Dubia VS Crickets?

[hanna145fancy]

I have a Bearded Dragon, and VERY soon I will have a 4-5 mounth old Panther. A Beardie eats nearly the same amount of food as a Panther if you dont know.

The Crickets arent doing so well, I can get the eggs to hatch. They always either mold or get waterlogged or dry out.

I am thinking of getting a Dubia colony but since the price is enough that I have to think about it, I have a few questions.

1) How many Adults and Nymphs should I start out with?? 50? 20? 200??

2) Do they smell AT ALL? Thats one reason I dont like the crix so much, they really stink...

3)Could you type something here to convince my mom to get them, she doesnt like Roaches that much... I will let her read it, so convince her that they are WAY better than the crickets

 

[Phatturk]

Well Dubia are the best in my opinion. They don't smell at all, the food you feed them might though. They have live babies so they breed fast and easy. They get Big so i guess less are needed to feed adult pets. But what I find the best about them is that they can't climb well at all. They will stay in feeder cups and as long as you are smart they will stay in their keepers too.

Crixs Stink, they get out and I end up finding them everywhere, and they are loud little buggers. The noise drives me crazy sometimes.

Dubia are almost imposable to kill also....I got about 15 from a friend and they were too big to feed off so I kept them to hopefully get babies. After a few weeks I noticed that I lost my Container with the roaches in it. Looked around and found them outside on the porch in the snow. I thought they would all be dead but NO! After about 15 min inside they popped right back to life.

 

[pohchunyee]

erm.........I started 100 mix sizes Dubias roaches from mulberryfarms....and let them breed. They are not smelly compared to cricket, they don't jump, they don't make sound.... A+ feeder. There is a place selling 500 mix sizes Dubias for $110 shipped (good amount to start a colony, dubias roaches lived for about 12 months, life bearing and do not climb glass nor plastic)...i am not sure if this offer still valid. You can contact Vince

http://www.vwmreptiles.com/prod03.htm

Here is a link about dubias care and breeding

http://www.nyworms.com/dubiacare.htm

 

[lonomac]

It also takes time to get the colony growing. So you may be stuck with crickets for a while yet. You could consider silkworms though as their main food

 

[Sara270]

Check this out: http://www.blattodea.net/

 

[royden]

Let your Mom read this:

Only 1 percent of the 4000+ species of roaches on the planet are considered 'Pests". Dubia are not one of them. Dubias are tropical. They are non-flying, non-climbing, non-smelling, non-noisey, easy breeding, easy gutloading, and fun to watch!

Crickets are far filthier! But plan to switch to cup feeding since roaches always hide in the enclosure. I started with roughly 200 nymphs and adults and started feeding from that colony right away.

I keep my roaches outside in a heated, insulated box. No roaches in the house!

roaches rule!

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

Well Dubia are the best in my opinion. They don't smell at all, the food you feed them might though. They have live babies so they breed fast and easy. They get Big so i guess less are needed to feed adult pets. But what I find the best about them is that they can't climb well at all. They will stay in feeder cups and as long as you are smart they will stay in their keepers too.

Crixs Stink, they get out and I end up finding them everywhere, and they are loud little buggers. The noise drives me crazy sometimes.

Dubia are almost imposable to kill also....I got about 15 from a friend and they were too big to feed off so I kept them to hopefully get babies. After a few weeks I noticed that I lost my Container with the roaches in it. Looked around and found them outside on the porch in the snow. I thought they would all be dead but NO! After about 15 min inside they popped right back to life.

You have got to be kidding... How long were they out in the freezing temperatures?

I know I haven't killed any in the 3 months that I've had mine but I thought they couldn't sustain really low temps...?

 

[Phatturk]

You have got to be kidding... How long were they out in the freezing temperatures?

I know I haven't killed any in the 3 months that I've had mine but I thought they couldn't sustain really low temps...?

It was at least a couple of days!! And a few did die unfortunately but I still couldn't believe any of them made it through the freezing weather. My friend put them out there cuz he had no idea what was in the container. It is just a balcony no doors or screen windows nothing to keep them warm. So they are tough little guys for sure.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Roaches..........

