Dubia vs Cricket

[pigglett79]

I dont use crickets at all for my chameleons. I have a variety of other feeders instead. Roaches have more bang for your buck and as previously stated, dont smell when kept clean, dont chirp and cant climb smooth surfaces. I dont have any advice on roommates/spouses as I am lucky and my boyfriend just ignores them and lets me do my thing. I now have two colonies (dubias and red runners) and just tonight he saw me feeding them, had never seen the red runner before and didnt even know the new set up I had for them haha. They gutload easily as well. If its a roommate situation maybe you can hide them

But the dubias can be hard to feed, they don't move much and will run and hide right away. Possibly cup feeding is better. I hand feed or place them on a branch or leave in front of them and watch until eaten to avoid any escapees.

My bearded dragon wont touch a dubia, well he has tried them a few times and spit them out, but just LOVES the red runners. So it also depends on the animal and their tastes. Both of my chameleons will eat any roach.

 

[Yak]

That's been my issue with dubias, the wife just won't have it and she feeds half the time. I've read that escapees can't survive or breed in the northern climates so no worries about infestations and as I understand they also can't climb so no worries with escaping a tall bin. I'm planing on trying them and just not telling the wife.

On a side note as long as you keep the cricket bin well ventilated and cleaned out regularly they really don't smell too bad.

that's what I did for five months

 

[kgallego]

that's what I did for five months

lol, this is always a humorous subject - convincing your wife to let you keep roaches in the house, hahaha.

I kept mine in the garage for a while, but eventually I needed to bring them inside because it was cold. She comes home and says, "Um...Why are the roaches in the House?!?"

I convinced her that they couldn't get out and that they would only be in for a couple days while the cold front passed. That was last November - they've been in the house since, and she's ok with it now.

Somehow, there was a couple of them that escaped. I found them dead in random spots in the house. But she didn't find them - thank God!

 

[kgallego]

I have been in Heaven since switching to Dubias. No smell, no chirping, they eat half as many since they are meatier. Way easier to breed than crickets. I don't use crickets at all, but I do have a huge variety of feeders available, butterworms, phoenix worms, hornworms, silkworms, superworms and Dubia, and flies when the phoenix worms turn into soldier flies.

They can climb, just not on smooth surfaces. I got an idea from someone on the forum about hot glueing a stick in the center of the feeding cup so the dubia will climb up the stick, they climb up and down the stick and Gleek sees them. I just cut a section of the Reptivine I had off and used that it is rough enough for the dubia to climb the phoenix and butter worms climb it too.

Did you get that idea from me by chance?

 

[browncofan]

Did you get that idea from me by chance?

Could have been, I can't remember where I read it, I read almost every thread on this forum. Ha Ha It was a great idea though!!

 

[ridgebax1]

I tried the cup/stick feeding method and that was how I got Omar to eat some! Am going to try it again today.