So I took a peak at my dubia colony and I need to get rid of some males, I don’t expect it will be much just yet but I’m looking for a long term use for them as I don’t want to waste them.
I breed the dubias for my crested geckos but I was wondering what else I could do with the adult males that I don’t require.
I also keep mice, ASFs & ball pythons.
I’ve read that rodents can eat them, but I’m unsure how best to prepare them for the rodents.
I was also wondering if I could mush the dubias and mix with CGD? If so, any suggestions as to how to do so & what ratio.
Any suggestions and advice would be great? I’m not looking to purchase a new reptile that will eat them… Not yet at least
Rodents will eat them. Just toss them in there and they should eat them. If you mixed the dubias I would just mix the guts rather than the exoskeleton and only do it every once in a while, not every feeding. But at the end of the day what works best is getting another reptile (just so you can get another ).
You need another reptile
I would recommend a monitor, snapping turtle, or toad (eg. cane toad).
If you don’t put in too many at once and you monitored them for a few minutes to make sure they eat them then yes. You could try freezing them and thawing them but I’m not sure if the mice would take it, you could try it.
From my bug collecting days most will be killed in 24 hrs. Keep in mind I’ve had some insects revive after that, so longer is better. If you wanted to reduce risks of parasites and pathogens a week would kill most of those. They take quite a bit of space but a tortoise would also be big enough to eat those.
If you can an outdoor pen would be best but if not you could build or buy an indoor tortoise table. You could get anything from a red foot, russian, to sulcuta.
I’m not sure: what are the summer and winter temps? You would need a cemented or wooden post pen with a cement hide with heaters and water. Do you have a decently large backyard (~ 30 sq ft for a pen).
That should be warm enough, where I live the temperature ranges from -20* to 32* and some people keep them outside. It’s a good idea to have an indoor area set up for in the winter but if you had multiple heaters laid out it should work.
ASFs eat bugs in the wild, and to my knowledge dubias don’t have any weapons (they would hurt a crested gecko if they did) so you can feed them to your ASFs. Just use tongs to offer them. Tortoises are primarily vegetarian and should not be fed a lot of bugs. Only rarely as a treat.
My local reptile store, not a chain, is thrilled to take in as many dubias as possible. LOL my tegus and monitors keep mine cleaned up but if I ever get extra they are willing to purchase.
You could also prevent a surplus before it starts. It would probably take more work but you could sex the ones you’re going to feed and figure out how many females you need to release back into the colony to keep an ideal ratio.
Definitely check with your local pet store I almost guarantee they will buy them. My colony basically pays for all my rodent feeders as well as provides unlimited food for my Ackie monitor. Every couple months I thin the colony of surplus large and medium roaches and sell them.
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