Ordering a Dubia Colony

[Mtnlaurel]

Ok, so roaches have doubled in price around here. I'm in for keeping a colony. I'd love any advice on where to order and what to get. Looking at the Dubideli just because it's the first place I found that has them in stock and available.

Would be happy to support forum members or sponsors if that option is available.

Realistically, this thing will pay for itself in about 2 months. How many adults do you think are ideal to get a producing colony rolling fairly quickly?

 

[Nursemaia]

I buy mine from Amazon

 

[Remkon]

Ok, so roaches have doubled in price around here. I'm in for keeping a colony. I'd love any advice on where to order and what to get. Looking at the Dubideli just because it's the first place I found that has them in stock and available.

Would be happy to support forum members or sponsors if that option is available.

Realistically, this thing will pay for itself in about 2 months. How many adults do you think are ideal to get a producing colony rolling fairly quickly?

That depends if you feed the adults to your animals...
I started with 100 small ones and 100 adults (mixture male/female)... I mainly fed the adult males to my ackie's until I realized I had only 1 male left (lucky him!). Later on I added another 100 small dubias.

I have been able to feed my chameleions and acky for 3/4 on what they produce now, just give them food and heat and they will thrive.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

It realistically takes 6 months or longer, depending on temps and how many roaches and of what age you start with, to establish a booming colony. Start with as many larger nymphs and adults as you can and don't feed the females off, until you get to where you want to be. They eat A LOT, too, when you get a strong colony going and you want to keep them fed and hydrated for production and nutrition.

 

[Twitchet]

Best purchase I've made for ages- I bought 150 mixed for about £15 on ebay uk back in about July, started feeding off a few of them straight away, females were producing babies straight away, within a few months I had enough to use everyday and now I have a strong colony- a couple of pints worth or so? Dread to think of the cost if I was buying them from a supplier every time.
I have a heat mat that a RUB sits on - half on heat half not, eggs boxes .I know I've always got enough- from a few mm's for a juv veiled up to big juicy ones for the parsons,
they are obliging enough to eat nice gutloading food too..
Everyone is really keen to eat them, I really want to get orange heads going too but failed on my last attempt..

 

[ponders]

I have lots of dubia for sale and can help you figure out what you need for a great starter colony. PM me if interested

 

[Mtnlaurel]

My guy isn't big enough to eat the adults. Maybe 3/4" roaches tops. I can conceivably continue to buy large batches to bolster the colony through the establishment period, but it's absolutely crazy to pay pet shop prices for roaches.

When you say eat A LOT, what are we talking here? cuz greens are pretty cheap where I live, around $1 per bunch.

I like bugs. I think it will be fun to have a roach colony. I keep honeybees and these guys don't fly or sting... and crickets are kinda nasty.

ponders, you've got a message coming. ;-)

 

[Andee]

Preferably the minimum male to female ratio is 2 females to 1 male, I prefer to keep it 3 females to one male. It causes less wing chewing that way. Also provide tons of egg crates so the males can establish territory and there will be less wing chewing and general fights. My colony is easily around 800-1000 or so and they eat fresh fruits/vegetables every night usually equating to one and half oranges. Then they also usually eat a cup of dry gutload.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

That is a lot. What are you using for your dry gutload? Ironically I think the fresh fruit & veg will be easy to keep up with. I eat this stuff all the time and throw away more than I'd care to admit.
Right now I'm using repashy's bug burger but I don't think that's going to be reasonably affordable on that scale.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

I've been considering working up a mix based off of this non-gmo layer feed I buy by the ton for my chickens and turkeys. Maybe using a percentage of this mixed with other ingredients to balance it out as a dry gutload. Gimme a sec and I'll post the indredients and maybe you can tell me what you think...

 

[Mtnlaurel]

It's a pretty great feed for birds, but I have some concerns about the vitamin ratios as a regular part of a gutload for roaches and crickets.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

Hmmm, never mind. That's a loaded question... too long to answer and too many variables. Going to require some research on my part

 

[alphakenc]

Here is some helpful dry gutload blog from our senior member,happy reading
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/entry/commercial-gutloads.847/

 

[Extensionofgreen]

I was using a fresh produce gutload and I easily go through over 8lbs of produce in less than 2 weeks. I don't like the gel crystals, so I attempt to supply all their moisture through fresh foods. It gets to be labor intensive, but I have several species I'm keeping up with.
My dubia colony was started this past March with about 300 large nymphs. It's over 3000 strong and that single colony will eat about 4 cups of fresh produce every 3 days and 2 cups of dry mix every other day. I usually just feed every 3 days.

 

[Andee]

I make my own gutload, I add multivitamins to it, sometimes extra calcium, but honestly most of the dry foods I include in it are super healthy. It's all plant based and it's protein easily gets around 18% with some tweaking I can get more but I prefer it around 18 that way if I add higher protein wet veggies I will have wiggle room. All my roaches and superworms get the gutload I make and it's never been turned down by any of them, including my finickier species such as my green banana roaches.

 

[Andee]

I can already tell you that the poultry feed is not for insects, all those added vitamins would not be helpful.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

Yep heard that. No chicken feed.

Do you guys just have a list of links you keep on your desktop for all the 100s of questions you answer again and again and again and again...

Thanks for all you do. You guys are making a difference.

 

[Andee]

I definitely don't keep a list XD. I try to make my responses as personal as possible and generally remember what I need to search for. And we love helping, whether we like people or not is not the point most of us are here just to make sure the chameleons that are taken on by new time keepers have the best chance they can. I have had plenty of hiccups in my care.

 

[Mtnlaurel]

@Andee i didn't mean to imply your responses were impersonal.

I try not to ask questions that can be answered by a forum search. And the "what do you dry gutload" question was one of those where I should just do the search, put in the time and learn it myself.

Not that I don't really appreciate the shortcut. ;-)

Anyway, my Cham thanks you guys for all the time and patience.

 

[Andee]

Well there are tons of types of dry gutloads people use so I am not sure if a search would be the best way to answer it. It would give a list of names and such but not reason of why. If I ever did commercial dry gutloads I would do a combo of at least two, preferably 3-4