Thinking of buying a Dubia Roach colony

[Gentoo]

Hiya I'm stating to use Roaches for my Collared Lizard. I'm buying 100 mediums for £15. Think he'll eat 3 a day, along with Locust and mealworms so should last me 5 weeks.

I was going to get some adults and start breeding them and read it'll be 6 months before I can start using them but have found this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Blaptica-dubia...item4aa3f7f778 small Roach Colony on ebay. Would I be better off buying this instead? Is it a good starter colony?

I've read that it takes 28 days for the eggs to hatch, how long will it take them to reach Medium (12-20mm) size?

[Bradley]

the females will become pregnant and will give birth to live babies after about a month. On a good heat source the babies take about 5-6 months to reach adult so i would say around 4 months for mediums. To start a roach colong get a 100 adults and put them into a tub with heat and they will start multiplying. The more you get the quicker you can start feeding off

[Gentoo]

Four months, thanks for the info.
100 adults seem a lot for what I need. Just found out there's a food classifieds on here and have found another colony on there I might buy.

[Burpy]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Four months, thanks for the info.
100 adults seem a lot for what I need. Just found out there's a food classifieds on here and have found another colony on there I might buy.

If your going for 100 adults, a good number to start, try and make sure you are getting more females then males. As if you end up 50/50 the males will fight and permenantly be pestering the females which will reduce production. You want a 5:1 female to male ratio or there abouts. I'd try and go for about 85 female to 17 - 20 males.

Also check out Nicolacraigs advert on the classifieds. They are the only seller that don't palm you off with way too many males to females as you can buy each seperatly. Big bonus!!

[Gentoo]

I don't want to start with 100 adults as I think it's too much. I already knew about about that seller and she's kindly holding onto some Roaches for me till I get money into my paypal account.
I haven't got much money now 'cause I've been hit by a vets bill so am just gonna buy 24 females and 12 males. I'll buy another 12 females if my items sell on ebay.

[croydonreptiles]

hi m8
a good food m8 4 all types of lizards....
i myself have around 5.000 roaches in shop.....
i sell a few tubs to customers. but also feed some to my lizards As a part of there diet...
good luck breeding them
cheers mark
croydon reptiles