How many dubia roaches should I feed my adult leopard geckos?

[arielallison]

I just bought 3 dozen dubia roaches, my goal is to buy enough food for my geckos to last a month because the shop I like going to is a good 30 minute drive out of my way. They're small roaches, as that is all the shop had available at the time. I'm following Elizabeth Freer's recommended feeding schedule, so I'll be feeding Lilith and Louise every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. I plan to feed dubia on Mondays and Thursdays, and mealworms on Saturdays. My question is how many small roaches should be fed to my geckos per feeding? I know that dubia roaches have more meat on them compared to crickets, so it makes sense to feed them less dubia roaches in one sitting than I would crickets. I need to know so I have a better idea of how many I should buy when I make my monthly trip to the reptile shop. Thanks!

 

[arielallison]

Also, to avoid feeding the roaches too much protein, as they are already quite high in protein naturally, should I switch from Zoo Med's Natural Adult Bearded Dragon food to Repashy's Bug Burger to gutload my dubia roaches (and mealworms)? The former has minimum 16% protein and the latter has 13%. Not a huge difference, I'm just looking for a way to safely offer Dubia as a staple in my leopard geckos diets, because I loathe crickets. I had them for a short time and that was enough.

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Also, to avoid feeding the roaches too much protein, as they are already quite high in protein naturally, should I switch from Zoo Med's Natural Adult Bearded Dragon food to Repashy's Bug Burger to gutload my dubia roaches (and mealworms)? The former has minimum 16% protein and the latter has 13%. Not a huge difference, I'm just looking for a way to safely offer Dubia as a staple in my leopard geckos diets, because I loathe crickets. I had them for a short time and that was enough.

It's the food in the crickets' or roaches' intestinal tracts that counts. Roaches are supposed to have longer intestinal tracts than crickets do.

I'd stick with Zoo Med's Natural Adult Bearded Dragon Food. 16% protein is just right! It's protein content above 16% that I worry about.

I switched all my crickets and dubia to Zoo Med's Adult Bearded Dragon Food. This year I've had excellent success with 2 female "chirper" geckos! 11 eggs to date. Now for hatchlings, I hope!

 

[arielallison]

I've read some about the whole Gout concern and 16% protein, while low, I just worried maybe wasn't low enough? I guess a 3% difference probably wouldn't make or break anything though. I just wanted to be sure 16% was low enough for safe use with my geckos. I tend to think about every little thing so I'm bound to ask some silly and possibly annoying questions, so hopefully it doesn't come off that way! So thank you, I'm relieved that I can continue using what I have. They're being fed and/or gutloaded on the dragon food and organic mustard greens as we speak! I'm going to try introducing them to the dubias tonight, still unsure of how many to offer though!

 

[CWilson13]

I feed both of mine dubias regularly and the amount varies. Some days they can't get enough and others they just eat one or two before walking away. I would start with between 5-8 and see how it goes, just remember, the smaller the dubias the more your Leo's will eat