which feeder?

[beardierhea]

ok so i'm at the end of my tether with crickets, they stink and they jump at me, its almost as if they know "if we jump for her face, she'll run away and we wont get eaten". a huge cricket has just jumped on me and stuck its self to my pyjamas, i was running round flapping for a few mins making sure it was off me and i've just sent my cats in to find it, worst of all its in my bedroom, i'm sure its not the only one loose in there either...i hate them.
infact i hate all bugs, i have a major bug phobia, i have no idea why because as a child i used to bring bumble bees, spiders and allsorts in to show my mum and dad.

so my prediciment is, which feeder will i best cope with but will be good for my dragons?
i've been looking into dubia,watching vids on youtube but i get a shiver, they go through me...but i'm like that with crickets too.
i think i could cope with the smaller ones but its the bigger ones that are freaking me out. how big are they when they start having babies? if they start having babies young, i could just do away with the ones that are getting a bit too big for my liking, that would work, wouldnt it? :?

can anyone advise a good feeder for my dragons but good for me and my phobia??
pretty please

oh yes, i've also ordered some silkworm eggs and bought a mulberry tree too

 

[patrickb]

When the Dubia begin breeding and producing babies, they are at full size. The males are the freakish looking ones and you only need a few of them to keep the females going, but the females you need at fullsize. The huge plus size is that they don't jump all over the place like crickets and you don't have to worry about one landing on your face.

The males can hop and flutter a bit, but I think you would be ok with them after a while since you can predict what they are going to do with a little observation and experience. Crickets just jump all over the place all the time. The Dubia just tend to try and go hide usually and won't end up on your pajamas. They may seem creepy (creepier) than the crickets, but they are not going to explode out of the bin like crickets would, so I think you would be a lot more relaxed with them, since you have much more control on where they are going.

 

[Theroachguy]

If I had a bug phobia I would a bigger problem with crickets, those things jump all over you and are pretty fast to. Not to mentions the funk they put off. I would use to feel nasty after handling them. I would much rather have dubia which are calm and laid back. Other then a male who will freak out and run from you the rest are pretty slow and just seem to have no care in the world.

 

[herpfreak]

I don't have bug-phobia, but I'm with you. Crickets smell awful, all die on me, and escape. Plus, they bleed. I think. When I squish them, there's this clear goo that leaks out of them. Yuck.

You can try roaches. Personally, they bug me more than crickets. Silkworms are healthy, but hard to take care of. You could also look into flightless fruit flies. But I guess the babies would fly. And fruit flies would probably be just as bad as crix.

 

[lacy_black]

Dubias are imho absolutely wonderful. I hate crickets with an unholy passion but dubias are fairly slow, large so the dragon doesn't need as many at a time and no offense to the dubias but they're dumb as frozen bricks. I used to not like them but if you watch them long enough they kinda grow on you. I actually turned mine into pets because they're just so laid back. They don't climb (too fat) don't fly (at best a flutter of their wings as adult males only) and so very easy to breed.

Now the lobster roaches i'll admit I feed them fast boogers as fast as the dragons can chomp them down, THEY gimme the creeps, they're fast, sneaky and if you're not real careful with the vasaline or whatever you line the cage with they get out :evil:

I also had turkish roaches but they're really small and I swear faster then the lobster roaches.

 

[palomino]

I despise bugs too. I really hate those cricks, because as you pointed out, they totally assault you by jumping in your face. I have about 1K-2K Turkistan Roaches that are growing exponentially right now and I don't find them gross at all. They do not jump, smell, make noise and their red coloring is very pleasing. To me they almost resemble lighting bugs and they are very shy, they all run for cover when I turn on the light so I would never know they were there if I didn't check on them every so often. They also seem more hardy than crickets. I ordered a 1000 crix once and 1/3 of them died before I could feed them off. So far with the Turks, knock on wood, I have had very very few fatalities. I can't wait until they are mature enough to start reproducing so I can kick the cricks to the curb. I thought the roaches would geek me out more than crickets but so far I very much prefer them to the evil crickets that I keep.

 

[beardierhea]

ok so youve all sold me on the dubias, i've ordered 50 to start just to see how i get on, eek i'm getting creeped out shivers just thinking about it :|
i wont be handling them, i'll have to come up with some sort of way of transfering them but i'm sure i'll get used to them eventually, hey, it might even sort my phobia
if they arrive and i freak out, drop the box and have roaches all over my house...i shall hold you all responsible haha, only joking

thanks so much for all the information guys, i'll post back to let you know when i have them and let you know how i'm getting on

 

[INCA]

you shouldve got like 500! lol serious

 

[patrickb]

... waits patiently for someone to post back about how they are intrigued by the new arrivals and have been "playing" with them. :lol:

 

[beardierhea]

i'm just getting 50 at the moment, i need to see if i will be able to cope with them.
once i've stopped the running,crying,screaming etc at the sight of them..i will get more

... waits patiently for someone to post back about how they are intrigued by the new arrivals and have been "playing" with them. :lol:

haha...i hope it happens that way

i think they may arrive monday :|

 

[herpfreak]

Just don't let them loose!

Do dubias breed quickly? I'm almost convinced too, but I only have one beardie, so I don't want too many roaches. How long does it take them to reproduce?

 

[patrickb]

Just don't let them loose!

Do dubias breed quickly? I'm almost convinced too, but I only have one beardie, so I don't want too many roaches. How long does it take them to reproduce?

No worries if they get loose, they will crawl off and die within a few days. Of course, that is assuming you can't catch their slow butts.

Dubias are actually one of the slower breeding feeders on the market when compared to other roaches and even crickets. But once the colony gets established good and you have a healthy number of adult females, they will be pumping out babies in the 1000s each month. But the reality is you can never really have too many roaches. It is much easier to control an overpopulation than it is to wait for an underpopulation to establish itself.

When you get to the point that you have too many, you can reduce the temps to slow the breeding, and feed off some of your adult females. Or better yet, offer them for sale online, find a friend with herps/arachnids that will eat em, donate them to a local rescue operation/zoo.... Any number of ways to get rid of excess, but only two ways to increase the population (purchase more or wait for them to breed back up)

 

[beardierhea]

haha herpfreak, you should get some, we could both be new dubia keepers together

No worries if they get loose, they will crawl off and die within a few days

i was hoping i could set some free if i got too many...i dont want them to die cold and slowly though

 

[ronni1221]

You probably shouldn't let them free... If they end up back in your house you might be sorry... : :wink:

 

[herpfreak]

haha herpfreak, you should get some, we could both be new dubia keepers together

I am totally sold on them now... I only wish I'd seen this thread before placing my order for crickets yesterday...