What to do with extra Dubias?

BenjiTheCham

Established Member
Just to be clear, I’m seeing this as a future problem, not atm.

im planning on buying Dubia roaches on amazon. I finally caved, even though I’d sworn I’d never get them, and bought him some at the store today. I’ll feed them to him tomorrow to see if he likes them, and if all goes well, I’ll buy more. But god, they were expensive at the store lol.$.50 a piece of you bought over 5 and $.75 if under 5 for small! They were over a dollar a piece for large! Who is going to spend $10 on food that’s going to last him a few days (at least at his age). But luckily I found some on amazon that are only $.06 a piece, if I did my math right ($25 for 400).

anyways, I’ve gotten a bit off track.. so I’m the future I’m guessing the Dubias will grow too big for his size, depending on other feeders that I have on hand and how much of Them he Eats everyday. What should I do with them? I could possibly sell them somewhere or give them to someone here. But if that isn’t an option, how would I get rid of them? I am NOT going to be breeding them, so that’s not an option. Do I just freeze them and throw them away? I’m assuming it’s not good to just let them go and I don’t have any other pets that would eat them. Maybe I’ll get my fish tank going again soon, I wonder if they’d eat them.

anyways, since I kinda rambled a bit, what do you guys do with extra dubias(or recommend to do). I guess that wouldn’t apply to everyone, mostly people with only one or two reptiles
 
Just to be clear, I’m seeing this as a future problem, not atm.

im planning on buying Dubia roaches on amazon. I finally caved, even though I’d sworn I’d never get them, and bought him some at the store today. I’ll feed them to him tomorrow to see if he likes them, and if all goes well, I’ll buy more. But god, they were expensive at the store lol.$.50 a piece of you bought over 5 and $.75 if under 5 for small! They were over a dollar a piece for large! Who is going to spend $10 on food that’s going to last him a few days (at least at his age). But luckily I found some on amazon that are only $.06 a piece, if I did my math right ($25 for 400).

anyways, I’ve gotten a bit off track.. so I’m the future I’m guessing the Dubias will grow too big for his size, depending on other feeders that I have on hand and how much of Them he Eats everyday. What should I do with them? I could possibly sell them somewhere or give them to someone here. But if that isn’t an option, how would I get rid of them? I am NOT going to be breeding them, so that’s not an option. Do I just freeze them and throw them away? I’m assuming it’s not good to just let them go and I don’t have any other pets that would eat them. Maybe I’ll get my fish tank going again soon, I wonder if they’d eat them.

anyways, since I kinda rambled a bit, what do you guys do with extra dubias(or recommend to do). I guess that wouldn’t apply to everyone, mostly people with only one or two reptiles
Yup...not gonna breed roaches...uh huh. My dear Lucas, it hasn’t been a year since I was in the exact place you are now. I broke down and bought some discoids. Several were way too big to feed off and not knowing what to do with them (&too soft hearted to just kill them) I kept them in a small container & fed them until I could figure it out. Then my vet suggested I use them to start a colony. Nope! Not happening...ever! For about a month the vet’s suggestion rattled thru my brain daily. Fine! I’ll give it a try, but I’m not gonna like it! Ewww! Fast forward to now. I have 2 breeding bins, a bin of babies and a bin of the extra males I removed and once again don’t know what to do with. The adults are big and ugly and still freak me out. But...I feel bad for them every time I steal their little babies. The babies are kinda cute for being roaches and I feel bad when I sacrifice them to my chameleon masters.
You’re looking for a feeder that you can easily breed. Roaches are it. Quiet, cleaner than crickets, don’t jump, fly or climb. Perhaps the best feeder in terms of holding a gutload. Come to the dark side. ;)
 
Yup...not gonna breed roaches...uh huh. My dear Lucas, it hasn’t been a year since I was in the exact place you are now. I broke down and bought some discoids. Several were way too big to feed off and not knowing what to do with them (&too soft hearted to just kill them) I kept them in a small container & fed them until I could figure it out. Then my vet suggested I use them to start a colony. Nope! Not happening...ever! For about a month the vet’s suggestion rattled thru my brain daily. Fine! I’ll give it a try, but I’m not gonna like it! Ewww! Fast forward to now. I have 2 breeding bins, a bin of babies and a bin of the extra males I removed and once again don’t know what to do with. The adults are big and ugly and still freak me out. But...I feel bad for them every time I steal their little babies. The babies are kinda cute for being roaches and I feel bad when I sacrifice them to my chameleon masters.
You’re looking for a feeder that you can easily breed. Roaches are it. Quiet, cleaner than crickets, don’t jump, fly or climb. Perhaps the best feeder in terms of holding a gutload. Come to the dark side. ;)
Feed the extra males off to your chams. They will love them.
 
Your colony, if you keep them at 90-95f and fed, will double in weight every 90 days. I "give them away" at $40 per pound locally. Its about 750 "mixed". The reason people can sell them for a buck each, is because of uneducated shoppers. At best a "good investment" is 40 adults for $40, because now you dont have to way 3-4 months for the mixed to turn into adults.
 
Just sell them or freeze them. They probably have so many cheap because they're piling the dog food in them so I'd recommend not immediately feeding them off and giving low protein foods for a little while.

I don't get people that say they won't breed them. You have a tub full of a few hundred roaches but refuse to have some babies show up once in a while, just so you can go buy more lol?
 
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Your colony, if you keep them at 90-95f and fed, will double in weight every 90 days. I "give them away" at $40 per pound locally. Its about 750 "mixed". The reason people can sell them for a buck each, is because of uneducated shoppers. At best a "good investment" is 40 adults for $40, because now you dont have to way 3-4 months for the mixed to turn into adults.

Who the hell is buying dubia a dollar each?! OP, thought you said your store sold things cheap lol.
 
Who the hell is buying dubia a dollar each?! OP, thought you said your store sold things cheap lol.

Believe it or not tons of places sell adults for a buck each. If you go by bug weight, a queen is the same weight/meat as a dozen banded adult crickets.

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Believe it or not tons of places sell adults for a buck each. If you go by bug weight, a queen is the same weight/meat as a dozen banded adult crickets.

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I mean, I guess I can see an adult female being around a buck each. I thought you meant nymphs. Definitely good deals you can find out there with dubia because so many hobbyists have extra from their reptiles. Those and red runners can be bought dirt cheap.
 
Just sell them or freeze them. They probably have so many cheap because they're piling the dog food in them so I'd recommend not immediately feeding them off and giving low protein foods for a little while.

I don't get people that say they won't breed them. You have a tub full of a few hundred roaches but refuse to have some babies show up once in a while, just so you can go buy more lol?
That’s good to know. I’ll make sure to give them a bit before feeding.

yeah, I think you guys convinced me lol. I’ll give it a try
 
Btw I'm just messing with you, not trying to be a dick. Seriously though, you'll save a ton breeding them and it's no extra work. I'd look for a reptile hobbyist like nightanole mentioned selling a ton of them cheap. People that use them for feeders are usually feeding them healthier foods than those pumping them out for profit.
 
SO I do not feed them off once they get past the 1 inch mark.. They creep me out honestly and I can hear them scurry around at night. Anyways my pet store is like yours except they do not discount them. They sell them for 80cents each there. But they buy mine when they are larger then I prefer. I just sold 80 there yesterday and they give me store credit that I use for my RO water. They give me 37 cents per dubia.
I have no interest in breeding them since I do not feed an army of reptiles. So this works out well for me. I always make money on them because I pay less because I order through online distributors.
 
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