Discoid Colony Question

[Zach Lenners]

I have a baby beardie, he is about 4.5 months old named Hank. I hate feeding him crickets because they are wild and whatever he doesn't eat they torment him, I stop it as much as I can. Anyway, I was looking in to starting a discoid colony because I live in Florida so Dubia roaches are illegal. Does anyone know where I can get the starter colony or the easiest way to start one? I've got all the supplies for one I just want to be lazy and buy the colony instead of start one haha. Thanks! PS im new to this forum stuff lol.

 

[Geneticjim]

I have a baby beardie, he is about 4.5 months old named Hank. I hate feeding him crickets because they are wild and whatever he doesn't eat they torment him, I stop it as much as I can. Anyway, I was looking in to starting a discoid colony because I live in Florida so Dubia roaches are illegal. Does anyone know where I can get the starter colony or the easiest way to start one? I've got all the supplies for one I just want to be lazy and buy the colony instead of start one haha. Thanks! PS im new to this forum stuff lol.

I am starting a colony also. I found a colony of about 100 a lot of females and males ready to breed. Hopefully they show up today. I scored it on one of the Facebook group Florida reptile

 

[Hdrydr31]

Welcome to the forum and to beardies!! Make sure you remove any un eaten crickets at night or when they are done eating as they are notorious for biting dragons causing wounds.
If you do an online search for driscoid roaches you will find suppliers for FL I think one of them I found doing some research was floridaroaches.com
they are very similar to the dubias. The biggest thing to remember is buy more than what you first need as you need to leave the colony alone for a good 6-8 weeks so they can settle and begin breeding, they really like to be left alone and if you are constantly in the colony moving them around and such they will not produce very well. So have 2 tubs for them 1 to be the breeding colony and the other to be the feed off stock. Make sure you separate ones of all sizes so you have plenty of all sizes to take over breeding as it takes a female about 6 months to get to be of age to breed. If you do things right you will have a very successful colony in no time and a very happy beardie!

 

[Zach Lenners]

Welcome to the forum and to beardies!! Make sure you remove any un eaten crickets at night or when they are done eating as they are notorious for biting dragons causing wounds.
If you do an online search for driscoid roaches you will find suppliers for FL I think one of them I found doing some research was floridaroaches.com
they are very similar to the dubias. The biggest thing to remember is buy more than what you first need as you need to leave the colony alone for a good 6-8 weeks so they can settle and begin breeding, they really like to be left alone and if you are constantly in the colony moving them around and such they will not produce very well. So have 2 tubs for them 1 to be the breeding colony and the other to be the feed off stock. Make sure you separate ones of all sizes so you have plenty of all sizes to take over breeding as it takes a female about 6 months to get to be of age to breed. If you do things right you will have a very successful colony in no time and a very happy beardie!

Thank you! Yeah I do try to separate the crickets he doesn't eat, but I have caught him jumping off his rock to eat right before he goes to sleep and sometimes after I turn the lights off. My prediction is he eats about 15 crickets a day maybe a little less, I do try to put more but he doesn't seem to take on them. Watching some of the videos on youtube kind of has me worried because these babies are eating 50-60 roaches in a 15 minute period. Makes me think hes not eating enough. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Zach Lenners]

I am starting a colony also. I found a colony of about 100 a lot of females and males ready to breed. Hopefully they show up today. I scored it on one of the Facebook group Florida reptile

Awesome! I just built my own today!

 

[Hdrydr31]

Make sure that the last opportunity to feed is several hours before the lights go out as they have to have heat to digest their food and properly get the nutrients out of it. Food that sits un digested in a beardies belly can make them sick, or cause them to throw it back up. The crickets are nocturnal so they become more active at lights out. Each dragon is different in how much they eat and it varies from day to day even..
I know for mine she would eat the crickets but when I started giving her dubia she went crazy over them.. Which is fine with me as they are soo much better for them. Good luck with your colony

 

[Zach Lenners]

Make sure that the last opportunity to feed is several hours before the lights go out as they have to have heat to digest their food and properly get the nutrients out of it. Food that sits un digested in a beardies belly can make them sick, or cause them to throw it back up. The crickets are nocturnal so they become more active at lights out. Each dragon is different in how much they eat and it varies from day to day even..
I know for mine she would eat the crickets but when I started giving her dubia she went crazy over them.. Which is fine with me as they are soo much better for them. Good luck with your colony

That's awesome information thank you! I wish I could do a dubia colony but florida is a no go for those so discoid is the next best thing. Thanks for the reply and ill keep an eye out for these extra criclets. Also, what do you guys do to clean repticarpet?

 

[Hdrydr31]

Discoid's are just as good they just need a bit higher temps/humidity than dubias so your good there..

 

[Geneticjim]

I can't wait until I can start feeding out of my discoid colony! They are all settled in. I did grab the only small one I saw. My BD loved it

 

[Hdrydr31]

I can't wait until I can start feeding out of my discoid colony! They are all settled in. I did grab the only small one I saw. My BD loved it

oh yea they are meaty goodness for them lol just really be selective if you feed from them so you don't have to wait longer or buy more until they are producing/growing fast enough for your beardie.. that's what happened to me Izzy started pigging out she gotten older and bigger and now doesn't want any of the small nymphs but wants the med to adult and well she ate thru all my feeder of those sizes so I've been feeding off from my colony until my replacements come this week..

 

[Geneticjim]

oh yea they are meaty goodness for them lol just really be selective if you feed from them so you don't have to wait longer or buy more until they are producing/growing fast enough for your beardie.. that's what happened to me Izzy started pigging out she gotten older and bigger and now doesn't want any of the small nymphs but wants the med to adult and well she ate thru all my feeder of those sizes so I've been feeding off from my colony until my replacements come this week..

Thanks for the heads up! Do you dust them with anything?

 

[Hdrydr31]

Thanks for the heads up! Do you dust them with anything?

Yep I do the same supplements on all feeders the nice thing is their gi tract is way longer so gut loading lasts longer