Ease to breed.

C

CamoCritter

New Member
Hi,guys
Im going to get a baby veiled soon,and im probably going to pick up some mealworms for him at first.But for a long term staple plan what are the most prolific species?Where i live they probably wouldnt allow roaches.So if you can help it,would be greatly appreciated! as i have heard veils have an insatiable appetite.and of course i would want to keep up with his dietary needs!:D

Thanks
-CC
 
Supers are pretty easy... But they take a lot of time.

There is a great thread on here called "SilkWorms 101", Check that out it well help you decide if you want to try silkies as well... Or if you are a really tolerant person probably the easiest aside from roaches I would say is crickets... But I can't stand those things.
 
If you can handle roaches, they are the most prolific breeding feeder that takes absolutely no work on your part besides cleaning and feeding.
 
I have no problem handling roaches or crickets,But i have never had success in breeding crickets.and at him eating approximately 10 a day, i will need to breed quite a few.
 
Roaches are the easiest, most prolific breeders... I didn't think they were an option... But if they are you should try them. You won't need to feed him more than a few good sized gutloaded Dubies a day...10 would a lot I believe, unless you feed them off smaller.
 
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Do you have an idea where i can get a culture of the dubies? They can be an option but i just dont want to have to call the exterminator later down the road because a few got out and got busy.
 
I believe there are people selling some in the for sale section of the site. Just keep them in a rubbermaid bin... don't stack the egg srates to high... be very carefull, and cup feed then you should not have to worry about any kind of infestation. Males do have wings, but can't fly... and they can't climb. I like them cause they are fairly slow and easy to handle... So if one does fall it is easy to just reach down and grab it, You don't have to worry about it jetting into a crack at warp speed. Do a google for "Breeding Dubia Roaches" and you will get some good info, It is really easy.

Note: People will say that these are tropical roaches(which they are), and that if they escape they will die quickly in our climate. Well... I can't speak for the colder regions... But I do know that every house I have ever been into has places that a dubia roach can survive. I did an experiment a couple months back in my outdoor cages here in So Cal. I had to use a thermostat to heat some of the cages because at night it was getting down to the low 60's or high 50's, with fairly low humidity, Which i wouldn't consider tropical. I was curious if what I had heard was true...So I took an adult female Dubia... and a couple nymphs and left them out in the weather in an open air container with no food or water. It went over a month and they didn't die. They seemed to go into some sort of hibernation, and remained motionless until bothered. I eventually gorged them and fed them off. That was enough to convince me not to ever let an escape go without a chase thinking it will just die.

Another Note: I have been successfully breeding them for around 3 month I believe with no escapes.

~Joe
 
Thanks for the information SoCali,I will have to look into these i live in central Florida,so the climate here is reasonably tropical,So security on the container would have to be tight. What are the growth rates on these roaches?
 
I looked at some pictures these look like the "palmetto Bugs" we have down here under rotting wood and such. They wouldn't happen to be the same thing would they?
 
I have to add a couple of comments to this thread.
First mealworms are (in my opinion ) a terrible choice for a chameleon of any age let alone a young one.
Over feeding of mealworms have caused impactions and prolapses in these animals.
My chameleons have never eaten a mealworm. Now onto Blaptica dubia:

The safety in keeping these roaches comes not from them being "tropical" (which they are) but from them being forest floor dwellers.
They do not want to live in your house, and an escapee will do everything possible trying to either figure out how to exit your home, or how to get back in the container with the other roaches.
Freezing cold will kill them, but not California cold.
Joe in your experiment, the roaches were outside ... where they want to be .... try it again, releasing them into your home.
They will not infest your home. For many reasons the conditions are not favorable to them and, contrary to popular belief, they are not the invincible bullet proof animals the old wives tales speak of.

-Brad
 
What would you recomend starting him on brad,small crickets?I just need a staple thats easy to breed,healthy for my pet,and realatively easy to care for.I think that the dubias are expensive at 30$ a culture of roaches.and brad i see what you mean now,the one i was reffering to was Periplaneta americana,not blaptica dubia,sorry.I guessed their wings looked similar.
 
Wow!~In your link it says that baby veils need up to 30 crickets a day,thats allot!Do you think they will be able to breed fast enough to satisfy this quota?
 
You're going to have to buy them at first.
Remember the length of the cricket should be the same or smaller than the distance between the chameleon's eyes.
I was buying 500 to 1000 at a time for one baby .. 1000 would last me about 6 weeks.
If you keep them (the crickets) clean and well fed/watered they will grow as your chameleon grows and still be an appropriate size.

-Brad
 
I agree 100% with Brad. Don't give your baby mealworms!!!NO NO NO. Did i tell you no? You're just asking for trouble and it just isn't worth it. Crickets are great, expensive, but great. I have just hatched 30 baby veileds and want to talk about crickets being expensive!! Silkworms are awesome. You can actually buy the eggs relatively inexpensively and then grow them out. My chams absolutely love them, i can't keep them in stock. And yes the roaches cost a little more to get started but once you get a colony going which would be in a few months, well depending on how many you buy to begin with, then you will have so many you will be selling them too. So you get your money back. Good luck.

Debby
 
Brad Ramsey said:
You're going to have to buy them at first.
Remember the length of the cricket should be the same or smaller than the distance between the chameleon's eyes.
I was buying 500 to 1000 at a time for one baby .. 1000 would last me about 6 weeks.
If you keep them (the crickets) clean and well fed/watered they will grow as your chameleon grows and still be an appropriate size.

-Brad
Click to expand...

Where do you buy them in such abundances?
 
I buy boxes of crickets from my local pet store 1000 for $15.00. I have 4 veiled's and it lasts me for 2 weeks.
 
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