Dubias too big?

[Bossk the Furcifer]

So I just got some adult Dubias from West coast roaches and I'm just wondering if they're too big to feed to my cham. I ordered medium last time and half of them were so small they would escape out of the seams at the cage wall junctions. But now I have the large ones and thsyre MASSIVE. I'm assumi,g these are the fully matured roaches. As big as they get. So has anyone else here used them? Is it safe to let my little guy take on a bug almost as big as his head?

 

[nightanole]

I have an adult oust(350-400g runt), it will ONLY eat adults ( the shiny ones are queens, the ones with wings are kings). He wont touch anything that is adult house cricket size. Same with my beardy, he looks at the subadults as simple snacks and not a good meal.


adult cricket = .25g
male adult dubia = 1.50g
female adult dubia = 3.00g
adult superworm = .50g

Sub adult dubia = between 1/2" and 5/8" where .22g each, 1" was 1.25g

So one adult is still less than 1 dozen house crickets (not the banded that remain kinda small).

 

[Andee]

If you have an adult chameleon (panther/veiled size) and they are a relatively good chewer I let them take down adult males without any issue. Females I don't feed off as personal preference.

 

[AZChamFan]

No it would not be safe. A general rule of thumb is to not feed anything much longer than the space between their eyes. Of course with worms this rule can be broken a little but feeding overly large prey items can be very risky as not only could the animal choke on them, but they will be more difficult to digest as well. The shell of the insect is harder and those legs are much harder and more spiny. It could even cause an impaction. If it were me I would use those big roaches to start my own colony. With a little patience you will have all sizes available at all times, and in the meantime get some appropriate sized feeders for feeding right now. There's no easier feeder to raise - take advantage of this and start your own colony and you'll never have to worry about ordering the right size again!

 

[AZChamFan]

If you have an adult chameleon (panther/veiled size) and they are a relatively good chewer I let them take down adult males without any issue. Females I don't feed off as personal preference.

Didn't mean to contradict you Andee - your post wasn't up when I made my reply! It just sounded to me like his animal was not big enough yet to take on the adults. I agree an adult like you mentioned can handle the male adult roaches, but personally I still prefer subadult females because of those extra spiny legs on the males!

 

[Andee]

Didn't mean to contradict you Andee - your post wasn't up when I made my reply! It just sounded to me like his animal was not big enough yet to take on the adults. I agree an adult like you mentioned can handle the male adult roaches!

No issue XD we all have different opinions, and often different experiences ^^. I agree if he has a younger animal it would not be safe, adults can handle larger feeders than makes sense because they tend to chew better and seem to have less issues with impactions. I mean the thing I like about this forum is the ability to contradict each other based on different experiences and learn from other people ^^

 

[nightanole]

You guys do realize OP has a subadult/adult furcifer and i have an oust that is just as long(or longer). Think skinny parsons folks. These are no where near the size of veileds/panthers.

I am not advocating feeding a jacksons sized cham an adult dubia and have a battle of the fittest. Do remember than the species listed above have been fed roach species in the 5-6g range just fine.

As for the impaction etc, feeding 2 adult dubia is going to have ALOT less legs and chitin to deal with vs an equal weight of crickets/mealworms or even supers.

 

[Andee]

You guys do realize OP has a subadult/adult furcifer and i have an oust that is just as long(or longer). Think skinny parsons folks. These are no where near the size of veileds/panthers.

I am not advocating feeding a jacksons sized cham an adult dubia and have a battle of the fittest. Do remember than the species listed above have been fed roach species in the 5-6g range just fine.

As for the impaction etc, feeding 2 adult dubia is going to have ALOT less legs and chitin to deal with vs an equal weight of crickets/mealworms or even supers.

No I do not realize the OP had a subadult/adult panther. I also had no idea you had an oustalet. I am not saying it is wrong either... I said it is perfectly find to feed off dubias to the correctly sized animal... I don't know why you suddenly got defensive...From my post I obviously had no idea what age their animal was. I obviously have no idea what animal you have. I don't know how you expect me to know this? Hardly anyone updates their profiles with their current animals and sometimes it doesn't make sense to. I know exactly how big an oustalet gets, and I said impaction is more likely to happen with baby chameleons than adults of any species... You should read my posts better.

