Hello, I have a bearded dragon that is about 6 inches long and weighs 10 grams. I decided that I needed to start a Dubia Colony ASAP so that I could have a sustaining food source for my baby! I ordered them from Dubia Deli, but I didn't like the price and contents of the colony starter so I kind of ordered it custom:
Note: I know that I should have less males than females but the males were 25c each and the females a dollar, so I ended up getting 10 males and 5 female adults.
I also already have flukers cricket diet and water crystals, so I will be feeding with that. I don't have a mat heater, but I do have heat bulbs extra and I am planning on using that until I can get a heater.
I just wanted to check with some experienced dubia breeders to see if this setup should work out. I plan to use a big storage bin for keeping.
I feed my dubia the same salad as the beardie. I would suggest getting rid of some of the males. For a colony start up you definitely want more females tha males. A good heat source will be beneficial. I use a ceramic heat emiter. Hope that helps. Igappy to answer any other questions
I feed my dubia the same salad as the beardie. I would suggest getting rid of some of the males. For a colony start up you definitely want more females tha males. A good heat source will be beneficial. I use a ceramic heat emiter. Hope that helps. Igappy to answer any other questions
How do you have the ceramic heater set up? and what wattage? I am looking at starting a colony myself. I was going to try and use a human heating pad to keep the temps up.
Not really pertaining to your question, but you want more females because you can have males mate with multiple females, but only the female will produce offspring, and only a bit at a time. Having more males doesn't really do anything for you other than to use them for feed later.
What size of tub are you using, I was looking at a 31 gallon. I initially want to get 200 roaches but want to move up to 1000. Sorry lots of questions, extremely tired of spending $22+ a week on crickets, $11 for 100 twice a week. Was having lots of deaths but put in damp soil in my keeper and barely any deaths now. Also the smell is horrendous, I never knew crickets smelled so bad. I clean my keeper out after every batch and that doesn't even help with the smell.
I'm using a 10g tank. I only have maybe a few hundred dubia. IMO ceramic heaters are better. Not to say you can't have good results from a heat pad or mat. It was the better option for my setup and budget
I used just an under tank heat pad for a while but the basement got cold in the winter so I put in a CHE on an adjustable stand. They seemed to like it a lot so it stayed.
Looking at buying 200 Large Roaches from amazon and 3 LBS of water crystals, also from amazon. Where would I find a good price for egg crates or is taking the ones that come with my eggs OK?
Edit: I think I might have been searching for them wrong, calling them egg crates didn't work but egg flats seems to be...
lol ya mine was the same until I showed her how much we would save on buying crickets. Then it was as long as she doesn't have to see them or touch them.
Think I found my egg flats, a little more than I wanted to spend but couldn't find them cheaper