Roaches are hard to kill........I've had a colony for years. My chameleons prefer to eat the live roaches. My Tree Monitors and Hydrosaurus lizards will eat dead ones in a bowl. So, before I got into Chameleons I did not feel the need to keep a living colony. They totally creeped me out. The thought of keeping live ones creeped me out too much. I had flashbacks to a place in Hawaii I stayed that had cockroachs which came out at night.

So, I would buy the roaches in bulk and freeze them. I would thaw them out and then put them in the bowl for the lizards. I got a fresh batch of the roaches and put them in the freezer one day. An hour or so later I took some "frozen" ones out to feed. And I am not kidding about this. A couple of the "frozen" ones actually woke up and started moving around after awhile. They did not come back to full health but they were still alive after over an hour in the freezer. That totally freaked me out!

After I got into chameleons I got over my fear of them and started keeping a live colony. I now actually enjoy watching them in the 100 gallon glass tank I keep them in. It's amazing what one will do for the love of a pet

 

[royden]

That's amazing Catherine!

And here I was told these guys die at temps below 80! Makes sense though. I believe honey bees do something similar through winters? Going into a suspended state or something.

They're still better than crickets. Crickets are the bane of my exsistence.

 

[nightcrawler]

yea when i was little we used to have a couple of honey bee hives. they would just sit in the hive all winter and wait out the winter.

and i still cant convince my mom to get roaches either. she said not in the house and its winter in chicago. boo.

 

[royden]

Try an outdoor insulated box, nightcrawler, that's what I do.

Put a 10 gallon rubbermaid into a 20 or 30 gallon rubbermaid and stuff the space inbetween with insulation. Drill holes out to plug in at least two zoomed heating pads, gluegun around the hole once the chord is in place,, and throw 'em outside and plug 'em in! Works great for me so far. I also keep temperature probes in there and monitor the temps from the kitchen window.


I bring them inside before I remove the lid.

 

[Phatturk]

Try an outdoor insulated box, nightcrawler, that's what I do.

Put a 10 gallon rubbermaid into a 20 or 30 gallon rubbermaid and stuff the space inbetween with insulation. Drill holes out to plug in at least two zoomed heating pads, gluegun around the hole once the chord is in place,, and throw 'em outside and plug 'em in! Works great for me so far. I also keep temperature probes in there and monitor the temps from the kitchen window.


I bring them inside before I remove the lid.

Where are you living and how cold does it get there? Also what temp does your setup keep with the zoomed heat pads? I would really like to be able to do this also but I am still worried about the weather here.

 

[PardalisGirl]

I hate crickets too....

Yeah Royden.........I hate crickets too. They are another thing I do for the love of my Chameleons. They are the worst. Good advise about your Rubbermaid system to keep them warm outside. I have mine inside in a glass tank under a bunch of Chameleon cages. I don't think my husband has a clue that they are in the house. The tank looks empty during the day so he would really never even see them. You can't smell them. They never escape. He rarely looks into that room. They are in one of my Chameleon rooms. I never mention the roaches to him and he has never asked. On the other hand he does notice the crickets. You can see escapees here and there in the house. You can hear them chirp at night. Yuck!

 

[royden]

Where are you living and how cold does it get there? Also what temp does your setup keep with the zoomed heat pads? I would really like to be able to do this also but I am still worried about the weather here.

Good question.

I'm in the Seattle area, we had our first snow fall two weeks ago (which melted right away). It drops down into the 30's at night, at which point the roach cage dips down into the high 70's.

I lay one heating pad on the bottom of the box, egg crates on top of it, and then another heating on top, so it's like a heating pad sandwhich. It took some arranging and fiddling to get the right temps. Initially they were too high (110).

I also cut out a piece of drywall that fits over the top of the inner box. But there's no insulation on top of that at this point, I might do that later.

search my name and the thread 'roach approach' and you'll see pictures.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Catherine, thank you for the good laugh. That is so funny, and so smart!, that you haven't told your husband about the roaches. My husband won't allow me to refer to them as roaches. They are the euphemistic "dubia", around our house. I will confess that, with horror, I found one laying on its back on our bedroom floor the other day.The current cham room is adjacent to our bedroom, and he must have escaped from a cage. One of our worst nightmares is to be hosting a dinner party just as a dubia comes strolling down the hallway. In that event, to divert our guests' attention, I am to surreptitiously knock over a candlestick and start the tablecloth on fire, and, while the guests run for their lives (through the garage door), my husband will remove the little-brown-chameleon-snack from the hallway. Yes, what we won't do for the love of our chams!

