Thinking of buying beardie need food help

[StrikerZ]

Hi! I've never owned a reptile before so this is my first one and I was wondering what would be best to feed him/her for live food?

-If I buy something like roaches, how would i store like 1000? In a bin?
-How would I keep them alive?
-Could i eventually have it so they mate themselves and I won't need to buy more?
- How often would i have to buy crickets, roaches, etc. if i bought 1000 each time online?
-

 

[ziggy23]

There are various choices on feeders, crickets, roaches, black soldier larvae (phoenix/repti worms) are the popular choices. There are others but they are either cost or size prohibitive.

Roaches are better than crickets in a number of ways, if you can get past the fact that they are roaches. You can keep the roaches in a storage tote, they just need egg crates, food, water crystals, and a heat pad and that's it. The bins only need to be cleaned every few months. If your wanting to do roaches, then I would get them before the dragons if possible. It takes a few months before the colony is established before you can feed heavily from them.

As far as how frequently you would need to replace. With crickets 1,000 will last you as little as a week or 2, perhaps a month with some dragons if they live that long or don't outgrow your dragon. If you had 1,000 roaches, if you gave them a few months to establish, then forever as long as you cared for them.

 

[simpleman]

go with roaches, you wont regret it....there are many sites and caresheets available on the internet, they are as easy as it gets....if you have any questions, feel free to pm me...

craig morel

 

[definitions]

yes I started out with crix and was spending allot of money every month. So I invested in 2 types of roaches a lobster roach and a Dubia roach species. Now I have so many roaches I don't know what to do with them. Lobster roaches are prolific breeders. They actually breed faster then dubia. IMO. Dubia roaches cant crawl smooth surfaces and Lobsters can crawl any surface including glass. Male Dubias have wings well so do female dubias but they are tiny. Male dubias can't fully fly but they can flutter when they jump off an egg crate. Same as Lobsters the males and females both have wings and basically look the same. Some folks prefer dubia over lobsters because of the climbing issue. I haven't had any problems with my lobsters climbing out of the tub. I use vaseline around the top of my lobster bin. They crawl up to the vaseline and stop. Dubias only need clear packing tape around the top of the inside of the bin because the baby's can actually climb the surface of the sterilite bins that have colors. You would need a heat source under your bin to give the the proper breeding temps which is usually between 85-95 degrees. They also like a temp gradient whee they can regulate there body temperature. hot side to cool side. Also to give humidity I usually mist around my tubs with water. Humidity is good because you don't want your roaches to basically dry out. I have had some males where the wings looked like crumpled up paper. I usually just feed them off.lol anyways good luck on your new adventure of roach keeping it pays off.

 

[BlueDevil]

You are in a great situation now because you haven't purchased your dragon yet. I started my roach colony 4 months before getting my dragon and it was well worth it. I've been feeding out of my bin ever since. I would recommend 5 or 6 months (depending on how many you start off with) to be sure. For awhile I thought I was going to run out of nymphs. Establish your feeding colony well before you purchase your dragon, do tons of research on this site the people here are amazing always willing to help each other!!! Best of luck to you!!!