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Part of keeping your crested gecko healthy is ensuring that they eat a balanced diet. While they are easy to maintain and feed, there are some uncertainties about their diet that you would have as an owner.
For example, can crested geckos eat dubia roaches?
Yes. Crested geckos can eat dubia roaches. In fact, Dubia roaches are recommended as one of the staple live feeder insects fed to crested geckos. They are a great option because of their high nutritional value.
Below, we explain everything you need to know about feeding dubia roaches to your crested gecko.
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What Does a Crested Gecko Eat?
Crested geckos are omnivorous. They eat a wide range of foods, including insects, fruits, and nectar, in the wild.
In captivity, they feed on commercial crested gecko diets mainly, making them relatively easy to handle.
However, to thrive, they need more than just commercial crested gecko food. Below, we outline some other foods that crested gecko owners feed their pets:
- Fruits and Vegetables
- Vitamins and Mineral Supplements
- Insects and worms
Pets love their treats, and crested geckos are not any different. Many crested gecko owners feed their crested geckos insects, worms, fruits, and vegetables as treats.
Note that it is best to feed your crestie a balanced diet that comprises both insects and commercial feed.
As aforementioned, the Dubia roaches are a perfect meal for your crested gecko.
Over the last few years, this delicacy has been going up the ranks among crestie owners because they are highly nutritious, and you can alternate them with crickets. Additionally, the roaches keep your gecko busy as the gecko can hunt them for fun.
However, they are not as easy to find as crickets and are a little pricier.
If you still feel that your lizard needs to try this delicacy, read on.
Read More: Baby Crested Gecko Care Guide!
How to Feed Your Crested Gecko Dubia Roaches?
The first step towards feeding your crestie with roaches is to prepare them. But how exactly do you prepare them?
Keeping the Dubia Roaches
You will likely buy roaches in a small container. However, when you get home, you may want to store the insects in a tall, large container with smooth sides to prevent them from jumping or climbing out of the container.
Ensure that the container has a secure screen lid.
Gut Loading
As a crested gecko owner, you know that store-bought insects are not always ready to be fed to your pet.
The dubia roaches and other insects are fed low-nutrition diets, and feeding your crested gecko with these roaches as they are from the store means that they are not getting optimum nutritional value.
Gut loading helps give the roaches the necessary nutrients that will be passed down to your gecko when they eat.
Gut loading involves feeding the insects with fruits and vegetables for some time before feeding them to your pet.
Ideally, you should wait for at least 12 hours but not more than 24 hours after gut loading to feed your gecko with the roaches.
If you wait beyond a day to feed the roaches to your gecko, the roaches will have digested the food, and their nutritional value will have also gone lower.
Some of the ideal foods for gut loading include:
- Citrus fruits
- Dark green vegetables
- Carrots
- Apples
- Grains
Ensure that the fruits and vegetables used for gut loading insects or as treats for your pet are clean.
Remember that you can also gut load insects with commercial gut loading powder. However, real fruits and vegetables are ideal.
Dusting
Dusting is the process of adding supplements to insects before feeding them to your reptilian friend.
Usually, dusting is done to add calcium, which is essential for healthy bone growth and development. Other vitamins and nutrients commonly found in dusting powder include vitamin A and D3 and phosphorus.
It is best to use ultra-fine dusting powder as fine powder sticks better on the exoskeletons of insects.
So, how do you dust insects?
Dusting is a simple three-step process.
First, you place a small number of dubia roaches in a container. Next, you add a small amount of supplement to the dubia roaches, and lastly, you shake the container.
Shake gently, but enough to ensure that the supplement powder coats the insects evenly. Feed the dubia roaches to your crested gecko soon after dusting
Note that crested geckos that are fed on commercial feed get sufficient vitamin D3.
Read More: Crested Gecko Shedding Guide
How Many Dubia Roaches Should You Feed Your Crested Gecko?
The number of dubia roaches that you can feed your crested gecko will depend on its age.
Younger crested geckos tend to eat larger quantities of dubia roaches compared to older or full-grown crested geckos.
You can feed your baby crested gecko between 25 and 50 roaches daily. This portion is to be consumed in two to three feedings.
On the other hand, your fully-grown crested gecko should consume only three to five roaches a day in two to three feedings.
The size of the roaches also matters. Ideally, the roaches you feed should be smaller than the space between the crested gecko’s eyes.
Even though dubia roaches are an excellent live feeder insect for your gecko, it is wise to supplement it with other insects and food options to give your pet a variety.
Conclusion
It’s now clear that crested geckos can be fed on dubia roaches. They are a great alternative because they have a higher nutritional value than other insects, such as crickets. Also, they have all the nutrients the crested gecko requires to live and stay healthy.
To provide even more nutritional value for your crested gecko, ensure you dust and gut load the dubia roaches before feeding. Ensure that you alternate this delicacy with crickets and fruits and vegetables to keep your gecko happy and healthy.