I got alot of lizards to feed, need help on Dubia Subject

[Lizard Loft]

Hi all

Ive decided to get some dubias, and use them as a staple diet for all of my 16 Lizards!!!

I want to establish a colony, so i can cut down on the food costs abit, all my lizards range in size, from small curly taileds, to 3 fully grown adult basilisks, a chameleon and 2 adult beardies, and some geckos and swifts in between,

therefore ill be using a range of sizes of dubia, im going to be using a 40litre RUB, which is about 21" in length, 7"height and 9"depth, my plan was to use oats/bran as a substrate, chuck some egg boxes in, out a meatmat under 1 side, and leave them 2 it?? obviously feed them etc, can anyone who keeps a big colony tell me their moethod of care??

at the moment im using 500 standard brown crickets, 5 boxes of extra large locusts and 1 boxe of medium locusts aweek!! as well as 2 tubs of mealworms every month, anyone know how big a colony would need to be to cover that as a main staple week in week out??

Im planning on getting 50 adults, 50 mediums and 50 smalls, im not planning on using the colony as food for at least 5/6months??

Thanks in advance Jord

[negri21]

your plan sounds ok ,

but i would buy as many as you can afford to begin with .

no point waiting six months on your colony getting bigger when you can buy more than they would be reproducing . .

no point buying nymphs or juvies either , if your going to be keeping them to mature . get as many adults as you can afford and let them get on with it .

[XoxOriptideOxoX]

iv hearted the more adults you have the more babys they make lol

[sharpstrain]

I have two colonies on the go - One im feeding from one im breeding from - personally I would go for a mix as they will mature at different times and you are gonna need a variety of sizes for different species of lizard


I prefer a tub with height so that the egg cartons can be kept on their sides - this allows the crap to fall to the bottom. Also I use smaller tubs about 15"long 8deep and 13" high - They like to be cramped and breed better that way in my view. Then I stand the tubs next to each other on little bits of polystyrene and then on top of a heatmat - they are breeding like billyo

[negri21]

Originally Posted by sharpstrain

I have two colonies on the go - One im feeding from one im breeding from - personally I would go for a mix as they will mature at different times and you are gonna need a variety of sizes for different species of lizard

if there getting left for a few months it wont matter if you buy all adults , you will end up with all mixed sizes . they wont be synchronized in there reproducing

[sharpstrain]

Originally Posted by negri21

if there getting left for a few months it wont matter if you buy all adults , you will end up with all mixed sizes . they wont be synchronized in there reproducing

but their breeding lives will all end at around the same time

[negri21]

Originally Posted by sharpstrain

but their breeding lives will all end at around the same time

Adults live about 18 months or longer

im sure they will be fed off before they die .

[sharpstrain]

Originally Posted by negri21

im sure they will be fed off before they die .

I dont feed my adults off - I use them for breeding and then feed the different sized nymphs for different species of lizard, allowing some of them to grow to adults to replace breeding stock

[Lizard Loft]

Thanks for thew info guys, much appreciated i got some PMs aswell and they also stated that the more adults the bigger the colonie will get,

Im completely new to this whole roach thing, and breeding food, i breed mealworms but thats ridiculously easy

Am i right in Thinking adults live for around 18months??

[Sorby]

For a bigger colony you might want to try using vertical cork tiles bolted together rather than egg cartons, i find it much easier as all the mess drops to the bottom. And they won't crumble on light spraying like the egg cartons tend to do.

Personally, i don't use a substrate either as i find cleaning out a pain in the a***e. Especially with the babies being so small, it's a nightmare to seperate substrate from a 2mm roach. Others may disagree though.

This may not be much help - i only keep mine to feed 3 reps, but have you condiered lobsters instead of dubia's? I've bred dubia's for about 8 months now, and lobsters for one month. I prefer dubia's, and find them great. But they are no-where near as fast reproducing as the lobsters.

To constantly feed 16 reps i'd seriously consider them.