Dubia Roaches for Chickens

[FortCluck]

I have been breeding Dubia Roaches for almost a year so I figured I’d share my very successful roach breeding I use for protein tr for my birds and as live feeders for my lizards.

I started out in a fish tank and built a huge colony. Now I’m to the point where I’m separating by size.

The large breeders have a reptile heating pad so they can successfully breed. We have about 20 males and 40 females. Extra males are either frozen for chickens or they’re fed live to our bearded dragon.

🕷These roaches are great and not like cockroaches people freak out about. They will not survive in most environments especially a house since they require moisture and heat (tropical)

Dubia can not climb up glass our plastic storage bins. If they somehow do, they will die due to the dry environment that’s found in houses. They love egg crates or egg cartons, they hide in the crevices.

They love foods like apples, lettuce, pears, and honestly any fruit or veggie that has moisture. They also eat Roach Chow, which can be purchased on amazon or online through Dubia Roach breeders. Feeding your roaches healthy whole food will add even more nutrition into the roaches when you feed them to animals (gut loading).

They do not smell at all. No one even knew what was in our second fish tank (old setup) until they’d see a roach or two coming to grab food.

If you have any questions feel free to ask...

New Setup the others bins aren’t filled yet because I need to separate them by size

Food example Spring mix lettuce sprinkled with Roach Chow

Egg Carton with roaches

Young Female Dubia Roach... Females have stripes and males do not plus a set of wings. Don’t worry the wings are just for show, they do not fly.

 

[Ruthster55]

How do their productivity and feeding costs compare with raising mealworms? In other words, to get an ounce of chicken treats, how do the inputs for the Dubia roaches compare to the inputs for mealworms?

Would there be any problem with feeding them dog chow + fruit, rather than the roach chow?

 

[FortCluck]

How do their productivity and feeding costs compare with raising mealworms? In other words, to get an ounce of chicken treats, how do the inputs for the Dubia roaches compare to the inputs for mealworms?

Would there be any problem with feeding them dog chow + fruit, rather than the roach chow?

Dog food isn’t meant for Dubia... they need roach chow. Dubia get the length of my palms so I’d say 20-30 meals worms equal 1 male roach.

 

[LapisLazuli]

Where do you recommend getting Dubia roaches?

 

[Ruthster55]

Will your chickens eat the really big Dubia Roaches, or do they prefer the smaller ones?

I looked on Chameleon Forums. I see that the dog food is an issue when you are feeding the Dubias to a reptile as the uric acid can cause gout in the reptile.

The main reason I'm thinking about raising a colony of insects is to reduce chicken feed costs and improve the quality of the chickens' diet a bit. My chickens go crazy for scrambled eggs, which tells me they would like a little more protein in their diet. Our eggshells are fine. There's no oyster shell here, so I bake and then crush eggshells into little tiny bits and put those in a little pile for the chickens. There's lots of broodiness, so therefore not too many eggs but lots of little chicks! That means that I am thinking about a year-round feed supplement...

Next month, we will have a bonanza of scarab beetles that are similar to June bugs. Because these beetles are pests, I collect them and feed them to the chickens. (The beetles eat orange tree flowers which means the tree can't set fruit). The chickens go crazy for the beetles!

I don't want to spend a lot of money on food for insects. Roach Chow is expensive here at $20-30/lb plus shipping.

I see people on the Chameleon Forum successfully feeding things like fruit and vegetable scraps, veggies, occasional rice or pasta, and the like to their Dubia Roaches. All these are either in the garden or pantry, so no problem.

Opinions seem to vary on Dubia Roach diet - https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/dubia-check-list.38705/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/dubia-roach-diet.77684/

P.S. I love your avatar of the queen holding a baby chick!!

 

[centrarchid]

I think chickens would eat them well. Mine consumed Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Chicks might have more than a little trouble with larger cockroaches, even though my 10-day old game chicks can take down mature female Chinese Mantids after a protracted battle.

 

[FortCluck]

Where do you recommend getting Dubia roaches?

https://dubiaroaches.com/

 

[FortCluck]

Will your chickens eat the really big Dubia Roaches, or do they prefer the smaller ones?

I looked on Chameleon Forums. I see that the dog food is an issue when you are feeding the Dubias to a reptile as the uric acid can cause gout in the reptile.

The main reason I'm thinking about raising a colony of insects is to reduce chicken feed costs and improve the quality of the chickens' diet a bit. My chickens go crazy for scrambled eggs, which tells me they would like a little more protein in their diet. Our eggshells are fine. There's no oyster shell here, so I bake and then crush eggshells into little tiny bits and put those in a little pile for the chickens. There's lots of broodiness, so therefore not too many eggs but lots of little chicks! That means that I am thinking about a year-round feed supplement...

Next month, we will have a bonanza of scarab beetles that are similar to June bugs. Because these beetles are pests, I collect them and feed them to the chickens. (The beetles eat orange tree flowers which means the tree can't set fruit). The chickens go crazy for the beetles!

I don't want to spend a lot of money on food for insects. Roach Chow is expensive here at $20-30/lb plus shipping.

I see people on the Chameleon Forum successfully feeding things like fruit and vegetable scraps, veggies, occasional rice or pasta, and the like to their Dubia Roaches. All these are either in the garden or pantry, so no problem.

Opinions seem to vary on Dubia Roach diet - https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/dubia-check-list.38705/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/dubia-roach-diet.77684/

P.S. I love your avatar of the queen holding a baby chick!!

I think feeding roaches fresh produce and high protein chicken feed would work. Like flock raiser or something similar.

 

[FortCluck]

I think chickens would eat them well. Mine consumed Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Chicks might have more than a little trouble with larger cockroaches, even though my 10-day old game chicks can take down mature female Chinese Mantids after a protracted battle.

Chicks would like the small size. They’re good for leopard geckos too.

 

[Ginmary]

Where do you recommend getting Dubia roaches?

Most exotic pet stores and local pet stores that sell lizards will carry them.