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01-04-2008, 06:26 PM
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mmmm...Roaches!
  My roach colony is coming along nicely now - it's around 9 months old, and numbers (including babies) are in the 1000s... I'm going to split them and move the sub-adults into a new cage soon, but I thought I'd put up those pictures before I did. I think they are now at a point where they could sustain a large collection of adult beardies or similar, for a fraction of the price of buying in livefood. Each female dubia produces around 30 babies each month; grow them on a bit before feeding and each one is the size of 4-5 adult crickets. Each adult female you have produces on average one baby per day, so a large colony like mine gives me a huge number of roaches each day that can be fed to my dragons! Mine generally get through 1-2 butternut squashes each week, along with some other leafy greens and a bit of fish food / ground dog biscuits. Total cost per week ~£2-£3 for the entire colony... Less than most people spend on feeding a single dragon for a week! If you can get over the stigma of actually cultivating cockroaches, it works out as a very cost-effective way of feeding a lot of animals - it just takes a year or so of patience to get the colony up to size first though! Andy
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 I'll be a bit short on time for the next couple of weeks - I won't be browsing the Lizard section as much as usual and may miss some threads. If you need to get in touch, drop me a PM  
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01-04-2008, 06:44 PM
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Wow, those look really good
 That's why I got mine - to reduce my cricket/locust livefood bill!! And they don't smell or make any noise either I bought 100 about a month ago... they're on a heatmat 24/7, with bug gel, bug grub, veg/fruit twice a week, and dry cat food always available.... wondering how long until I can harvest them! they're dubias and red runners if that makes any sense. Perhaps I ought to get some more to bump up the numbers....
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01-04-2008, 08:35 PM
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Don't kid yaself Andy the problem with beardeds and roaches is THEY LOVE THE BLASTED THINGS!!!!
All of a sudden they've got the appetite of an elephant banging on viv doors for more, I have 3 tubs of different types of roaches and believe me I still end up having to buy in livefood at some point to feed my 5 beardeds! Pus the 9 new ones that arrived yesterday without permission lol. Good luck with the colony, I'm thinking of putting my lot in a dustbin with a heat mat to give me enough to keep my beardeds happy lol.
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01-04-2008, 08:59 PM
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Quote:
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01-04-2008, 09:00 PM
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I only have 6 adults, and they are eating 200 large hoppers, 250g mealworms and a lot of salad between them a week! Costs me a fortune... I should definitely invest in some of these.
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01-04-2008, 09:37 PM
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I have the lobster roaches - the beardies adore them!
I chuck roaches and beardies in a big plastic tub at feeding time to avoid escapees in the viv though...
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Chiltern Reptiles Brand new equipment for sale! Habistat Thermostats ExoTerra Digital Thermometers and Hygrometers
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they look delicious.......kidding lol i hope to start my own colony off soon. the sooner the better
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