Can I feed dubia roaches to a bearded dragon ?

Can I feed a bearded dragon dubia roaches ?

yes you can! When I had a colony of dubia I fed them to my beardies and they absolutely loved it!

Absolutely, they are probably one of the best feeders you could ever choose.

Regarding the roaches, I was thinking of starting a colony, and then in a few months getting a Beardie. I was wondering if you could feed a baby bearded dragon small roaches instead of crickets. Also, do you need to gut load the roaches like you do with crickets?

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Originally Posted by Jared2608

Regarding the roaches, I was thinking of starting a colony, and then in a few months getting a Beardie. I was wondering if you could feed a baby bearded dragon small roaches instead of crickets. Also, do you need to gut load the roaches like you do with crickets?

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**BUMP** ^This is something i'm also worrying about as we'll, crickets aren't cheap.

I always just kept my roaches fed and pulled out what I needed

I think "gut loading" refers to buying feeders from pet stores, then getting them home and making sure they are fed and watered before feeding them to your pets.

With your own colony, your good to go

Gut loading is something that you typical do to add calcium and vitamins into the feeder so the beardie gets the nutrients too.

Im not sure about gut loading roaches but I always feed crickets with gut loaders.

Gut loading with calcium will actually kill most feeder insects unless you're feeding them off immediately (Toxic levels of calcium for the bugs), but protein is certainly good. Typically I fed my roaches a half and half blend of high protein puppy chow and whole oats (not the quick oats crap). I'd put that in the blender and let it get pretty well ground up so its easier for them to eat. Also, if you're looking to kickstart the breeding in your colony, you'll want to keep the temps at about 83-87 F, humidity up, water crystals, and keep maybe half of an orange in there. For whatever reason, the citrus is kinda like roach viagra...

Small dubia can be fed to small beardies, so Jared and Strange, you're both good to go. Just try not to feed roaches larger than the space between the dragon's eyes.

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Originally Posted by Trogdorpheus

Gut loading with calcium will actually kill most feeder insects unless you're feeding them off immediately (Toxic levels of calcium for the bugs), but protein is certainly good. Typically I fed my roaches a half and half blend of high protein puppy chow and whole oats (not the quick oats crap). I'd put that in the blender and let it get pretty well ground up so its easier for them to eat. Also, if you're looking to kickstart the breeding in your colony, you'll want to keep the temps at about 83-87 F, humidity up, water crystals, and keep maybe half of an orange in there. For whatever reason, the citrus is kinda like roach viagra...

Small dubia can be fed to small beardies, so Jared and Strange, you're both good to go. Just try not to feed roaches larger than the space between the dragon's eyes.

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How hard are they to keep going and what size colony should you start out with? ohhh and do they small as bad as crickets?

Nothing smells as bad as crickets... except maybe sin.

As long as you maintain their temperature/humidity and keep food and a water source available they'll do the rest. I think I added food/water every other day and cleaned the tub once ever 2-3 months, so really easy to manage.

As for starting size, that depends on several things. How many mouths you want to feed, and how long you'd like to wait for your colony to be self sufficient. If you plan on waiting for 3-4 months before you are going to start feeding out of it then you'd probably be ok with 10 adult pairs and maybe 100 mixed sizes... if you're wanting to start in 1-2 months then I'd say 50 adult pairs and 100 or so mixed.

Consider that a baby beardie will eat maybe 15 small roaches per day (sometimes more). An adult female dubia will give birth to maybe 25 (average) nymphs every 2 months (1 month gestation then 1 month before gettin knocked up again). So you would be looking at maybe, 450 small roaches per month * 2 month gestation / 25 babies per lay. In that case you'd need at least* 36 adult females (per dragon) constantly producing in ideal conditions to never see a decrease in your population.

*If your baby eats more, obviously this number will be higher. Not to mention that there will be die offs, so that's why I went with 50 in my initial estimate. 50 females in ideal conditions would yield about 625 nymphs per month.

THEN AGAIN, your dragon might not eat like a cow, and you'll see a huge explosion in population of roaches and you'll be able to sell off the excess and recover your initial setup costs.

EDIT: forgot to mention that it takes about 3 months for a newborn nymph to reach adulthood.

Good to know, i got a good deal on 10adult pairs and 200mixed for $35 shipped.