 

[AZChamFan]

You guys do realize OP has a subadult/adult furcifer and i have an oust that is just as long(or longer). Think skinny parsons folks. These are no where near the size of veileds/panthers.

I am not advocating feeding a jacksons sized cham an adult dubia and have a battle of the fittest. Do remember than the species listed above have been fed roach species in the 5-6g range just fine.

As for the impaction etc, feeding 2 adult dubia is going to have ALOT less legs and chitin to deal with vs an equal weight of crickets/mealworms or even supers.

I was basing my judgement on the fact that he stated the dubias were nearly the size of his chameleon's head - to me that is too large regardless of the animal. Like Andee said these are just our opinions and things to consider - the OP can decide what he feels is best.

 

[nightanole]

No harm done, im with you guys on this. I was just pointing out that my cham and OPs cham are HUGE. I think the whole "size of head" was a turn of phrase. Still its impressive watching these guys eat discoids and hissers with the parsons

 

[Andee]

I think the size of head thing has more to do with the reptiles that don't chew as much and do more gulping behaviors? like geckos... and beardies? Though I am not positive about the beardies I have only had one and that was when I was younger.

 

[AZChamFan]

I think the size of head thing has more to do with the reptiles that don't chew as much and do more gulping behaviors? like geckos... and beardies? Though I am not positive about the beardies I have only had one and that was when I was younger.

Surely a good chewer could handle bigger prey - that definitely makes sense!! I have to say though I have a beardie that chews like a maniac!!! Cracks me up!!! Might just be him though!

 

[nightanole]

I think the size of head thing has more to do with the reptiles that don't chew as much and do more gulping behaviors? like geckos... and beardies? Though I am not positive about the beardies I have only had one and that was when I was younger.

Not beardies. Whats more disgusting to the female populous is not having a beardy running around (i guess they can kill), is not throwing "a roach" on the floor and have it chase after it, nope its the crunching noise followed by glee because you can see the the dubia ate some avocado as its last meal. The again my sister just went "while they sure are crunchy" but she can catch anoles with the tail intact...

 

[AZChamFan]

Not beardies. Whats more disgusting to the female populous is not having a beardy running around (i guess they can kill), is not throwing "a roach" on the floor and have it chase after it, nope its the crunching noise followed by glee because you can see the the dubia ate some avocado as its last meal. The again my sister just went "while they sure are crunchy" but she can catch anoles with the tail intact...

That's still not as bad as having hornworm guts squirted right on your face. Yes, I have learned the hard way, to stand back!!! Took a few times but I learned!

 

[Andee]

Hornworms are probably my least favorite XD. When I was a little girl, I was able to hand catch garter snakes, blue bellies, and alligator lizards if I was careful enough, we don't have anoles here so I don't know about them.

 

[savage13]

No harm done, im with you guys on this. I was just pointing out that my cham and OPs cham are HUGE. I think the whole "size of head" was a turn of phrase. Still its impressive watching these guys eat discoids and hissers with the parsons

I agree with you @nightanole these guys are opportunistic feeder also if using feed cup just one Dubai at a time! Not like my greedy little pig well he's not little anymore two at one shot I learn my lesson that day..

 

[Bossk the Furcifer]

Thanks to ALL of you. I wish I could've participated i, this chat earlier but my phone died lol and yes I have a panther that's 18 months. Hes a big fella. And I use a feeding rope actually haha it's a small dish suspended by a rope attached to the ceiling. I put the feeders on the rope or worms in the dish and he snaps them up from there

 

[ChamLB]

We limit the size of our dubia by not feeding any wider than the space between the eyes of the panthers. I don't worry about length as much because they do maneuver them in their mouth as they eat.

 

[Aaronn420]

No it would not be safe. A general rule of thumb is to not feed anything much longer than the space between their eyes. Of course with worms this rule can be broken a little but feeding overly large prey items can be very risky as not only could the animal choke on them, but they will be more difficult to digest as well. The shell of the insect is harder and those legs are much harder and more spiny. It could even cause an impaction. If it were me I would use those big roaches to start my own colony. With a little patience you will have all sizes available at all times, and in the meantime get some appropriate sized feeders for feeding right now. There's no easier feeder to raise - take advantage of this and start your own colony and you'll never have to worry about ordering the right size a