Wanted to Get Some of Your Suggestions

[ChameleonAlley]

Ok, so here's the deal. I just spent about fifty bucks to order 1000 3/8 crickets and 1000 full size crickets from Ghanns. I'm now up to 5 chameleons and am trying to find a way to cut down on food costs.

I currently have a pretty good size Dubia colony, but it's hard to feed the smaller chameleons the smaller roaches. It's also hard to get the mid size roaches to feed the adult chameleons. Most of the roaches are full grown, so I'm afraid if I kept them fed on Dubias all the time, I'd have no colony left.

I've thought about breeding crickets, but even then, the pinheads have to grow until they are large enough to feed the 5 month and 6 month olds.

For those of you who have a few chameleons, can you give me some input on what you do to cut down on your feeder cost?

 

[trd1215]

Wow! u spend alot...
I buy 1000 crix for 23 bucks and it lasts me a whole month for 6 chameleons, plus i also feed them about 5-7 superworms a week.
Plus a bearded dragon and a fat-tail gecko.
How long does your crickets last you?

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Believe me, I don't want to spend alot. Well, the issue that I'm running into is that all 5 chameleons are at different ages, so I can't just buy 1000 crickets of one size to feed them all. I live in a cold area at this time of year so I have to pay for overnight shipping. I'm thinking of trying to breed the large crickets and slowly letting them grow for the smaller ones. Then using both breeding crickets and Dubia roaches to feed the chams. Even when I order 1000 large crickets, I can't feed them all off to the large chameleons without them starting to die. But they do end up feeding them for about a month.

 

[trd1215]

What if u try 500 and 500 different sizes, how old are ur chams??
There is also shipments that u can order 1/2 to 3/4 and u will be able to have different size crickets...

 

[ChameleonAlley]

I didn't know you could mix and match?? That's a great idea! I looked at getting just 500 full grown crickets, but it was just $2.00 cheaper than going for a thousand at $14.99. Maybe next time I can contact them and mix and match 1000 crickets for less than doing 1000 of each.

 

[boj3434]

I would try breeding silkworms they are pretty easy if you have a source of mulberry trees. Also they grow really fast which would be great for your different sizes. But ya crickets arent that bad to breed if you get the right setup and keep at it but i would just order a large amount of dubia, like 100 female and 20 male full grown and get a real colony going. You could also try superworms if you want, they are so easy its not funny. They arent as good alone but could help to cut back over all.

 

[jessica]

Have you thought about getting another bucket and starting more dubia colonies with some of the adults you have?
That way when ones low you can feed off of the other? This gives each colony time to reproduce.

Just a thought

 

[pssh]

Crickets are not fun to breed! They smell soooo bad and there is uaualy a lot of die off.


Maybe you should try a faster breeding roach? Turkish roaches are supposed to breed really fast and the adults aren't too big to feed like some of the dubia. Just make sure you have enough to start a colony fast. If you can get ahold of stick insects, those are supposed to be easy as well. Superworms would be pretty easy to breed as well.

 

[Ellron]

I would try breeding silkworms they are pretty easy if you have a source of mulberry trees. Also they grow really fast which would be great for your different sizes.

For breeding could you use Mulberry Farms Chow? http://www.mulberryfarms.com/store/..._id=10&zenid=05becb6102a25d044792c05922209ef4


Also, how would you go about doing that?

 

[sandrachameleon]

For those of you who have a few chameleons, can you give me some input on what you do to cut down on your feeder cost?

Breed more types of bugs. Options may include:
another roach colony (a different type perhaps)
superworms
silkworms
terrestrial isopods
stick insects
snails

 

[boj3434]

For breeding could you use Mulberry Farms Chow? http://www.mulberryfarms.com/store/..._id=10&zenid=05becb6102a25d044792c05922209ef4


Also, how would you go about doing that?

Yes the chow works great but to breed you will need alot of that chow they eat more than you would believe. I tried with powered chow and the ate it all 3x faster than i guessed. The only problem is the rate of cocooning and hatching from the cocoon can be alot lower than using fresh leaves. I would try it out and the good thing is you dont need to many to start with becasue each female can lay upwards of 600 eggs. I would try it out but get alot of food. Good luck. use this
http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=56
or silkworms 101

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Really really appreciate all the input on this thread. I think I'm going to start by breaking up the Dubia colony into two tubs. I didn't realize that they would produce more by doing this. Also going to look into the Turkish roaches and silkworm breeding. Fortunately, we have a mulberry tree in the backyard. Hopefully this thread will help others, so if there's more suggestions out there, keep posting em.

Now for more research to investigate all your helpful input.

 

[xanthoman]

you didnt really specify what your roach keeping parameters were? but (assuming they are not optimum) if you optimized them , you could probably significantly increase your production, jmo

 

[ChameleonAlley]

The tube I currently have them in is pretty large. It's about 3 feet long by two feet wide and very deep. I'd say there's probably 2-300 adults in there, maybe 30 males, the rest female and 2-300 nymphs. There's just not many inbetween size roaches. I won't feed off the full grown females because even for the full grown chameleons, they are massive. The little chameleons are such pigs, I'm afraid I'd feed off so many nymphs that the colony wouldn't continue to grow healthily.

 

[draetish]

The tube I currently have them in is pretty large. It's about 3 feet long by two feet wide and very deep. I'd say there's probably 2-300 adults in there, maybe 30 males, the rest female and 2-300 nymphs. There's just not many inbetween size roaches. I won't feed off the full grown females because even for the full grown chameleons, they are massive. The little chameleons are such pigs, I'm afraid I'd feed off so many nymphs that the colony wouldn't continue to grow healthily.

At what temp do you have your dubia colony at? If you put a human heating pad under the tub on low off to one side it should get to about 85 degrees. They will breed faster, the warmer the temp, but you also need a cool side on the bin.

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Yeah, I've got a small zoo med heat pad under it. I should probably get a larger one for them, but I'm guessing it's around 85 degrees or higher. They're breeding just fine, there's just not tons and tons of them.