How do you guys manage food for your Beardies?

[Starbuck]

i would also go with roaches over crickets, if you are looking to have an in house colony. Crickets can actually be pretty tricky to breed, and smelly, and loud. The females need a wet place to lay their eggs, while roaches will carry a hardier ootheca around with them.
I have just two cricket eating geckos, and i will get about 4 dozen crixs a week and keep them in a cricket keeper, which works well for me. Beardies are bigger and will likely eat more, but as they get bigger they should start eating more greens over bugs, so maybe you wont go through them as fast?
Good luck.

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by Starbuck

i would also go with roaches over crickets, if you are looking to have an in house colony. Crickets can actually be pretty tricky to breed, and smelly, and loud. The females need a wet place to lay their eggs, while roaches will carry a hardier ootheca around with them.
I have just two cricket eating geckos, and i will get about 4 dozen crixs a week and keep them in a cricket keeper, which works well for me. Beardies are bigger and will likely eat more, but as they get bigger they should start eating more greens over bugs, so maybe you wont go through them as fast?
Good luck.

Originally Posted by Evolieno

Hopefully someone with a little but more experience will chime in... However, I only have one juvie Beardie at the moment. Got him about a month ago, and heard from several fellow Beardie owners that getting a roach colony would be the best way to go. I didn't want to have to go to the pet store several times a week, wanted to have the "never-ending supply" of food for my guy, and wanted to save some money in the long run. Chomper ate about 30 dubia roach nymphs in one day... Probably could've eaten more! You might want to look into roaches, I have heard it takes at least 7 crickets to equal the "meat" & nutrition of one roach. Plus, the roaches don't climb(well, the tiny ones can if you don't take precautions), they don't make noise, don't smell, breed well, are easier to digest, just all around better. If you're okay with crickets, then I would probably just breed them. It will save you a lot of money in the end, and you can always sell/give away if you end up with too many. Or get another reptile to help eat them Plus, with breeding your own insects you can control how they are taken care of and what they are ingesting(that they're healthier than what you'd get at a pet store). Hope this helps a little

It definitely helped, thank you. If I were to breed roaches, how fast does the colony grow? Let's say I buy 2 beardie juvies, and 2 leapord geckos. Would a colony eventually become overwhelming to the point where I would have too many to care for? I wouldn't have anyone to give or sell to.