Changing up my feeders, advice?

[WendyK8]

I have a 8 month old Sambava male and I have been feeding him only crickets so far. He eats about 10 crickets a day as of now. I gutload w/ bug burger and dust w/ Repashy calcium plus every feeding. I was looking to switch up my feeders a little to A) give my little guy a little variety in life, and B) Ive been having trouble with my crickets. He is getting bigger so he is EATING bigger crickets and less of them. The larger crickets are loud and rather annoying and they do great for a few weeks then start dying I am cleaning their container every few days or so (a large plastic tub w/ air holes on the side and a screen top) wich is a little difficult when there are 1000 of them jumping and running in all directions and they just seem to overall smell bad. I will still continue to feed crickets I think, just not so much and not keep so many on hand. My question for you more experienced forum members is, what exactly is the difference between dubia, discoid and lobster roaches? Do they eat the same amount of roaches as they would crickets? is any better than another and why? also, just found a blurb on the mulberry farms website about phoenix worms which makes it seem like you would never want or need to ever feed anything else ever again - my thought is, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is, so whats the deal with that? Thanks.

 

[WendyK8]

Copied and pasted the blurb from mulberry farms (I highlighted in red what I thought was a little odd):


These are the perfect feeder insect for juvenile bearded dragons, small lizards, skinks, geckos, chameleons, turtles etc.

WHY BOTH YOU AND YOUR PET WILL LOVE PHOENIX WORMS™:


Ready to serve, with no need to dust or gut load before feeding to your pet.
Naturally nutritious, high in calcium, low in fat.

Approximately 20 - 60 times more calcium than other commonly fed feeder insects.

Ideal 1.5:1 Calciumhosphorus ratio.

Contain high amounts of lauric acid which helps battle diseases such as Coccidia.

No need to culture them.

No need to feed them.

Stay fresh in their cup for two+ weeks at room temperature (see below for extended storage instructions).**

Do not make noise.

Have no odor.

Will stay in a jar lid--no escapees!

Wiggle intensely, which will excite and entice your pet.

Herps readily consume and relish them.

Will stimulate the appetite of animals that do not readily feed -- great for picky eaters!

Sized to satisfy most pets, including dart frogs, geckos, bearded dragons, chameleons, turtles, birds and more.

The superior nutrition of Phoenix Worms™ is great for hatchlings, helps gravid females or those who have just laid, and may halt or even reverse metabolic bone disease.

Phoenix Worms™ are perfect for the person looking for an alternative to crickets, superworms, mealworms and waxworms.

**DO NOT REFRIGERATE YOUR PHOENIX WORMS™ as normal refrigerators are too cold and can cause them to die. You can store your Phoenix Worms™ for a month or more if you keep them at 50-60 degrees F. When ready to feed, simply take out the amount of worms you want to feed and bring them to room temperature before feeding ... Phoenix Worms™ become more active as they warm up and even more appealing to your pet!

 

[nightanole]

Ok over all for your roach list:
dont stink
need just a top vent for storage.
feed like crickets (though they like raw sugar)
better meat to shell ratio.

Dubia:
Direct cricket replacement
They can climb as good as crickets. Size wise they get much bigger than crickets. the 3/4" dubia weighs 4x more then a 3/4" cricket.
live bearing
slow speed

Lobsters:
same as dubia (but only 3x the weight of full size crickets), but they can climb GLASS.
live bearing
medium speed

Discoids:
Dubia for Florida folk. Same as dubia (though slower growing) but get HUGE( 2x dubia).
turbo speed (which way did he go george?)

P nivea
glass climbers like lobster.
size is female= cricket male= 2/3 cricket
needs really wet coconut fiber substrate
slow growing
live bearing
Medium speed (will hang out on your finger, however spook the nest and you will see a herd of green flash before your eyes)

Phoenix worms:
Brand name for black fly larva that are fed a special diet so they have a good calcum to phosphor ratio.
Much smaller than a full size cricket.
Adult flys are mouthless and make a tastly treat.

AS FAR AS YOUR RED LETTERS:
they are just black fly larva that are fed a special diet so they are high in calcium. Its why they are ready to feed, they are gut loaded allready. Its also why you dont have to feed/gut load, they come with enough food to last for 3 weeks or until they turn into flies. They are not a super food, its the gut load...

I tried growing black fly larva with no success. They live off of rotting garbage (didnt clean them enough and made my beardy puke) and could never get the flies to stay long enough to make babies (flies live for 1 week tops, so you need multi at once to get eggs)


In order of ease it would be dubia,lobster,Discoid,nivea.

As far as your cricket "problem". You want to have your cricket bin with 2 full sides of screen ( i have both sides and top) to get rid of the smell and keep the crickets from smelling them selves to death. When the crickets start chirping they only have 2-3 weeks left to live. Their lives are only 90 days and at 6 weeks they become adults and the males get wings and start chirping. In other news roaches last 5 months as adults instead of 3 weeks, give or take a month. Female roaches of some species can last over a year.

 

[WendyK8]

Thanks, that helps alot, I think I feel more comfortable w/ dubia's anyway so I will try some and see how it goes. If all goes well maybe I will just make the switch from crix to roaches. Im finding crix to be kind of a PIA and if I can get the same nutrition from something else then I think its def worth a try. I have also seen alot of people on here that start their own roach colony so no need to order any more either so that is a huge plus. Aside from the problems I have had with the crickets themselves, the shipping has been a horrible experience for me (I think someone in the post office has a reptile of some sort that they are trying to feed on my dime) and forget trying to buy from a local store!

 

[nightanole]

Just remember colonies are are slow starters, id est 6 months before the "factory" is up and running. What i did with my roaches was ordering a ton of babies(2k worth) and just fed them off as they go. In hind site i should have ordered 100-200 mixes or the newer people are selling adult breeders by the 50-100 box. That would have ramped up my production by 3 months.

 

[sandrachameleon]

really glad you are going to offer some prey variety!
this blog entry may be useful to you:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html

 

[WendyK8]

Hey, I checked that link out and its great! thanks alot, now saved to my favorites