Bug housing

[The Fryman]

So I've been feeding Clint Eastwood gut loaded crickets for the two months that I've had him, but he seems very skinny compared to all the pictures I see on here, and I'm worried for his health.. I want to expand his diet, but I'm not sure what else to get or how to house them. I'm thinking trying dubia roaches and some sort of worm, and I was wondering if you guys could provide some specific information on housing and feeding them?
Thanks!

 

[Randi]

I house dubias and crickets in steralite bins and I keep worms in the deli cups they come in.

What is your current gutload? My cham was fed only crickets for two years before I took her in and she was not skinny. Can you post a current pic of him?

 

[The Fryman]

It's a homemade gutload with carrots, apples, oranges, some greens, and some dry ground almonds which I realized I should have left out. I froze them into cubes and drop one in every other day or so.

Anyways he's skinny mostly because he was on a hunger strike up until 2 or 3 weeks ago because I fed him wax worms and he only wanted those.

In the first pic he doesn't look too bad, but sometimes when he's climbing and twisting you can see his ribs pretty bad like in the second picture.

Sorry for the poor shots, he's really shy of me still.

 

[CaliChameleon]

Well actually seeing their ribs doesn't mean they are skinny my guy is a little piggy and sometimes when he is climbing around his ribs show but I know he is healthy and judging by the pictures your little guy looks healthy to me but I am no expert but you don't have to worry as long as his poop looks healthy and he is eating and drinking

 

[The Fryman]

Well actually seeing their ribs doesn't mean they are skinny my guy is a little piggy and sometimes when he is climbing around his ribs show but I know he is healthy and judging by the pictures your little guy looks healthy to me but I am no expert but you don't have to worry as long as his poop looks healthy and he is eating and drinking

That's good to hear, like I said he seems to be back to eating crickets. I have never seen him drink though, I would assume he is because well, otehrwise he would be dead.
What does good poop look like? his is just brown cricket sized turds and I've just assumed that's normal.

 

[carol5208]

there should be a white and brown part to the poop. White is the pee and brown is the poop.

 

[Randi]

What does good poop look like?

It should be part fecal, part urate, and surprisingly enough, if you do an image search on Google, you will find many results.

 

[The Fryman]

Oh yeah, they all have white stuff on them too, so it sounds like he's doing just fine then?

I'm still a little curious about Dubias, do they eat the same food as crickets? Will they breed on their own easily? It would be sweet to have a self-sustaining food source.

 

[SarahcoadunatioZac]

Yes, they eat the same exact food (or different gutloads if you want to get a different balance of nutrients) I use the same custom gutloads taken from Sandras blogs and put them in cubes.

Get a sterile bin, get breeders, 3:1 male:female ratio. Some people add heat, some say that room temps they still breed like crazy. Either way, they are roaches and thus they have a reputation of infestation for a reason.

Great thing about Dubias is they cant climb, dont smell, dont fly (Adult males can, but rarely do, don't think anyone has had one fly out of the bin randomly) don't make any noise. If you put in a clean up crew you dont even have to clean out the bin.

Discussion on them already going: https://www.chameleonforums.com/dubias-im-sold-95719/index3.html

 

[The Fryman]

Yes, they eat the same exact food (or different gutloads if you want to get a different balance of nutrients) I use the same custom gutloads taken from Sandras blogs and put them in cubes.

Get a sterile bin, get breeders, 3:1 male:female ratio. Some people add heat, some say that room temps they still breed like crazy. Either way, they are roaches and thus they have a reputation of infestation for a reason.

Great thing about Dubias is they cant climb, dont smell, dont fly (Adult males can, but rarely do, don't think anyone has had one fly out of the bin randomly) don't make any noise. If you put in a clean up crew you dont even have to clean out the bin.

Discussion on them already going: https://www.chameleonforums.com/dubias-im-sold-95719/index3.html

Thanks, but what do you mean by clean up crew?

 

[SarahcoadunatioZac]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/cleaner-crews-94794/


https://www.chameleonforums.com/clean-up-crews-95214/


They should explain it pretty well, main idea is tiny ecosystem that eats the fraz and dead dubia/exoskeletons when they morph. No need to clean.