Yes I'm asking about roaches again!!!

[Gregg M]

LizMarie, here is a photo of one of my adult females eating an adult male dubia... I think this female was about 35 to 40 grams at the time this photo was taken... With my dubia colony, I only feed off the males...

 

[Digby Rigby]

Here

 

[nats]

LizMarie, here is a photo of one of my adult females eating an adult male dubia... I think this female was about 35 to 40 grams at the time this photo was taken... With my dubia colony, I only feed off the males...

Gregg, that roach looks kinda big for that gecko :main_huh:
Doesnt that break the "never eat anything bigger than your head" rule? :main_laugh:

 

[Gregg M]

Gregg, that roach looks kinda big for that gecko :main_huh:
Doesnt that break the "never eat anything bigger than your head" rule? :main_laugh:

Yeah it does break the rule... LOL... The thing is, most of these "rules" are put out there by paranoid keepers... There really is nothing solid to say that the feeder size rule has any validity...

The fact is that these "rules" do not apply to a hungry adult leopard gecko... And certainly, in the wild, leos do not think and say, "hey, that bug is longer than the space between my eyes, I should not eat it..." What ever crosses their path is fair game as long as the leo can overpower it... The chances of your leo choking to death on a feeder is slim to none...

 

[Bennayboi]

Its difficult for leos to digest adult male dubias. They can do it, but nymphs would be much better. Its not only the size, but the wings are huge and nylon like. If you really want to argue i can take pictures of adult male dubia fed feces, compared with nymph

 

[Gregg M]

Its difficult for leos to digest adult male dubias. They can do it, but nymphs would be much better. Its not only the size, but the wings are huge and nylon like. If you really want to argue i can take pictures of adult male dubia fed feces, compared with nymph

Post away... Wing material will be digested when your leo is heated properly... A leo would have more problems passing exos from meal worms and crickets... Are you saying that a leo will become impacted from dubia wings??? LOL... Should I post pics of my leos crap after they eat male dubias???

If you show me undigested insect material, I will tell you that your leo needs more heat and maybe you should look at your husbandry:main_robin:... I have been feeding my adults male dubias for I am guessing 3 years now and I have not found anything in their fecal matter that should not be there...:main_thumbsup:

Hows that for an argument???

 

[LeapinLizards]

I have to agree with Gregg on this one. I have an extremely picky gecko named Mustang that ONLY likes large feeders, he will NOT touch crickets that aren't huge, doesn't like smaller mealies, etc. Really, the bigger the better. I had a bunch of extra males in my colony, so he's been getting one male Dubia - wings and all - every other night (he only wants one), and his feces has been juuuuust fine

And Gregg mentioned husbandry...my temps in my tubs are 92* hot spots, never getting over 93*. My geckos love it hot, they've all colored up since being in the rack system.

 

[Bennayboi]

Im not saying theyll get impacted, im saying theyre unecessarily difficult to digest, and the wings are almost impossible to fully digest. Even with proper tempatures and husbandry.

 

[Gregg M]

And Gregg mentioned husbandry...my temps in my tubs are 92* hot spots, never getting over 93*. My geckos love it hot, they've all colored up since being in the rack system.

Its amazing what nice warm ambient air temps will do for your reptiles... LOL:main_thumbsup:

 

[Gregg M]

Im not saying theyll get impacted, im saying theyre unecessarily difficult to digest, and the wings are almost impossible to fully digest. Even with proper tempatures and husbandry.

I am going to have to say you are wrong in this my friend... There is not much a leos digestive system cant handle insect wise... They are built to eat insects with or without wings...

 

[nats]

Ive never feed my leos anything but nymphs. Not because I'm afraid of
choking, but because, to me, they look tastier!! :main_laugh:

I think common sence should tell you not to throw a 2'' long male roach
to a 6 month old leo!! then again, I have seen some really stupid things on YouTube!!

 

[Gregg M]

Ive never feed my leos anything but nymphs. Not because I'm afraid of
choking, but because, to me, they look tastier!! :main_laugh:

I think common sence should tell you not to throw a 2'' long male roach
to a 6 month old leo!! then again, I have seen some really stupid things on YouTube!!

So you think roach nymphs look tasty??? LOL...

Yeah, I think adult male dubias should not be fed to leos under 35 grams...

 

[fOOlsgOld]

Hey Liz, sorry for not getting these posted sooner but here you go.

Male

Female

Sorry the pictures are so crappy, just snapped them real quick but you still get the idea.

 

[LizMarie]

Shenandoah I hope you have very small hands, lol! Thank you for the pictures. The males remind me of waterbugs, yuck! Lana ate the last roach today and I kind of miss them now Hopefully I get some soon. I just loved watching Lana eat them, it seemed to bring her such joy.

 

[fOOlsgOld]

LoL I'm sorry Liz but no my hands are kinda large (for a womans hands) :main_laugh::main_laugh: But don't let the bugs scare you, if you are worried about the males flying out just pull off 1/2 of their wings and they won't be going anywhere.... they rest you don't have to worry about anyway.

 

[LizMarie]

LoL I'm sorry Liz but no my hands are kinda large (for a womans hands) :main_laugh::main_laugh: But don't let the bugs scare you, if you are worried about the males flying out just pull off 1/2 of their wings and they won't be going anywhere.... they rest you don't have to worry about anyway.

Those things fly!?

 

[fOOlsgOld]

They flutter more then fly. I didn't want to wait to see it so I just pull half the wings off any adult males I find.

 

[LizMarie]

What would be a good ratio Male/Female?

I heard that a lot of ppl feed the males or get rid of them cuz they take up space and eat up a lot of food once u have too many.

 

[LeapinLizards]

I use a ratio of 1 male : 3 females. I've been told that's a good way to go. I just feed off the rest of my males, to all my large enough geckos. I can't say adults, because some of my 6-8 month olds are large enough

I'll have a couple videos of my leos chowing down on the extra males here in a few minutes

 

[SFgeckos]

Ratios

A ratio of 1:3 (1 male per 3 females) works well for smaller colonies. I've personally tried a range of male/female ratios from 1:3 up to 1:10 and have good success as well. Currently, I use about 1:5-1:8 ratio for bins of 500-1,000 females.

The main reason I use less males is because my colonies are extremely huge and more males equals more space/feeding! I have in the range of 10,000+ females so the less males I have to feed the better!

I used these pics in a previous thread (in another section), but it's a good example of the size ranges for dubia nymphs. I feed the larger nymphs to my adults and subadults, but I do agree with Gregg- almost all adult leos can easily consume a male dubia roach. If you remove the wings on a male, their body size is actually equal to or slightly smaller than a 3/4 grown nymph. Whether one chooses to feed their own geckos male dubia roaches is obviously dependent on their own personal choice.

The second photo is a "harvesting bin" with nymphs from a colony. I don't use heat on my nymph bins mainly to slow down their growth. However, if I need a particular size or a customer requests a certain size than I can easily heat them up for faster growth/development. I sort my colonies probably every 5-8 weeks or whenever I don't get lazy haha. Hope the photos and information help! Let me know if you got any questions.

J