How many Roaches to start a colony with?

Hey guys, specially Jamie, Peloquin etc.. who have experience in roach breeding.
I'm gonna order my first B. Dubias to start up a colony.
I've been reading most of the articles and posts about these, just the last question is still unclear - How many should I actually get so I'll be able to start a nice colony? For the time being, I'll probably breed these only for me, to feed my 2 beardies and the scorpions.

beardies..that food machines...200 adults will be ok i think...but that beardies eat like crazy...

you have to balance the food of your berdies..i mean 30% roaches and the other 20% crickets,worms and another 50% vegies..that will help your roaches colony grow faster rather than been eaten by beardies...and high temperature is a must for your colony!faster grow faster births!

Get as many as you can, then treat them as pets for 6 months. Dont dip in them for the males or anything. They vanish quickly so just dont use them. After 6 months they'll be breeding like mad if kept warm with loads of hiding places.

I agree with peloquin in that to get as many as you can and let them build up for a while. I've had mine going for a few months now and still going to let it build up more because my beardies would probably eat the hole colony in a day if I let them lol you know how beardies are eating machines. You could probably keep your scorps going on them pretty much straight away though I reckon.

Yeah, I will definitely leave them alone for a while. I don't know if you saw my other thread a few days ago, I am starting up simultaneously a major cricket breeding project so my beardies will eat off those.

Btw. do the Dubias need light? as I will be breeding everything in my basement.

Quite the opposite, they need dark!

That's a good idea to mix it up a bit, I'm not clued up on breeding crickets, seems harder than roaches. I've found superworms are good for bulking out a beardies diet as well because they're quite weighty and fill them up. Better goodness to chitin ratio than mealies also.

Thanks Jamie.
Perfect then, I have 2 heating cables coming in, so I'll use the other one for the roaches.
How big of a container did you set up for them?

I've been thinking about superworms, I think my little guy is still too small for them, but would they be safe to give to the red one? He's around 10-12" from nose to the end of tail. Or should I wait a while till he grows a bit more?