Dubia Roach Advice

[Panther Shawn]

Hi I have a 3.5 month old Panther Chameleon. I been only feeding him crickets and some meal worms since I got him a month ago. I heard dubia roaches were better feeders so I bought 200 of them and they just came in. I’m not really sure about keeping these things in my apartment I have a small place and Have them sitting in their bin in my living room next to the chameleon cage because my room temp is usually around 72-75F with around 65%-80% humidity. But should I be worried about my health? I have a storage room in my patio where I would rather keep them the temp inside the room is around 72F but very low sometimes 0 humidity. Can they survive until I feed them off with low humidity ? I have no interest in creating a colony I just buy these for feeders. Also do you guys think this bin is fine ?

 

[Panther Shawn]

Also I been feeding them “Flukers cricket quencher calcium fortified” thoughts on this ?

 

[Brodybreaux25]

More nutritious and Dubia are hard to kill, you actually have to try to kill them. That’s why they make a good feeder for breeding. Some people do have an allergic reaction to them but since your not breeding and didn’t have one when you first handled them your good. Also don’t have to worry about them breeding on their own, they need 90F+ to do that...

Quencher is absolutely worthless as a food/gutload. Check out CricketCrack or Bug Burger, both on Amazon.

 

[insectovore]

No need to worry about your health. If you want to be extra careful wear a mask when you clean the frass out of the bin as it can get dusty. No one single feeder should be used exclusively for lizards, feed crix, dubia, bsfl, superworms, hornworms, etc, and keep varying it up.

 

[Gingero]

Just a heads up, mealworms are not a recommended feeder for chameleons.

 

[Beman]

More nutritious and Dubia are hard to kill, you actually have to try to kill them. That’s why they make a good feeder for breeding. Some people do have an allergic reaction to them but since your not breeding and didn’t have one when you first handled them your good. Also don’t have to worry about them breeding on their own, they need 90F+ to do that...

Quencher is absolutely worthless as a food/gutload. Check out CricketCrack or Bug Burger, both on Amazon.

WOW I had no idea about the possible allergic reaction! Good info!

 

[Panther Shawn]

Just a heads up, mealworms are not a recommended feeder for chameleons.

Why are they not good I always read People saying to use meal
Worms.

 

[Panther Shawn]

More nutritious and Dubia are hard to kill, you actually have to try to kill them. That’s why they make a good feeder for breeding. Some people do have an allergic reaction to them but since your not breeding and didn’t have one when you first handled them your good. Also don’t have to worry about them breeding on their own, they need 90F+ to do that...

Quencher is absolutely worthless as a food/gutload. Check out CricketCrack or Bug Burger, both on Amazon.

Ok great thank you very much for the feeedback

 

[Beman]

@Panther Shawn Here take a look at the care sheet for your panther https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/
This will be a good resource for you with all basic guidelines. With Mealworms they are harder to digest and can cause your Cham to get impacted. Which is not good. So they are not a staple feeder like crickets or dubia. Unfortunately most pet stores hand them out left and right for Chams.

 

[Panther Shawn]

@Panther Shawn Here take a look at the care sheet for your panther https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/
This will be a good resource for you with all basic guidelines. With Mealworms they are harder to digest and can cause your Cham to get impacted. Which is not good. So they are not a staple feeder like crickets or dubia. Unfortunately most pet stores hand them out left and right for Chams.

Ok great thank you very much

 

[44937]

feed them carrots. it makes a good gutload, gives them the water they need, and they last a few days before being eaten.

 

[iMi]

I feed Dubia sliced oranges as well. They seem to eat them readily. Our vailed will not eat them anymore. Zero interest, but thankfully our baby beardie loves them.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

 

[44937]

I feed Dubia sliced oranges as well. They seem to eat them readily. Our vailed will not eat them anymore. Zero interest, but thankfully our baby beardie loves them.

Tough love always prevails. All my Panthers lose interest in their staples whether its crickets or dubias or bsf after some time. I used to switch it up to another feeder fearing they will starve to death. Then I got tired of dealing with crickets so now it's just dubias or bsf. One thing I learned quickly is they will not starve themselves to death and it's the battle of willpower between your desire to see them consume food or their desire to eat the dubia or not. After 6 to 7 days, I usually win the hunger game.
One supplement I use monthly is benebac which seems to perk their appetite each time.
Yes I know diversity of foods is best but the topic is on staple feeder so save the preaching. I do give other bugs when possible but I find diversity in gutload is more important than diversity in bugs.
My routine on my dubias:
Main breeding colony is mainly fed potatoes and whatever vege or fruit organics we discard.
I remove a weeks worth of feeders at a time into a container which I shake up with calcium and I feed with carrots

Then I feed the carrot eating feeders to my chams. I use carrots for the vitamin A enrichment primarily amongst all the other benefits. But another benefit is it provide water to the roaches without using water crystals.