Dubia roaches

[haykalo96]

Hey guys! Can i give my 3 month old veiled chameleon a juvenile dubia roaches? And i heard dubia roaches is better then crickets? Is that true? Thanks

 

[nightanole]

If he can eat 1/4" crickets he can eat baby dubia's.

They are better because they dont bite the lizard, have less shell, can be be gut loaded more. Other than that they dont chirp and are slower. Mine wouldnt touch them till his was a year old, then he loved them.

 

[Swayne8998]

Yes! Dubias make great staple feeders. He should be able to eat baby roaches at his age. Dubias are also much easier to breed and they don't come with the smell and messiness that crickets have, and they can't climb or fly.

 

[fluxlizard]

They should not be thought of as better than crickets, both should be thought of as part of a variety of food items that make up a good diet.

For all their plusses, roaches have a couple of weaknesses as well.

They are much higher in protein than crickets (almost double the protein content).

They are possibly higher in uric acids (speculative- we know that roaches store up amino acids rather than urinating them out, and then that they convert what they need from this reserve into whatever necessary amino acids they require- in effect they can make whatever they need to be healthy from very limited variety of food- personally I kind of feel like this may not be unique to roaches but holds true with other feeders like crickets (who also have dry waste), but as far as I know the phenomenon has not been investigated in anything other than roaches. Still for now there has been a lot of speculation about what that uric acid that is stored up in a roach might do to the lizard consuming it. If my hunch is right, all insects have the elevated levels of uric acid, if wrong, then roaches would be unique in this respect and lots of uric acid being consumed would be potentially hard on the lizard).

And they are missing something mandatory for lizards to take in as part of their diet (can't remember if it is a particular amino acid or what- been trying to re-find the information that was put forth by some veterinarian(s)). The missing "ingredient" is only required in very small amounts by the lizard, but still, other inverts should be offered for variety to compensate.

So roaches are best used alongside other insects.

So instead of thinking roaches or crickets, it is better to think roaches and crickets...

 

[Deevo]

Interesting there flux, thx

 

[brownie64]

They should not be thought of as better than crickets, both should be thought of as part of a variety of food items that make up a good diet.

For all their plusses, roaches have a couple of weaknesses as well.

They are much higher in protein than crickets (almost double the protein content).

They are possibly higher in uric acids (speculative- we know that roaches store up amino acids rather than urinating them out, and then that they convert what they need from this reserve into whatever necessary amino acids they require- in effect they can make whatever they need to be healthy from very limited variety of food- personally I kind of feel like this may not be unique to roaches but holds true with other feeders like crickets (who also have dry waste), but as far as I know the phenomenon has not been investigated in anything other than roaches. Still for now there has been a lot of speculation about what that uric acid that is stored up in a roach might do to the lizard consuming it. If my hunch is right, all insects have the elevated levels of uric acid, if wrong, then roaches would be unique in this respect and lots of uric acid being consumed would be potentially hard on the lizard).

And they are missing something mandatory for lizards to take in as part of their diet (can't remember if it is a particular amino acid or what- been trying to re-find the information that was put forth by some veterinarian(s)). The missing "ingredient" is only required in very small amounts by the lizard, but still, other inverts should be offered for variety to compensate.

So roaches are best used alongside other insects.

So instead of thinking roaches or crickets, it is better to think roaches and crickets...

My male Jackson absolutely loves roaches, should I be afraid he will only take these if there his main diet?

 

[fluxlizard]

My male Jackson absolutely loves roaches, should I be afraid he will only take these if there his main diet?

I'd try to work at least something else into his diet...