We are preparing a cham room out in the workshop on our property, and the chams, and "dubias", should be moving out there in a week or so. Except for Guido, our little teddy bear, who will continue to live in the bay window. And the pygmy chams, who continue to live the quiet life, nestled amongst the plants, dead rotting leaves, and fuzzy moss of there terrarium. (actually, their leaves are not rotting, they are dry (having been baked in the oven prior to placement) and are now slowly decaying.)

Yeah Royden.........I hate crickets too. They are another thing I do for the love of my Chameleons. They are the worst. Good advise about your Rubbermaid system to keep them warm outside. I have mine inside in a glass tank under a bunch of Chameleon cages. I don't think my husband has a clue that they are in the house. The tank looks empty during the day so he would really never even see them. You can't smell them. They never escape. He rarely looks into that room. They are in one of my Chameleon rooms. I never mention the roaches to him and he has never asked. On the other hand he does notice the crickets. You can see escapees here and there in the house. You can hear them chirp at night. Yuck!

 

[royden]

Oh my gosh! That just happened to me last week! I came into the office in the morning and there was a roach on it's back in the middle of the floor! I found a second one outside of the cup in the bottom of the cage. I have no idea how a nymph gets out of a 4 inch deep cup on his own!

 

[Scotty]

Yeah Royden.........I hate crickets too. They are another thing I do for the love of my Chameleons. They are the worst. Good advise about your Rubbermaid system to keep them warm outside. I have mine inside in a glass tank under a bunch of Chameleon cages. I don't think my husband has a clue that they are in the house. The tank looks empty during the day so he would really never even see them. You can't smell them. They never escape. He rarely looks into that room. They are in one of my Chameleon rooms. I never mention the roaches to him and he has never asked. On the other hand he does notice the crickets. You can see escapees here and there in the house. You can hear them chirp at night. Yuck!

CATHERINES HUSBAND>>>> SHE HAS ROACHES IN THE HOUSE!!!!
Sorry just yelling to your Hubby to dob you in..lol
My wife hates them all except the silkies.
In my country our feeder roaches climb anything, we have to paint the sides with teflon paint to stop them..
Funny story, yesterday I got some of the dreaded crickets, I too hate them and don't usually feed them although I wanted to give my guy a treat, so I was transferring the blighters from the chinese style food container they come in to the proper crix holder and had multiple escapees jumping everywhere.
My 3 year old daughter was freaking out, I was tripping over chairs, tables trying to catch them, it was kaos!!!
One of those scenes you love to watch when it's someone else it's happening too....
That's why I hate crickets...
Cheers
scott.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Oh my gosh! That just happened to me last week! I came into the office in the morning and there was a roach on it's back in the middle of the floor! I found a second one outside of the cup in the bottom of the cage. I have no idea how a nymph gets out of a 4 inch deep cup on his own!

You know what? I think I may know. I've seen this a couple of times: The cham goes for the roach, hits the nymph's smooth flat back with its tongue, doesn't get good suction, and accidentally drops it. It slides off a few branches/leaves on its way down and disappears into the netherworld. Only to reappear.....(insert creepy organ music).....?

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

CATHERINES HUSBAND>>>> SHE HAS ROACHES IN THE HOUSE!!!!
Sorry just yelling to your Hubby to dob you in..lol
My wife hates them all except the silkies.
In my country our feeder roaches climb anything, we have to paint the sides with teflon paint to stop them..
Funny story, yesterday I got some of the dreaded crickets, I too hate them and don't usually feed them although I wanted to give my guy a treat, so I was transferring the blighters from the chinese style food container they come in to the proper crix holder and had multiple escapees jumping everywhere.
My 3 year old daughter was freaking out, I was tripping over chairs, tables trying to catch them, it was kaos!!!
One of those scenes you love to watch when it's someone else it's happening too....
That's why I hate crickets...
Cheers
scott.

And tonight, for your viewing pleasure, we bring you Scott, with his popular Dreaded Cricket Dance. Accompanying him tonight will be the Artie Shaw Orchestra playing "Everything's Jumping", their hit from the 1940's film "Second CHorus". Link below. Scott, pay special attention to the drum solo. Just think what you could do with that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RjKMMJneUE