Dubia Colony

[Marleykeeper]

im looking to start a dubia colony about how many should i order to sustain a large male. Right now hes eating large crickets, how many crickets should i feed and how many roaches should i feed once the colony is up and producing

 

[Marleykeeper]

Ok well i think im going to order 100 mixed from aaronpaulling this willl include 10 adult couples

 

[robin]

i think that will be a goood start just for one gecko. remember though you need to get your colony established and breeding before you start feeding the dubias off. if you want to start feeding right away get 100 for breeding and 100 or so for feeding, to start off with

 

[Marleykeeper]

Alright Thanks for the help. Is that a good site to order from or are their any cheaper sites

 

[robin]

Alright Thanks for the help. Is that a good site to order from or are their any cheaper sites

i am sure there are many people with them but i love the quality and price of jonathan ho's. he goes by SFgeckos on here. send him a note and he will get back with you asap

 

[Marleykeeper]

Alright cool thanks for the tip. Do you have his email?

 

[Marleykeeper]

I sent him a PM

 

[Marleykeeper]

Now im torn between buying 50 adult pairs or 100 large nymphs with 5 pairs. Which do you think would make a beter colony faster

 

[robin]

do you plan on feeding right away?

 

[Marleykeeper]

i would like to start feeding at the end of this months, i should go with the large nymphs and 5 pairs right?

 

[robin]

personally either way iyou are not going to be able to start feeding by the end of the month and not run of ouf nymphs. start you colony and let them breed for a while before feeding them off

 

[Stl_Greaser]

If you ordered the 50 adult trios most of the females will be gravid when you get them. So with in a month or two you will have an average of 1500 nymphs of different sizes running around! Two to thee months after that you will have a ton more breeding females!


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[Marleykeeper]

I just placed an order for 200 mixed nymphs with a couple adult pairs. So hopefully that will work. My plan was to wait until the larger nymphs became adults then once I have a sizable adult population start feeding off the larger nymphs and adult males. I've got a pretty big boy do you think he could handle an adult male dubia?

 

[Stl_Greaser]

What I will do is if I can catch a male that just shed and is still all white that means they are still super soft. I will feed those to some of my larger geckos! Also when feeding off nymphs you can tell what sex they are by looking at their last segment on the belly, females will have a last segment about 2 to 3 times the size of a males last segment so you can try to feed only male nymphs so all the females have a chance to grow to adult hood and produce more for you. You only need 1 male for every 3 to 5 females. I keep my colony at 1 male per 5 females but I know some people with huge colonies that keep 1 to 10 ratio.

 

[Stl_Greaser]

This link has pictures that may help.

http://http://www.beardeddragon.org...t=78729&p=614051&hilit=sexing+roaches#p614044


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[Marleykeeper]

That's perfect thanks for the help. That was the only pitfall I could see in my plan. Was spending all this time raising nymphs to a decent feeding size then letting all the females get eaten. This will help so much so now I can feed off the surplus males and keep the females before there final molts

 

[Stl_Greaser]

No problem, glad I could help.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

After seeing how simple it is to breed and maintain, as well as nutritional content, I'm going to give this a shot. Maybe even luck out and find a vendor at the Orlando F.I.R.E. show this weekend who has dubias and avoid shipping.