Dubia Roach Colony Setup | Bearded Dragon Diet On The Cheap 

Oranges also give the them heartburn. If he stops eating them for a while that could be why.

@@carlr4fisher118 ru-vid.com/group/PL1jBPLrR0jP1B7QMQf_W-rqzYWAiv5Ta0

I just feed my roaches a variety and don't worry about it. No problems.

They need vit.C from time to time only, so no problems.

This should be the 5th step or so if anything set up lighting substrate and behavior should all come first

Nice comment. Thank you!

Thanks! I do come in every weekend to feed him, water the tank, and often give him a brief soak in water. From my understanding, the tank is big enough for a full grown beardie. He's about 16-18 inches now and seems to do very well. He gets to come out frequently because I have a lot of visitors who want to see him. I'm hoping I won't need a bigger tank because that would be expensive! There is a lot of variety in the current tank and I see him utilizing a variety of different spaces. So as of now, he seems good!

@@richardroyster405 that's awesome! as long as he doesn't start showing signs of stress once he's full grown, then the tank should be totally fine! but i know a lot of beardies have to get upgraded tanks because they start surfing on the glass or become very inactive & darkly colored almost all the time! if he ever does need an upgrade, it wouldn't be too hard to make your own larger tank which would be less expensive, or even add onto the current tank he has! any extra space is better than no extra space, and i've seen beardies who have tanks taller than they are wide thriving and greatly enjoying the space to climb around. he seems to be doing wonderfully and you're taking fantastic care of him so i'm not worried about that hehe but i wanted to maybe give some options if he ever does need an upgrade! i hope this doesn't come as unwanted >< i have my own beardie so i like to share what i know with other beardie owners, sometimes it's not wanted LOL but!! he really does seem to be thriving which is super amazing you're doing wonderful :D

Thanks for stopping by, Alex!

comment 1 conflicting info: you should feed your feeders oranges about once a week. bearded dragons need two things to really thrive: vitamin d3 (real sunlight) and vitamin A (which can be collected from oranges). Dubia roaches love oranges specifically - feeder insects like roaches and crickets digest oranges differently than bearded dragons do. The citric acid is broken down during the digestion process, so it's easier on your beardie's digestive system and then when they've eaten your roaches, they get their vitamin

ru-vid.com/group/PL1jBPLrR0jP1B7QMQf_W-rqzYWAiv5Ta0

@@PirateNinjaKitteh ru-vid.com/group/PL1jBPLrR0jP2jGWunR6P4bukuq9r4Ijhy

I'm sensing a Royster Roach challenge. How many roaches can you hold in one hand?

Richard Royster OMG, I’m in.

I would put a lid just for insurance, they are better climbers than I expected . Personally, I would use a dremel saw bit to cut a huge ventilation hole and tape a window screen in it. That works wonders for me. Hope that helps

IIRC I purchased some from dubiaroaches.com because a growing Beardie eats A LOT. He's was crushing the roaches and my breeders couldn't keep up. He's full grown now and will easily eat 20-30 roaches a couple times a week. I supplement his diet with greens and mealworms.

Roaches need a day/night cycle but I have put black duct tape all around my tank. They get sufficient notice of the day/night cycle through the vent holes. I think darker is better as long as they still get a cycle. It took me quite a while to get a breeding population going because a young beardie eats A LOT. Now that my beardie is full grown he is eating significantly less and I have an abundance of roaches.

I want to go strictly Dubias and I was doing so well. He didn't have any meal worms for probably six months then I got cocky and gave away a bunch of dubias. This was right before Didgie went on a feeding frenzy that lasted a month. He decimated the Dubia population. I've got tons of baby dubias but I want them to get bigger before feeding them to him. Long story short, the meal worms are a backup plan and he's been chomping them down for the last month. Hopefully in another two weeks he will me off the meal worms. You are right about the benefits of super worms, it's just they are harder to raise.

I don’t like the superworms mine keep escaping because my dragon doesn’t eat them that fast she kinda lazy. And then I find them hiding in her enclosure or on the floor.

Mine is also 3 months and MUCH smaller than the one in the video

I struggled thinking about that. I decided not to for now. My experiment with the natural logs as a hide didn't work out great and it was a pain to manage. Do you use a substrate of any kind? What I have found that my roaches like the best are egg cartons and the little paperboard tubes that come with aluminum foil - not paper towel rolls. They hate those. The diameter on the aluminum foil roll is much smaller and they LOVE IT.

@@richardroyster405 I'm bioactive aswell I use dubia roaches and beetles in the substrate. The darkling beetles are close relatives to dung beetles they eat the poop and the spring tails help aswell isopods love shed

@@richardroyster405 I use a bran substrate. Keep it nice and dry. I also use beetles. Some ppl don’t like them but I haven’t had any problems. Chicken feed is also used by some instead of dog food.

I have a heating mat that I bought online that's intended for that purpose (as opposed to regular heating pad). I'm only using that in the winter. Once the warm weather hits, I will move the roach container to the garage.

@@richardroyster405 thats what i did before

Citrus fed to roaches is not lethal to Beardies. Urban legend. Stacking egg crates vertically is preferred, but by container was a bit short. I've actually made a different container since with a little more head room and it works perfectly.

Richard Royster it may be an urban legend but 2 different vets advises that it could be lethal so I am like “better safe than sorry” 👍🏻😉

Citrus is perfectly fine for dragons do your research

Yes

I bought from various suppliers at reptile expos and online so I could get a genetically diverse population. If you have never been to a reptile expo, I highly recommend going to a local one. Very interesting!

HA! His "official" name is General Didgeridoo. I just call him didgie for short.

I don't clean it much. Once a week I will feed and remove the vegetable matter. I may wipe the bottom area where the veggies were if they oozed any. I would plan to do a complete cleaning at least every six months.

I just pick them out by hand about 30-40 at a time and put them in a smaller container where I can gut-load them with vegetables.

Richard Royster that probably takes a while. Can the babies climb on plastic containers?

I have a colony of dubias right now, No they cannot climb plastic containers as long as there is nothing to grip onto and for separating roaches I would look up separating dubia roaches on youtube and there are many methods that pop up.. i hope that helps 🙂

The bulbs provide heat, UVA, and UVB. My only concern with bulbs is that it may be too hot. My beardie rarely likes to hang out where the tank is 90 degrees.

The uvb those bulbs release is not nearly enough

Josh's frogs sells everything you need and has videos on how to raise etc

sure go ahead, you can easily sell them if you get overrun with too many

Not really dubias are high in protein and should not be fed daily. It can cause future problems like obesity, fatty liver, gout etc. dubias are an occasional feeder like 4 a week. When it gets older Adults eat more veggies than protein

@@m3agz1 what do you consider an ideal daily feeder then?

mine is 3-4 months old and about that size

Highly doubtful unless you underfeed or don't have the proper uvb

Mine has slowed down. Some days he won't eat anything but then after doing that for two days, he still packs down 30-40 bugs. But he is still young! About 7 months old. My understanding is that they slow down A LOT once they reach maturity. We shall see.

After about a year they really slow down, and as they get older, they get pickier.

Huh

Grow up😂

You've over stated the anti-mealworm case but I do prefer Dubias for many reasons. Unfortunately I ran low on dubias. I've got to wait a little longer for the babies to grow before Didgie is back on the dubias full time.

Dubias are too high in protein to be a daily feeder it can cause obesity, gout and a fatty liver nothing is wrong with mealworms

Dubias are a treat meal worms are fine.