When is a good # to start feeding off a colony.

[cxerphax]

I have ordered 145 and just wandering how many would I need to be able to start giving them to my Smaug.

 

[patrickb]

You first will need to figure out how many you are going to be feeding per a month. If you are feeding crickets now, then you have a good baseline. Take your cricket number and reduce it by about 30-40% roughly since the Dubias are more filling and it will take less. With that number, you now know what your production goal is.

Mature females will produce about 20-25 nymphs per a month on average, but I use 15 as "the number". It is a very conservative number and allows your colony to continue to increase in size and replace the older breeders that will be dieing off with new fresh breeders. Can't fail using that number.

So if you know you need 1500 roaches per a month divide it by 15 and you come out with 100. That means you need 100 mature adult females before you are producing enough from the colony to safely feed from it.

With the 145 mix, you should be looking around 6-8months on average before you can feed from the colony, maybe sooner maybe longer, just depends on how many of those turn into mature females and how quick that happens.

 

[cxerphax]

I have to do math . Well lets pertain 6 months pass which would make him 11 months old, how many would I feed him a meal then?

 

[cxerphax]

Right now he has parasites on Im working on getting rid of them but he normally eats 50 crickets a meal how many Dubias are we talkin at 10 months and possibly 18 inches long a meal?

 

[patrickb]

a meal? That is once or twice a day? I am going to assume just once for this. Anyways, using the 15 magic number, you would need 70 adult females. You should get close to that out of your 145 if your luck is good and be ready in about 6 months hopefully. Best of luck and you could be ready in as little as 3-4 months (but don't count on it)

If you change the magic number to 20, which should be safe in you case, you would need about 53 females breeding. Same basic timeframe there and at this point, your beardie will be maybe 6 months or so out from reducing the amount of live feeders which is why I think you should be safe with 20.

So whenever you get to 53 adult females and start seeing baby nymphs pop up, then it should be safe for you to feed from the colony at this point. Just do not feed off any adult females no matter what. That is a huge no no.

 

[cxerphax]

So I would be feeding off the male dubias? He will eat 20 of them, will that make him full? How many dubias would I most likely have at 6 months? How do I see if I have 70 females? Why would I only have 70 females at 6 months, are females rare occurences in there breeding? Sorry for all the question, really must have answers though because they ship on Monday.

 

[RioReptiles]

Make sure you have an under tank heater, the warmer you keep them the faster and more they'll breed.

 

[BaronTheBD]

So I would be feeding off the male dubias? He will eat 20 of them, will that make him full? How many dubias would I most likely have at 6 months? How do I see if I have 70 females? Why would I only have 70 females at 6 months, are females rare occurences in there breeding? Sorry for all the question, really must have answers though because they ship on Monday.

Yes you would be feeding off the males but not all of them of course since they need to breed. Ive heard some people keep the ratio at 1 male for every 3 females while others say 1 male for every 10 females, just make you have enough to breed. You cant really differentiate between male and female until their final molt which may take a couple months and at that point it becomes obvious. Females have no wings, males do. Patrick said you would would need 70 females before its safe to start feeding, he did not say you will have 70 females. I doubt females are rare occurrences, you just have to be patient and wait for the molts to find out what you have.

 

[patrickb]

Yep, it is just a big crapshoot. You may get 140 females out of that group or only 20 females. Both cases are very unlikely. It's just a waiting game and seeing what you get to truly know how long it will take. The 70 adult females is what I would recommend the most as your target goal at this point before you feed from them, but again, I think with 53 adult females you should be ok to start feeding if you just can't wait any longer based on the current age of your beardie. Feeding off adult males is actually good to keep their numbers down. They just take up space and food resources. Don't feed them all off like BaronTheBD mentioned. You will still need some to breed with the females. I would keep at least 1 male for every 10 females as has been recommended by Jason (TheRoachGuy) in other posts. Lot's of different opinions and practices on that ratio, but patience is really the key to it overall.