Why are dubia dying in shipping? Could it be the heat???

[ChrisMiller]

so my crickets arrived fine and not one dead one in the box. getting them outta the box was a whole different event...lol I'm glad you found a good person to buy your dubia from. And even more crazy, when I made my "alert" phone call to my post the guy said any time something is marked "live" the post is supposed to hold it during this time of the year here...
But, everything was held. Silk all alive and crickets too. I also make sure to use a west coast supplier. I figure with the weather, the less post handling right now, the better.

Great news! Good luck with those crickets. Man they are a lot of work! hahaha

I just received 1000 more phoenix worms without issue as well. These were held at my USPS store box like the last ones though so I would imagine they spent less time in the carriers car. Also received another beardie since this post and it arrived via fedex without issue too.

I personally think something more was happening to the dubia coming from CNS Feeders but I cannot confirm that of course. It's run by great people... I think we just had an anomaly.

I'll probably begin selling dubia here in AZ before long. I have as much fun with these guys as I do my beardies and I always seem to go overboard in all that I do. I am running 3 colonies now...a feeding colony, mixed colony and a breeding colony. I am hitting the mixed colony every 2 days and cherry picking by hand to harvest any freshly molted adults for adding to the breeder bin and I have MANY every time I get in there! I am sure I am going to have more babies than I can handle soon. My 3 babies are really blowing thru the baby nymps though so who knows! lol

 

[casper31]

well, if I can man up maybe I'll try an order of dubia from you when you're ready to start selling. I'm actually not that girly about too many things, but the roach thing just kinda gets me. They are a bit too "creepy crawly" for me.

I ordered silkworms for the first time and they have too much stink for me. I think they will be something I'd get on occasion, but not a regular purchase.

I don't know how you feed all those babies! My girl is trying to eat dang near anything right now. I read tons of posts about how they slow down for a few days during a shed...not her!! She's increased what she's eating this last week.

Have fun with the new beardie. I didn't look, but if you haven't yet, I'm looking forward to pics!

 

[ChrisMiller]

well, if I can man up maybe I'll try an order of dubia from you when you're ready to start selling. I'm actually not that girly about too many things, but the roach thing just kinda gets me. They are a bit too "creepy crawly" for me.

I ordered silkworms for the first time and they have too much stink for me. I think they will be something I'd get on occasion, but not a regular purchase.

I don't know how you feed all those babies! My girl is trying to eat dang near anything right now. I read tons of posts about how they slow down for a few days during a shed...not her!! She's increased what she's eating this last week.

Have fun with the new beardie. I didn't look, but if you haven't yet, I'm looking forward to pics!

You're not alone. It's literally taken me a month to warm up to the roaches. I was always fine with the small ones (really small lol) but the bigger ones seriously made my skin crawl. When cleaning the cage and separating them into new tubs I was using BBQ tongs to grab the egg crates. :lol: Then it got to a point where handling them was a must because I was working these 3 colonies and wanted to disrupt them as little as possible. I started with wearing latex gloves and grabbing them that way. It helped to have a couple of beers first too haha. After I got the feel of them down, it was not at all as freaky as I had thought. I find myself now actually treating them like I do my beardie babies (I went from flinging them into their new tub, to carefully placing them onto their new spot and "shooing" them along.) :mrgreen:

It all sounds pretty crazy I know. We shouldn't be scared of something so small and harmless but they do take some getting used to because we have it made up in our mind that roaches are BAD. I only shared this info with you in the hopes that it will help you. Don't tell anyone else.... (wait... is this place public?!?!) :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Here is the new guy.... a trans leather male from Rainbow Bearded Dragons.... he's absolutely awesome. (but absolutely destroys 30-40 roaches a day)

 

[casper31]

LOL! I may have to try out the couple of drinks strategy.

The new little guy is just gorgeous. I love his markings. You have good taste in dragons, Rango is quite a looker as well. 30 to 40 a day already? He's gonna be a huge guy in no time! I though Lil' Miss was eating a lot w 30 crickets in the a.m. and 30 phx worms in the p.m.

I thought maybe she would eat less with the silkworms, because they are a bit bigger. Nope, gulped 30 without skipping a beat. She did eat them a bit slower though. I think she gets tired of the taste/texture or something. I can tell she still wants to eat but doesn't. I also think she was missing the phoenix worms a bit this evening. She kept her foot on the edge of her bowl, looking at me like, "well, I'm waiting. What's next." lol

Have you named your new guy yet?

 

[ChrisMiller]

LOL! I may have to try out the couple of drinks strategy.

The new little guy is just gorgeous. I love his markings. You have good taste in dragons, Rango is quite a looker as well. 30 to 40 a day already? He's gonna be a huge guy in no time! I though Lil' Miss was eating a lot w 30 crickets in the a.m. and 30 phx worms in the p.m.

I thought maybe she would eat less with the silkworms, because they are a bit bigger. Nope, gulped 30 without skipping a beat. She did eat them a bit slower though. I think she gets tired of the taste/texture or something. I can tell she still wants to eat but doesn't. I also think she was missing the phoenix worms a bit this evening. She kept her foot on the edge of her bowl, looking at me like, "well, I'm waiting. What's next." lol

Have you named your new guy yet?

Thanks. It sounds like Lil' Miss is trying to eat you out of house and home too. We better master these roaches and SOON! lol

Little guy's name is Terlingua. Named after Terlingua, TX. I did a little intro video of my dragons if you want to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeQp55sibvA

 

[casper31]

No kidding!!
Nice group of dragons you have. I like that you are able to keep open tops. I would love to do that, but my youngest cat would end up having Lil' Miss for snack! I'd love to see pics of all them again in a few months to see how big are. Especially your chow hound of a boy!

 

[casper31]

Oh my gosh....lol

So, you were mentioning in posts about escapees, noise, etc. Well until I switched the crickets to a 10 gal tank with a fitted wire lid we had a few. And they all found their way into my bathroom. Fabulous! Took a towel of the rack to wash....cricket. Opened the shower curtain...cricket in the bathtub. picked up my daughters bath toy bin....cricket...lol

I was like, "ohhhh....yep. now I totally get the escapee thing." my daughter would yell, "hey mom! Another escapee." Catching them became a new olympic event.

Well tonight we finally have a chirper. Never have had one before. My daughter is trying to do her homework and she looks and the tank and says...shhh! Then she looks at me and says, "man. that cricket needs to shut its yap!"

of course my next question is....how's that dubia colony coming? LOL!!