# How many Dubia roaches and size to feed 3 adults???



## mummybear (Nov 5, 2007)

Which size approx should I be feeding to my beardies? I have 2 large males 1 yr-old 1 is 19 inches & 471g the other is 21 inches & 506g and a female 1 yr-old who is 16 inches & 273g (all are total length nose to tail).

Also as my 2 males are so large I have now started feeding every other day with livefood with veggies every day, my female is still getting livefood daily along with veggies.

How many should I be giving each beardie?

Sorry for all the questions but I started my dubia colony recently (approx 3 weeks) so am waiting till it has got established before using for daily feeding I have approximately 50 females and 12 males at the moment and know there have been at least 2 lots of babies so far so I'm hoping to be able to start feeding from them in about 3-4 months, is that right?

Thanks for any help and advice it's all appreciated


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## fantapants (Jan 4, 2008)

i would suggest getting alot more roaches if you want to feed from the colony that soon. we have an adult beardy, a cwd and 4 baby beardys. wehave 2 colonies of lobster roaches with approx 1200 in each, aswell as a starter turkistan and dubia colony (approx 300 in each) cooking at the moment. we feed the adult beardy and cwd from the lobster colony and try to avoid over feeding the babies from the colony. its a very fine balancing act between letting it grow to a good size and feeding the right amount. we still need to buy 1000 crix a week for the baby beardys, and wont be feeding from the turk or dubia colony for atleast 6 months.


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## mummybear (Nov 5, 2007)

Oh! Had it on good authority from a trusted member on here that it'd fine or maybe 6 months possibly, still didn't answer the main thing about size and number to feed though LOL


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## fantapants (Jan 4, 2008)

mummybear said:


> Oh! Had it on good authority from a trusted member on here that it'd fine or maybe 6 months possibly, still didn't answer the main thing about size and number to feed though LOL


 
maybe i am just over prepared then! i feed mine lobsters at the moment and my adult beardy and cwd get the biggest size adults we can use. this means that its the ones that have already been used for breeders and are coming to the end anyway. they are very soft bodied so can be oversized prey and no worry of impaction.

i have only just got my dubia roaches last week but have had the lobsters for ages, i thought dubias where the same life cycle duration as lobsters, 3 months from hatching to being adult breeders. so in 6 months your colony should be a good size, but i personally would wait till 9 months before feeding on a regular basis from the one colony. just my opinion though:whistling2:


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## mummybear (Nov 5, 2007)

tinkerbruce said:


> maybe i am just over prepared then! i feed mine lobsters at the moment and my adult beardy and cwd get the biggest size adults we can use. this means that its the ones that have already been used for breeders and are coming to the end anyway. they are very soft bodied so can be oversized prey and no worry of impaction.
> 
> i have only just got my dubia roaches last week but have had the lobsters for ages, i thought dubias where the same life cycle duration as lobsters, 3 months from hatching to being adult breeders. so in 6 months your colony should be a good size, but i personally would wait till 9 months before feeding on a regular basis from the one colony. just my opinion though:whistling2:


Hey I could have got it wrong LOL, nothing new there :lol2:
Apparently from what I've read lobster roaches are quicker than the dubia in their cycle so......

Was still planning on supplementing the roaches with other livefoods for a while after the initial period and then as variety later on but not as often if that makes sense LOL

All info is good : victory:


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## HadesDragons (Jun 30, 2007)

I tend to use adult male dubias to feed adult dragons, with the exception of Spyro who will only eat them freshly-moulted (yes, he's spoilt!!) so he gets any size he wants as long as they're nice and white! Adult females are retained to breed, and my younger dragons keep on top of the younger roaches. For your younger female, you might want to try her on dubias that are 1-2 moults away from being adults, as they should be much closer to the right size for her. As long as you aren't feeding off your adult females, are keeping a few adult males back for breeding, and are letting some of the babies grow up, the colony should continue to grow even with you taking some roaches from it. Play it by ear though - if the colony seems to be slowing down, give it a break of a month or two before you start feeding from it again.

As for number, it will vary from beardie to beardie so the best thing to do is to have a play around over a couple of months - perhaps consider adult male dubias as roughly equivalent to 5th instar locusts, or as 3 male dubias being similar to two adult locusts (I have no idea what they would be exactly equivalent to, I'm just plucking numbers out based on their rough sizes and the amount of chitin in each one...) Feed that number of roaches to each one along with the usual amount of veg and monitor their weights for a couple of months. If their weights are more than you want them to be, feed less roaches per feed or feed them less often; if they are losing weight then try adding a couple more roaches to each feed.

If you can get hold of a set of sensitive scales, try weighing the greens you would give them each day (assuming they will eat them all), then give them 1/3 of that weight in roaches (giving you a 75% : 25% greens : livefood diet) - that will give you a rough number to start with...


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## mummybear (Nov 5, 2007)

HadesDragons said:


> I tend to use adult male dubias to feed adult dragons, with the exception of Spyro who will only eat them freshly-moulted (yes, he's spoilt!!) so he gets any size he wants as long as they're nice and white! Adult females are retained to breed, and my younger dragons keep on top of the younger roaches. For your younger female, you might want to try her on dubias that are 1-2 moults away from being adults, as they should be much closer to the right size for her. As long as you aren't feeding off your adult females, are keeping a few adult males back for breeding, and are letting some of the babies grow up, the colony should continue to grow even with you taking some roaches from it. Play it by ear though - if the colony seems to be slowing down, give it a break of a month or two before you start feeding from it again.
> 
> As for number, it will vary from beardie to beardie so the best thing to do is to have a play around over a couple of months - perhaps consider adult male dubias as roughly equivalent to 5th instar locusts, or as 3 male dubias being similar to two adult locusts (I have no idea what they would be exactly equivalent to, I'm just plucking numbers out based on their rough sizes and the amount of chitin in each one...) Feed that number of roaches to each one along with the usual amount of veg and monitor their weights for a couple of months. If their weights are more than you want them to be, feed less roaches per feed or feed them less often; if they are losing weight then try adding a couple more roaches to each feed.
> 
> If you can get hold of a set of sensitive scales, try weighing the greens you would give them each day (assuming they will eat them all), then give them 1/3 of that weight in roaches (giving you a 75% : 25% greens : livefood diet) - that will give you a rough number to start with...


Rightio thanks Andy :2thumb:


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