Hi everyone!
I wanted to post a little "study" I did with a group of bearded dragons we hatched. I wanted to see what - if any- differences there were to dragons fed Dubia roaches vs crickets from the time they hatched.
A little background: We started out with 2 beardies that we acquired from someone that could no longer care for them. A male and female. They were about 1 year old when we acquired them. Both had been fed on crickets and mill-worms only. As the purchase of the dragons was a spur of the moment decision (we had planned on buying dragons in the future, but the ad for these two we could not pass up) I had not yet set up a dubia colony. This was something we had also planned on doing, but the gentleman selling his dragons was an offer we could not let pass by. So we started out feeding crickets and mill-worms as he had done, and proceeded to get a dubia colony up and running. It took a while to get the dubia's going really well, about 6 months or so. I started feeding my dragons dubias once we seemed to be getting a fairly steady supply of babies to grow out. One thing I noticed after about a month or so of feeding the adults dubias - if I fed them crickets they did not seem as interested in them. The dubia's, mill worms, wax worms and the like were taken readily, but crickets were ignored unless they were SUPER hungry.. This was interesting to me. I had read how much more nutritious the dubia are than crickets, but wonder if they taste better to the dragons too? Or are they just easier to "catch" ? Hmm.. Anyway, it wasn't long before our girl started laying eggs. We really had not planned on hatching babies, but decided to give it a go and see what we get. As both of them are Het Trans we hoped we would end up with a few babies that were trans. I have wanted a translucent for a long time. I also decided to see for myself exactly how dubia and crickets affect dragons. I decided (while the eggs were incubating) to do a study group from the babies that hatch. We ended up with 14 babies out of 20 eggs. Not bad for a first attempt at hatching.
For the "study" I kept the babies in 3 separate enclosures, one with 4 babies and two with 5. I decided to feed one group dubia's , another group crickets, and the third group I would feed both. All of the babies would start out eating Heidi fruit flies and all would receive a "salad" of carrot and greens and a daily vitamin/calcium dusting on their food. At hatching, most of the babies measured at around 2 1/2 inch long from nose to end of tail. Some were a bit bigger, some a bit smaller but average was 2 1/2 inch. I did not have a scale to weigh them, but hopefully next time I will have one. I separated the babies into their homes and tried to keep them varied so that each group was as close to the same size (in lengths) as possible.
The first week none of the babies ate much no matter what they were offered. It was into the second week that they started eating. All of them gobble up their food like crazy. Fruit flies, dubia, or crickets - it didn't matter. I fed each group 2 - 3 times a day, letting them eat as much as they wanted within a 20 - 30 minute time period. By the time the babies were 3 weeks old I could see a difference. The babies fed only Dubia all seemed to be "plumper" than the other 2 groups and when measured were around 1/2" longer than the other groups. The group fed dubia's and crickets was the next in line, they were bigger than the babies fed only crickets by a centimeter or so.
I continued to feed them in the same manner, watching them grow and measuring weekly. By the time they were 6 weeks old I was amazed and convinced that feeding Dubia's did make a huge difference. The babies fed dubia only were significantly longer and more plump. Most of those babies measured over 9" by 6 weeks old. The group fed the dubia / cricket mix averaged about 8 inches and the babies fed only crickets were measuring around 7 inches. this is a HUGE difference and was very noticeable in all the babies. Also the babies fed dubias only were very plump, and look very well fed. The other two groups were not as plump, especially the cricket only group. I did feed each group several times a day, as much as they could eat. Each group had to "chase" its food as I did not put the insects into a container of any sort, just free feeding in the enclosure. Each groups insects were dusted very well with a vitamin/calcium supplement. I also noticed that the babies fed dubia's were much more active than the cricket only group. Running around or noticing what was going on around them. All babies would run after their food at feeding time, but again, the babies fed dubia's seemed to get going after the food much quicker than the cricket group. Several times I would actually have to "encourage" the cricket only group to get going on food by moving them off their basking spot out to where the crickets were.
I did one more experiment at the end of the 6 weeks. The group that was fed only dubia's I decided to give them a mix of dubia and crickets to see what would happen.. They all went after anything that moved- cricket or dubia - but I did notice that for the most part the crickets were ignored but the dubia were all eaten. I do think that its partly because the dubia seem to be easier to catch. But I do still wonder if the dubia just taste better to the dragons. I will continue to monitor the differences in the babies we are keeping. All others have found their new homes. We kept two of the babies. The one (and sadly, only) translucent and one partial translucent. Both were in the dubia only group and we will continue to feed them only dubia until they are older, then may introduce some mill-worms or other food types. I wonder if they will continue to grow faster than their siblings that will (most likely) eat only crickets. Hopefully some of the people that took home babies will send me updates in a few weeks on size and what they have fed them.
Our adults are now in brumation so it will be next year before we can attempt this again. I do think I will repeat this "study" at least once more to see if I get the same results. I do now think that feeding them dubia roaches is the best route having seen the difference in each group and except for trying to repeat the results will continue to feed my dragons on mostly dubia roaches. If I am able to repeat this in another set of babies, it will solidify for me that dubia roaches are the only way to go when feeding. I already kind of feel this way, but wanted "proof" that what I had read and noticed was accurate. I also have to say, dubia are so much easier to deal with than crickets. Crickets smell and are noisy and are just - in my opinion - gross. I do not feel that way about Dubia roaches. Plus, if a cricket escapes you are stuck listening to the sucker until it moves on or dies.. ugg. If a dubia escapes then, at least in my climate, it will not live more than a few days, will not make noise, and cannot reproduce. All pluses in my book.
