Dubia roaches

[Nat-tigs]

How big do Dubia roachs get? and how quickly do they grow?

[reptiles_galore]

about an inch long if recall correctly, they grow fairly quickly

Dave

[Nat-tigs]

can they be used instead off crickets for a beardie diet or should it be half n half?

[Sollytear]

They grow to 4 to 5cm, when adult, so nearly 2 inches, but take fairly long to reach that size.

They are better than crickets except in price.

One adult roach will cost you about 30p. They take about half a year, if kept at perfect conditions, to get to fully grown. maybe longer. Once adult they produce half a baby every day (15 offspring, every month). It can be more, but I prefer to calculate on the safe side. Say 80% survive to adult hood (i have a 95% rate). I do not know how many a beardie would eat a day, but I expect it would be too expensive to do, or atleast innitially.

If you are happy buying 100+adult roaches and giving them a year to colonies and become stable then its a good food source.

[Nebbz]

Originally Posted by Sollytear

They grow to 4 to 5cm, when adult, so nearly 2 inches, but take fairly long to reach that size.

They are better than crickets except in price.

One adult roach will cost you about 30p. They take about half a year, if kept at perfect conditions, to get to fully grown. maybe longer. Once adult they produce half a baby every day (15 offspring, every month). It can be more, but I prefer to calculate on the safe side. Say 80% survive to adult hood (i have a 95% rate). I do not know how many a beardie would eat a day, but I expect it would be too expensive to do, or atleast innitially.

If you are happy buying 100+adult roaches and giving them a year to colonies and become stable then its a good food source.

best advise here. this is true, if you want a colonie you have to pay and work hard at it. so far mine is failing...due to the fact my bosc is an utter pig! but dont mind the £15-£30 its costing every few weeks. how ever i only buy adults and do have some offspring in there (the skinks get them!)

[Nat-tigs]

would little roaches be alright to give to baby beardies?

[HadesDragons]

Originally Posted by Nat-tigs

would little roaches be alright to give to baby beardies?

As long as they were smaller than the gap between their eyes they would be fine. You'd struggle to keep up with baby beardie's appetites though - I've got a fairly large colony (in the thousands) and it would struggle to support more than a few babies without causing the colony to start shrinking...

As said, if you want them to be cost-effective, buy a lot to start with, and let the colony establish itself for a year or so before you start feeding them off in large numbers.

They take a while to get to adult size, but have pretty decent lifespans once they're there - this is the sort of size that you'd expect adults to get to. Males are a little bit longer and leaner, and have full wings rather than the stumpy wings: