Can Crested Geckos Eat Dubia Roaches?

When keeping crested geckos, it’s important to feed your pet a variety of food types to ensure they get all the nutrients they need.

For example, crickets are a great source of protein but don’t have much fat or calcium; however, Dubia roaches have plenty of both!

In this article, we will discuss the pros and cons of feeding your crested gecko with roaches as their primary source of food. 

Can Crested Geckos Eat Dubia Roaches?

Yes, crested geckos can eat dubia roaches.

How Many Dubia Roaches Should You Feed Your Crestie?

When it comes to feeding dubia roaches to crested geckos, they are pretty much as nutritious and high-protein as crickets.

The difference is that roaches have more fat and calcium, which is beneficial for maintenance and breeding.

As a general rule, an adult crested gecko can eat around 10 roaches per day, juveniles need about half that amount, and baby crested geckos about 2-3 a day.

Keep in mind that the size of the roaches will influence the amount you feed your gecko.

Bigger roaches have more nutritional value than smaller ones. 

Nutritional Value of Dubia Roaches

2 Steps on How To Feed Dubia Roaches To Your Pet

Dubia roaches don’t bite or sting, so they are relatively easy to handle.

The best way to feed your cresties is to place the roaches in a bowl and place the bowl inside the gecko’s enclosure.

Your gecko will then go out and hunt the roaches all by itself.

If, on the other hand, you want to feed roaches to your gecko using tweezers, then there are a couple of tips you can follow. 

• First, make sure the roaches are at room temperature so they don’t startle your gecko. 
• Second, don’t handle the roaches too much while they are in the bowl. Instead, place the bowl near your gecko’s enclosure and wait for it to come out and eat them. 

If you are feeding roaches to juveniles, you can just place them in a small bowl near the gecko’s enclosure.

Gut Loading 

Gut loading is feeding the roaches a nutritious diet so they have more vitamins and minerals.

For example, you can feed the roaches a diet that’s rich in calcium and vitamin D3 to make them even better for feeding your gecko.

You can feed the roaches meal worms, calcium-fortified crickets, or even a calcium supplement. There are also premade gut-loading formulas that you can buy.

Always read the label to make sure it’s safe to feed roaches and that it’s effective.

You can also gut-load the roaches with different types of food to make sure they get all the nutrients they need.

This will help the crested geckos grow up strong and healthy.

Dusting

Giving the dubia roaches a light dusting of calcium carbonate now and then is a good idea. This is especially true if your gecko is eating a lot of roaches.

You can simply mix a calcium powder with water and dip a small paintbrush into it.

Then, using a light touch, paint each roach with the calcium solution before feeding it to your gecko.

This will help prevent your gecko from developing metabolic bone disease.

Just make sure to dust the insects with calcium sparingly because it can lead to a buildup in the gecko’s system.

Summary

Yes, crested geckos can eat dubia roaches. Crested geckos should eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of insects like crickets, mealworms, fruits, and roaches.

If you’re keeping a breeding colony of crested geckos, it makes sense to feed the roaches to your geckos.

This can reduce costs and effort, and your geckos will get all the nutrients they need.

Keep in mind that you should only feed adult roaches to crested geckos.

And always make sure to dust or gut load the roaches by feeding them a nutritious diet.

This will help your geckos get the vitamins and minerals they need.