeder roaches in. I just got my mix of Roaches today would it be good idea to just take all the small ones that he can eat out to the carrier and the ones too big for him to eat for breeding? Or should I leave some smaller ones in the breeder tote to grow for breeding too?

 

[Laurmann2000]

Wow you guys are so helpful. Thank you so much. I get it now. I will check out the links posted. Thank you.
stephenrose Good question. I would like to know the answer too. I am expecting my shipment of 250 either tomorrow or Saturday. How many of those can I safely feed and still have a good amount to start the breeding colony? I ordered what I thought was a lot because I want to be able to feed some right away.

 

[NegativeCreep]

You can check out more info on how my colony has grown and was separated at this link viewtopic.php?f=18&t=88680&hilit=

Hope that helps,

Eric

What a great thread, and what a great link, Eric, Thanks so much. You guys have convinced me, in the 15 or so minutes it took to read this entire thread. Next weekend (hopefully), I am ordering a starter kit. I don't think Blazey is big enough to eat them yet, but I'm sure she will be in 5 or 6 months. What great timing!

Thanks everyone.

 

[nesta's mommy]

You can check out more info on how my colony has grown and was separated at this link viewtopic.php?f=18&t=88680&hilit=

Hope that helps,

Eric

What a great thread, and what a great link, Eric, Thanks so much. You guys have convinced me, in the 15 or so minutes it took to read this entire thread. Next weekend (hopefully), I am ordering a starter kit. I don't think Blazey is big enough to eat them yet, but I'm sure she will be in 5 or 6 months. What great timing!

Thanks everyone.

they actually come in all different sizes great for pretty much all sized beardies!

 

[gregorydragon]

What a great thread, and what a great link, Eric, Thanks so much. You guys have convinced me, in the 15 or so minutes it took to read this entire thread. Next weekend (hopefully), I am ordering a starter kit. I don't think Blazey is big enough to eat them yet, but I'm sure she will be in 5 or 6 months. What great timing!

Thanks everyone.

The smallest ones could be fed to little beardies. Of course follow the rule about nothing bigger than the space between the beardie's eyes. You probably won't get too many that small without your own colony though. Get some adult pairs too. This will speed up the process of growing your own. Our Mango loves them so much that I had to stop feeding them until the colony is big enough to use as THE staple feeder. He loves them so much that if I feed him dubia he almost skips a meal before he will eat crickets again (by then he's starving and would eat anything though). He is up to about 20-30 crickets a day, but if I had dubia available, he would eat an additional 20 of those. I just can't feed out of my colony yet. I mix in some worms from time to time.

 

[NegativeCreep]

Yeah, that's what I figure. I will go ahead and start a colony, and probably sneak a few once in a while.. Just because we are too impatient. I'm sure Blazey will love them.
Thanks for the advice!

 

[gregorydragon]

I am still waiting for my colony to get "established", but when they first arrived, I sorted out the smallest of the small and used those to feed for a while. The problem is that Mango LOVES them so they didn't last long.

 

[Laurmann2000]

While waiting for my dubia colony to get established I decided to order some lobster roaches to feed. They are a lot cheaper. I ordered 1000 figuring I'd just feed off those and by the time they're done my dubia's will be established. At least this is the plan. Well, I have to say that lobsters have a major "yuck" factor. To me, anyway. They are pretty fast when disturbed and they climb and totally freaked me out when they arrived. However, once settled into their tank they aren't that bad. My beardie, Tank, absolutely LOVES them. I put about 30 in his feeding bin and about 5 left over crickets in too. Tank ate every last lobster roach and didn't eat any of the crickets. It was so funny. I couldn't believe he actually ate the roaches all around the crickets and didn't eat any of the crickets. So I'm really glad now that I got the lobsters as a bridge between crickets and dubia's.