Food for a garbage disposal...

I've been buying crickets for my leopard geckos and tarantulas, and they usually lasted a while...until I bought my bearded dragon. He ate about 30 crickets just 2 days ago, another 20 or so yesterday...

I definitely don't want to breed crickets, I don't think I can tolerate the chirping. I've thought about breeding dubia roaches...but I must say I'm not looking forward to keeping a colony of bugs in the house (tarantulas are not bugs in my eyes LOL :rolleyes:) What are my options for insect feeders for my tarantulas, leopard geckos (2) and my bearded dragon? I'd love some guidance as to which direction I should go. If dubias are the way to go, can you give me an idea on what the set up should be, what they eat, etc? Will all my insect eaters eat them?

Thanks!

I culture roaches and super worms for my beardies. Both are definitely better than crickets and I really enjoy the roaches.

Mine are in a 15ish gallon solid color plastic bin with air holes drilled into the lid, egg carton for more surface area and I feed fruits, veggies, and watered down rat block dust. I don't use the gel crystals because it's too messy. They are on top of my bearded dragons light or you could get a UTH because they like it warm.

My leopard gecko and painted turtle seem to love them. I pick up a dozen or so at my local reptile shows now and again. I have also never had a dubia die on me before feeding them, whereas I lose a percentage of crickets each week.

I raised a colony of dubias when my beardie was alive and it really is completely foolproof. It is very hard to kill a dubia...they are extremely hardy insects. I used a solid color tub approx. 18"Long x 10"Wide x 18"High with an Ultratherm heat pad (on a rheostat) with egg crates stacked vertically in about half of the tub. I stacked them vertically so the poo falls to the bottom of the tub rather than accumulating in the egg crate.

The nice thing about Dubia is they don't fly, they can't climb smooth surfaces, they don't smell, and they don't make any noise. If you keep the heat pad around 90-95 degrees and provide plenty of food, they will reproduce very quickly. My colony was established and breeding in about a month.

I would definitely recommend a dubia colony as well, I hate crickets with a passion and don't even feed them anymore. I keep my colony in a 10 long (getting ready to move to a 20 long) with the 2 sides and the front blacked out with black latex paint. They are far superior to crickets in each and every way, no smell and no chirping lol. I use water crystals with added calcium which aren't messy lol and feed them indoor cat chow, "dust" from my rat lab block and supplement with fruits and veggies. I use an UTH and have 3/4 of the metal screen lid covered with plastic for added humidity and to help keep heat in. I use egg crate and paper towel tubes for more surface area and places for them to live, breed etc..

I feed Dubias too, but I live close enough to the petstore (I drive by it 4+ times a day) so I just stop in when I need some.

Another REALLY GOOD one is Goliath Worms - granted this would only be good for the Dragon, not so sure on the others. You can buy a self sustaining tub of babies for around $10 here. I think there is about 20 babies in a tub, maybe more. They are small when you get them but they chow through the food and get massive in no time. We use them when we go away for a time, that way the person watching the kids doesn't have to deal with roaches and whatnot.

Dubia all the way! Best feeder in the world IMO.

Dubias, Leah! I would get some matures to start out. Otherwise it takes a while.

Dubias all the way! They are so easy to care for and breed. They are hardy, the ones that do die, the others seem to like to eat their shell. I feed mine a mixture of a bunch of dry foods that I blend together, left over crested gecko diet, and the same fruits and veggies as my beardie gets. They are a hands off type feeder, the more you leave them alone the better they breed. I tried breeding crickets, never again...

Here's a thread I made showing my dubia setup: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...a-colony-today!

dubias a deff the way to go... they don't smell.. they're really not as gross as most roaches go... and beardies definitely love them and they are better for them then crickets are :D

SRK has the lil starter colonies if you wanted to get only a few.. but it would then take a good amount of time for them to grow out ( we got 10 from them a month or so ago and they just finally got into their adult stage and should hopefully be breeding soon). I definitely thought that we only had 4 from those 10... but somehow the others just were realllllyyy good at hiding :p

if you go to www.theroachranch.com you will find some good ones. Hes in Fall River I believe (we've only gotten them shipped from him) and they arrive pretty much the next day. We've never had a single one die from him and they are great breeders and Ian is a really nice guy that will anser any questions that you have.

I'm a bit late on the thread and see you've already got some good husbandry advice so I'll offer some roach feeder tricks of the trade. The only good thing about crickets is they tend to stay out in the open making good hunting opportunities for your pets. When thrown into an enclosure roaches will often freeze(no movement, no attraction) then dig down into substrate at the first opportunity and stay there. A good way to fix this problem is to crush the head on the roaches before you feed. This basically just slows them down, it doesn't kill them at all(roaches will definitely take over the world some day). They will eventually die of starvation of course if not eaten since they can't feed themselves with the mangled head.. With a crushed head you can leave them on their backs and they won't right themselves but continue kicking their legs for many days. You can also just toss them in with crushed heads and they'll do their scurrying around thing but it'll be slow motion and they won't dig down as quickly if at all. Make sure you do a thorough job on those heads though, I've found perfectly mobile, normal acting roaches weeks after tossing "incapacitated" feeders in an enclosure.

Roaches are illegal where I live so I am going to breed Black soldier fly grubs (aka Phoenix worms) I believe they are one of the highest source of calcium, of any insect feeder. Something to think about anyway.

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Originally Posted by John1982

I'm a bit late on the thread and see you've already got some good husbandry advice so I'll offer some roach feeder tricks of the trade. The only good thing about crickets is they tend to stay out in the open making good hunting opportunities for your pets. When thrown into an enclosure roaches will often freeze(no movement, no attraction) then dig down into substrate at the first opportunity and stay there. A good way to fix this problem is to crush the head on the roaches before you feed. This basically just slows them down, it doesn't kill them at all(roaches will definitely take over the world some day). They will eventually die of starvation of course if not eaten since they can't feed themselves with the mangled head.. With a crushed head you can leave them on their backs and they won't right themselves but continue kicking their legs for many days. You can also just toss them in with crushed heads and they'll do their scurrying around thing but it'll be slow motion and they won't dig down as quickly if at all. Make sure you do a thorough job on those heads though, I've found perfectly mobile, normal acting roaches weeks after tossing "incapacitated" feeders in an enclosure.

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Just curious, do you know why or how roaches are able to survive for days without heads lol?
I know chickens can survive for a bit running around with their head cut off...

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Just curious, do you know why or how roaches are able to survive for days without heads lol?
I know chickens can survive for a bit running around with their head cut off...

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I don't actually remove the head, I just thoroughly crush it with a pair of tweezers. It doesn't kill them but they can't feed and it seems to get em good and addled. They eventually starve to death if not eaten and can survive quite a while in this zombified state. I have 3 in with an enclosure right now that're still on their backs kicking their legs, put them in last week.

Another way to prevent your roaches from disappearing is putting them in small glass salsa dishes or small glass candle holders. Whatever is trying to eat them can easily see them and it prevents escape without having to crush each and everyone’s head. When trying to feed 16 geckos that can become incredibly time consuming, the glass dishes save me so much time and I don't have to worry about escapes.