I wanted to post a little "study" I did with a group of bearded dragons we hatched. I wanted to see what - if any- differences there were to dragons fed Dubia roaches vs crickets from the time they hatched.
A little background: We started out with 2 beardies that we acquired from someone that could no longer care for them. A male and female. They were about 1 year old when we acquired them. Both had been fed on crickets and mill-worms only. As the purchase of the dragons was a spur of the moment decision (we had planned on buying dragons in the future, but the ad for these two we could not pass up) I had not yet set up a dubia colony. This was something we had also planned on doing, but the gentleman selling his dragons was an offer we could not let pass by. So we started out feeding crickets and mill-worms as he had done, and proceeded to get a dubia colony up and running. It took a while to get the dubia's going really well, about 6 months or so. I started feeding my dragons dubias once we seemed to be getting a fairly steady supply of babies to grow out. One thing I noticed after about a month or so of feeding the adults dubias - if I fed them crickets they did not seem as interested in them. The dubia's, mill worms, wax worms and the like were taken readily, but crickets were ignored unless they were SUPER hungry.. This was interesting to me. I had read how much more nutritious the dubia are than crickets, but wonder if they taste better to the dragons too? Or are they just easier to "catch" ? Hmm.. Anyway, it wasn't long before our girl started laying eggs. We really had not planned on hatching babies, but decided to give it a go and see what we get. As both of them are Het Trans we hoped we would end up with a few babies that were trans. I have wanted a translucent for a long time. I also decided to see for myself exactly how dubia and crickets affect dragons. I decided (while the eggs were incubating) to do a study group from the babies that hatch. We ended up with 14 babies out of 20 eggs. Not bad for a first attempt at hatching.
For the "study" I kept the babies in 3 separate enclosures, one with 4 babies and two with 5. I decided to feed one group dubia's , another group crickets, and the third group I would feed both. All of the babies would start out eating Heidi fruit flies and all would receive a "salad" of carrot and greens and a daily vitamin/calcium dusting on their food. At hatching, most of the babies measured at around 2 1/2 inch long from nose to end of tail. Some were a bit bigger, some a bit smaller but average was 2 1/2 inch. I did not have a scale to weigh them, but hopefully next time I will have one. I separated the babies into their homes and tried to keep them varied so that each group was as close to the same size (in lengths) as possible.
The first week none of the babies ate much no matter what they were offered. It was into the second week that they started eating. All of them gobble up their food like crazy. Fruit flies, dubia, or crickets - it didn't matter. I fed each group 2 - 3 times a day, letting them eat as much as they wanted within a 20 - 30 minute time period. By the time the babies were 3 weeks old I could see a difference. The babies fed only Dubia all seemed to be "plumper" than the other 2 groups and when measured were around 1/2" longer than the other groups. The group fed dubia's and crickets was the next in line, they were bigger than the babies fed only crickets by a centimeter or so.
I continued to feed them in the same manner, watching them grow and measuring weekly. By the time they were 6 weeks old I was amazed and convinced that feeding Dubia's did make a huge difference. The babies fed dubia only were significantly longer and more plump. Most of those babies measured over 9" by 6 weeks old. The group fed the dubia / cricket mix averaged about 8 inches and the babies fed only crickets were measuring around 7 inches. this is a HUGE difference and was very noticeable in all the babies. Also the babies fed dubias only were very plump, and look very well fed. The other two groups were not as plump, especially the cricket only group. I did feed each group several times a day, as much as they could eat. Each group had to "chase" its food as I did not put the insects into a container of any sort, just free feeding in the enclosure. Each groups insects were dusted very well with a vitamin/calcium supplement. I also noticed that the babies fed dubia's were much more active than the cricket only group. Running around or noticing what was going on around them. All babies would run after their food at feeding time, but again, the babies fed dubia's seemed to get going after the food much quicker than the cricket group. Several times I would actually have to "encourage" the cricket only group to get going on food by moving them off their basking spot out to where the crickets were.
I did one more experiment at the end of the 6 weeks. The group that was fed only dubia's I decided to give them a mix of dubia and crickets to see what would happen.. They all went after anything that moved- cricket or dubia - but I did notice that for the most part the crickets were ignored but the dubia were all eaten. I do think that its partly because the dubia seem to be easier to catch. But I do still wonder if the dubia just taste better to the dragons. I will continue to monitor the differences in the babies we are keeping. All others have found their new homes. We kept two of the babies. The one (and sadly, only) translucent and one partial translucent. Both were in the dubia only group and we will continue to feed them only dubia until they are older, then may introduce some mill-worms or other food types. I wonder if they will continue to grow faster than their siblings that will (most likely) eat only crickets. Hopefully some of the people that took home babies will send me updates in a few weeks on size and what they have fed them.
Our adults are now in brumation so it will be next year before we can attempt this again. I do think I will repeat this "study" at least once more to see if I get the same results. I do now think that feeding them dubia roaches is the best route having seen the difference in each group and except for trying to repeat the results will continue to feed my dragons on mostly dubia roaches. If I am able to repeat this in another set of babies, it will solidify for me that dubia roaches are the only way to go when feeding. I already kind of feel this way, but wanted "proof" that what I had read and noticed was accurate. I also have to say, dubia are so much easier to deal with than crickets. Crickets smell and are noisy and are just - in my opinion - gross. I do not feel that way about Dubia roaches. Plus, if a cricket escapes you are stuck listening to the sucker until it moves on or dies.. ugg. If a dubia escapes then, at least in my climate, it will not live more than a few days, will not make noise, and cannot reproduce. All pluses in my book.
