How much does your Beardie cost per month for care?

[Crazy4Herps]

anyone have a website where I cna buy like a starter package of a dubia colony? I currently own a tarantula and I want a bearded dragon but Id rather start up my dubia colony before I even think of buying a bearded dragon lol.

The Roach Guy (http://theroachguy.com/) is your best bet. Great customer service, great roaches, great prices. I mean, you're not going to find healthy roaches for cheap. Originally they're pretty pricey but it seriously pays off in the long run to breed your own feeders, even if it's just for a beardie and a tarantula.

That's a good idea. You'll want to give the colony at least a few months to establish before starting to feed them off.

[PurplePython]

The Roach Guy (http://theroachguy.com/) is your best bet. Great customer service, great roaches, great prices. I mean, you're not going to find healthy roaches for cheap. Originally they're pretty pricey but it seriously pays off in the long run to breed your own feeders, even if it's just for a beardie and a tarantula.

That's a good idea. You'll want to give the colony at least a few months to establish before starting to feed them off.

thanks a lot man. Yeah I want to give it plenty of time to build up before I start getting into bearded dragons. I have been studying up on bearded dragons and everyone says they eat like savages lol.

EDIT - what package should i purchase? And do I need to buy that starting package and that chow and water crystals, or can I just buy the roaches and feed them normal stuff and give them regular water?

[_Venom_]

20 bucks for 1000 crickets plus vegetables other people buy in this house = Less then 25 a month

[Crazy4Herps]

thanks a lot man. Yeah I want to give it plenty of time to build up before I start getting into bearded dragons. I have been studying up on bearded dragons and everyone says they eat like savages lol.

EDIT - what package should i purchase? And do I need to buy that starting package and that chow and water crystals, or can I just buy the roaches and feed them normal stuff and give them regular water?

Yes, beardies are wonderful eaters. Nothing like these picky ball pythons.

The more adults you purchase the more quickly the colony will get going. If you've got some time on your hands, you'll be fine starting out with only a few adults plus a ton of mixed. I don't remember exactly, but I think I got the 120 mixed originally, and there turned out to be many more older roaches than younger ones... I think I had at least 3 big adult pairs instead of one. The roach diet and water crystals are really handy and easy and probably some of the better gutloads out there, but fruits work just fine. Don't give them a water dish; they will drown! Water in fruit plus occasional misting is usually good enough, but if you want to, providing a wet paper towel is also good.

[allergenic]

EDIT - what package should i purchase?

As many as you can afford. The more you purchase, the faster your colony will grow and be ready to start feeding off males.

And do I need to buy that starting package and that chow and water crystals, or can I just buy the roaches and feed them normal stuff and give them regular water?

The water crystals are a good way to provide water to your colony, but buying them from roach sites is a racket. You can get a 5 lb bag on eBay for next to nothing.

Roach food is another racket, the ingredients are also not listed since the sites generally don't want you to easily replicate it (which you can, easily). Providing your own food is much easier.

The other issue with not knowing the ingredients of the roach food is, well, not knowing the ingredients. For some reason it was thought that a roach colony needs insane amounts of protein (they don't), so people feed their roaches garbage like ground up dog and cat food. Remember that what your roaches eat, your dragon eats. Do you want your dragon to be eating dog and cat food?

The roaches need a well balanced diet with starches, carbs, and protein. An easy way to accomplish this is to provide ground up alfalfa pellets as well as rolled oats (ground up or not). There is surprisingly a great amount of clean protein in both. Make that, water crystals, and fruits and veggies (bananas, apples, carrots, etc) available at all times.

With a plan like this, gut loading is not necessary as your roaches will already be full of clean food.

Hope that helps.

[allergenic]

An easy way to accomplish this is to provide ground up alfalfa pellets as well as rolled oats (ground up or not). There is surprisingly a great amount of clean protein in both.

Sorry, I meant to add that any local farm/feed store usually has 50 pound bags of either, for less than $10-$15. That will last a year or two.

[PurplePython]

thanks for the info! glad a few of you guys took the time and offer your advice to me.

[Crazy4Herps]

thanks for the info! glad a few of you guys took the time and offer your advice to me.

Good luck with breeding them. Dubia are awesome!

[ls1goat04]

mine is over 100 bucks a month. i cannot stand crickets, they stink and climb and die to fast. i feed pheonix worms. my beardie loves them. but eats alot of them. over 100 worms a day. they are low in fat, very high in calcium. you dont have to dust these at all. works good just hurts the wallet