Dubia roaches vs. super worms plus where to get them?

[DragonRain]

Hey!

I breed my own meal worms, but buy other feeders to give my geckos a more varied diet. Lately I've been debating attempting to breed other types of feeders as well, so I don't have to buy as much.

I only have 3 geckos at the moment. So I don't really need huge numbers of feeders, although I do have a few friends who will gladly take any surplus if I get too overpopulated.

I'm trying to decide between breeding super worms, which I have actually bred before, or dubia roaches. My geckos have never actually had dubias before, but I figured if I made an order I could order extra - some to feed off to my geckos to make sure they like them, and some to start a small breeding colony if they do end up liking them.

If I had to pick just one (for now) - super worms or dubia roaches - to breed and feed to my leos on a regular basis, which would you recommend?

Also, can anyone recommend a good seller for either dubia, super worms, or both? This may sound weird, but I'm looking for someone who can ship discretely. Basically because I live in an apartment building, and there are a few other tenants in our building who often times get to my mail before I do. One of them saw that I was getting meal worms delivered once, and tried to make a big issue out of it. :main_laugh: The landlord didn't care, he knows about my geckos and all that - but I'd just like to avoid any problems with the neighbors if I can.

Thanks in advance for any replies! :main_thumbsup:

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Superworms aren't much different from mealworms nutrition wise, since you already breed & feed mealworms, I'd go with dubia roaches. You are looking for variety, so dubia roaches would give you a better variety to offer to your geckos. Since you haven't tried dubias before, I would get a small amount first just to sample and see if your geckos will like them. Not all geckos like them, just like not all geckos like superworms.

If you find your gecko will take on dubia roaches, then you should have it made, they are very easy to breed and easy to keep alive. I got mine from buydubiaroaches.com before my colony thrived and didn't need to buy anymore. You could ask them to ship to your postal office for pickup. That's probably a good option for you if you have weird neighbors.

 

[ehebert]

I agree with trying the roaches. Super easy to breed them plus they are so much better than crickets.

 

[Treefolk]

I vote for Dubias as well.

If we look at Dubias, they are 32% protein vs 22% protein for super/mealworms, so you only have to feed 68% of the dubias as you would meal worms. Based on what Ron Temper recommends for leos, you should feed two small worms for every inch of your geckos length, every two days. So say we have a 7" long adult female, she should get 14 small meal worms every other day. Now we reduce that by 32%, which is 9.5 dubias (you make up the difference high or low). So lets say 10 dubias every other day per adult. Each adult dubia female lays 20-35 eggs every two months (average 27).

You have 3 adult females that require 300 nymphs every two months. Each adult dubia female lays an average of 27, which puts you at about 11 females and 4 males (3:1 ratio). You would also want to be growing out some replacement females and have extras if some females were produce at a sub-par to none level. So make it an even 20 females at 7 males. Easy pizy lemon squeeze

 

[DragonRain]

Looks like that's 3/3 for Dubias!

I was leaning that way as well, but didn't know if it would be better to stick with what I know (since I've bred supers before). But, from what I've been reading, Dubias don't seem like they are hard to breed.

2 out of 3 of my leos will eat pretty much anything. I'm not to worried about them - I'd be very surprised if they don't take to the new food. My 3rd, the youngest, is a bit pickier. But even if I can only get 2 out of 3 to eat them, I'd still consider that a success.

Treefolk, thanks for the info! I'll defiantly keep those numbers in mind when I start my Dubia colony.

OnlineGeckos - I'll check out that link, thank you! I'll see about shipping to my post office for pick up as well, I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

 

[Herpluver]

Another great place to get Dubia from is Joe - South Texas Dragons - Home click on the button at the top that says Dubia Roaches(Blaptica Dubia) and email or call him to place an order.

The prices are lower than almost anywhere else i've seen. He has some of the best customer support, as my first inquiry spawned a giant email from him in regards to my wants/needs. He seems to care greatly for the satisfaction of his customers, and he sells Adults!! Not something you find many places.

Hopefully this helps.