Crickets stink sooo bad, just 12large crickets can out smell a roach colony in a matter of minutes.

Dubias are amazing feeders for beardies. I just can't get past the whole roach thing personally.....:rolleyes: If you keep crickets keep them in a 10 gallon with cricket crack. This will help them survive. The dead ones are what smells and dead crickets release some type of toxin that will speed up the death of other crickets. Be sure to check your cage every couple of days and clean out any death. I also clean the cage with dish soap and hot water weekly. (a lot of work....but hey...no smell)

I have done this know for over a year and have had great sucess in keeping most alive until feeding time.

Dubias are cheaper and a better feeders on all accounts than crickets.

Dubia can't jump, fly, and don't smell. They definitely don't make any noise to keep you up all night. Dubia also have no instances of parasites in their guts being transferred to your dragon.

1 vet bill of 500.00 because some cricket parasites will make anyone see the light.

If you are looking for Roaches for your dragon, you would do your self justice finding a website that specializes in breeding and raising Dubia roaches for the reptile community.

Whether you want to just purchase feeders, or start your own colony, you can find good deals that will get you a lot more for your money than a few over priced females and 200 Small to Medium Roaches.

With them breeders you can expect to have if your lucky 200-300 babies per month that will take 3 or more months to grow to an adequate size to feed anything over a small dragon for 5 days.

Setting yourself up for success start from the first order of Dubia you make is important. Dont make the same mistakes that so many others do. Countless dragon owners who set out to breed their own Dubia find themselves growing very small amounts of the roaches and buying alot more monthly to feed their dragons.

Many people have bought a colony to start with, and still end up buying plenty of feeders every month just to get buy.

Dubias are cheaper than crickets and will go a lot further.Do some research and find the best deal you can on Dubia before you commit to buying any at all. You can find them all over the net. Amazon, Ebay, and Google will all point you to the right direction and all the information you will need to successful feed your Dragon for less.

**LOOK FOR THE PLACES THAT WILL GIVE YOU MORE FOR LESS**
I routinely double (100% over count) the counts on orders and provide 2 day shipping for all orders. You can get a cost per roach as low as half a penny each and still get free supplies to care for them..


WestCoastRoaches

Dubias are cheaper and a better feeders on all accounts than crickets.

Dubia can't jump, fly, and don't smell. They definitely don't make any noise to keep you up all night. Dubia also have no instances of parasites in their guts being transferred to your dragon.

1 vet bill of 500.00 because some cricket parasites will make anyone see the light.

If you are looking for Roaches for your dragon, you would do your self justice finding a website that specializes in breeding and raising Dubia roaches for the reptile community.

Whether you want to just purchase feeders, or start your own colony, you can find good deals that will get you a lot more for your money than a few over priced females and 200 Small to Medium Roaches.

With them breeders you can expect to have if your lucky 200-300 babies per month that will take 3 or more months to grow to an adequate size to feed anything over a small dragon for 5 days.

Setting yourself up for success start from the first order of Dubia you make is important. Dont make the same mistakes that so many others do. Countless dragon owners who set out to breed their own Dubia find themselves growing very small amounts of the roaches and buying alot more monthly to feed their dragons.

Many people have bought a colony to start with, and still end up buying plenty of feeders every month just to get buy.

Dubias are cheaper than crickets and will go a lot further.Do some research and find the best deal you can on Dubia before you commit to buying any at all. You can find them all over the net. Amazon, Ebay, and Google will all point you to the right direction and all the information you will need to successful feed your Dragon for less.

**LOOK FOR THE PLACES THAT WILL GIVE YOU MORE FOR LESS**
I routinely double (100% overcount) the counts on orders and provide 2 day shipping for all orders. You can get a cost per roach as low as half a penny each and still get free supplies to care for them..


WestCoastRoaches

i used to have 3 dubia roach colonies until i went on vacation for 2 weeks and along with 2 golden tegus and a monitor lizard, they all died in my friends care:(

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Originally Posted by Trogdorpheus

(Toxic levels of calcium for the bugs)

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Calcium isn't fat soluble.. so doesn't that mean that any excesses simply get excreted? Perhaps D3 poisoning would be an issue though.

Or the friend. I am sure the Dubia didn't do it.