Dubia Questions

[Bagheera]

I had a question on starting a dubia colony. I won't actually have a leopard gecko until a little later in the year but after reading about feeders,I'd definitely love to start a dubia colony despite the fact I'm terrified of them beyond belief lol. I don't want to start a giant colony so I just wanted to know how many male, female, and nymphs will I need to feed just one leopard gecko and to get a nice size but not overly huge colony going because I don't want to have more than what I need. Also, how early should I start the colony before bringing my leo home? A few weeks, a month, etc?

Thanks for reading

 

[ZombiGecko]

You wont need a colony for one gecko if you dont want more then you need lol. They reproduce pretty fast from what ive heard(I am just now starting a colony myself.. I was terrified of them as well but finally got the guts to get some. You get use to it!) So your best bet would to be to get 50 or so to feed off and when you run out, get more. Or start a colony and sell off your extras.

 

[SC Geckos]

I agree with Amber. If you are only feeding one animal I would not recommend starting a colony. Each mature female dubia (in the right conditions) can produce around 30 nymphs (babies) every 30 days.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I think a colony would be a bit much for one animal as well - mine produces more than enough for my 12 geckos and it is still fairly small.

I started by picking up 25 medium roaches in July and they were full grown by September. They got off to a slow reproductive start as I figured out that overhead heat doesn't work very well for them. I switched to a heating pad in December and they started reproducing around January. My 60g geckos eat about four 1 inch dubia a week along with about 10 mealworms. As other have said each female roach will produce more than enough for a single gecko and you may wind up having to freeze and throw away more roaches than you're feeding to keep a colony down to a reasonable size (unless you can sell or give them away!). Plus setting them up and feeding them may cost you more and cost more time and trouble than just buying the small number that you'd need every other month or so.

 

[BT11SS]

I think a colony would be a bit much for one animal as well - mine produces more than enough for my 12 geckos and it is still fairly small.

I started by picking up 25 medium roaches in July and they were full grown by September. They got off to a slow reproductive start as I figured out that overhead heat doesn't work very well for them. I switched to a heating pad in December and they started reproducing around January. My 60g geckos eat about four 1 inch dubia a week along with about 10 mealworms. As other have said each female roach will produce more than enough for a single gecko and you may wind up having to freeze and throw away more roaches than you're feeding to keep a colony down to a reasonable size (unless you can sell or give them away!). Plus setting them up and feeding them may cost you more and cost more time and trouble than just buying the small number that you'd need every other month or so.

What kind of heating pad do you use?