dubias

[buzz]

so i have a 6 month year old veiled cham and i was wondering about feeding him sme roaches (dubias). I have red that you can give them dubias but i have talked to some people and they say that the hard shell will give me some trouble so idk wat to do need some advice. Wether or not i can feed them that? if they are any good to feed them that? and how many?

 

[reptoman]

Dubias are a great feeder for 6 month old chams as long as you dont try and feed it an adult. Nymphs start out about the size of a 1/4" cricket and will grow to around 2-2 1/2" long. If you get some dubias just feed off the smaller size. Use the rule of the feeder must be the size that will fit within the space between your chams eyes and don't go bigger than that. The part about the hard shell is not true and I have not heard that about dubias before. Hope this helps!

 

[buzz]

thank you that helped a lot how much do you think i shld him them? are they more like treats or could they be part of his normal diet with crickets?

 

[reptoman]

Dubia can replace crickets as a staple. Just judge the amount to feed by comparing the size of the nymphs to the size of the crickets you have been feeding. At 6 months, I would think he could eat 6-8 medium nymphs a day. They are much easier to breed than crickets and dont stink at all. You should, of course, feed as many different prey items to your chams as you can so dont remove crickets from his diet entirely. The link has a good caresheet to get a colony started.
http://www.theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

 

[Stalker]

so i have a 6 month year old veiled cham and i was wondering about feeding him sme roaches (dubias). I have red that you can give them dubias but i have talked to some people and they say that the hard shell will give me some trouble so idk wat to do need some advice. Wether or not i can feed them that? if they are any good to feed them that? and how many?

i've heard that they have thin exoskeleton (soft shell) and they are easy to digest also verry nutritious

 

[ChamieKeeper]

Dubia can replace crickets as a staple. Just judge the amount to feed by comparing the size of the nymphs to the size of the crickets you have been feeding. At 6 months, I would think he could eat 6-8 medium nymphs a day. They are much easier to breed than crickets and dont stink at all. You should, of course, feed as many different prey items to your chams as you can so dont remove crickets from his diet entirely. The link has a good caresheet to get a colony started.
http://www.theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

Many thanks for that link! (and explanation)
My vet just recommended I add these roaches as a serious portion of the diet to my chameleons along with crickets and super worms and feed them all veggies.

I was having a hard time locating an online retailer for these roaches who had a starter kit in stock. You link seems to have just that! Thank you very much!

My vet recommend these roaches highly for my veiled.

 

[missionon]

I have found the dubia roaches to be good value as feeders , next to silkworms they are the definate favorite. If you are patient you could rather easily start a colony that you can dip into whenever the need arises. Please heed the advice of reptoman always size the feeder to the size of the cham they tend to be rather optimistic with how much they can safely swallow at once.

 

[buzz]

awesome mn thank you so much for the advice and the link that help tremendously!!

 

[ChamieKeeper]

Well, short update.

I got some Dubias from the local pet shop and they are HUGE!

I managed to get an adult male and a bunch of adult females and a few small ones.

The Dubias are very large for all but Adult chemeleons of larger species.

I think your best bet is to get your colony going and have tons of little ones hatched by the parents and feed those off to your animals. The adult Dubias are very very big and you will probably just want to keep them for breeding or not buy them at all if you have tiny chameleons.

I purchased about 15 of the roaches. I am feeding them lettuce and cricket food and keeping them in a warm dark cooler. I will report back if any of them lay an ooth and hatch babies for me to feed off.

I did give one to my veiled chameleon and she did eat it but it was slightly large for her even though I picked a medium sized one.

Word of caution, Dubias can be way too big for a lot of chameleons. If you plan on adding them to their diet, get a colony going for sure and pick off the little ones.

PS... they lied when they said they don't stink. I don't know what it is but something in their cage does stink and all that's in there is water crystals and lettuce and fresh cricket food.