Dubia Roaches

I got a few dubias last Saturday. I bought about 7 or 8 females and a few males. Right now I have them in a small container but tomorrow, I'm moving them up to a 56qt tub. I heard these guys were easy, but I didn't think they were this easy! I literally just threw them in with some egg carton and toilet paper rolls and gave them some orange slices. I just found over 30 babies crawling around the container and many of the females are still fat.

Are oranges all they need or would providing other food in addition to the oranges be better? I was told all they needed was oranges. That's all I've been feeding them for a week. I was thinking of providing a mix of dog food and oats as a dry food.

How long does it take them to grow up into breedable adults? These things are awesome! And no smell! All I can really smell is a very faint smell that is almost citrus like. Its not offensive at all. I can't wait to see what my leo thinks of these.

I feed mine all sorts of stuff. Bananas, mangos, apples, etc...anything that isnt fresh.

The more heat you give them, the faster they will grow, and the more they will eat.

They mature in about 4-5 months and will live about 12 after that. A small colony will take a while to start up. I would leave them alone for about 6 months.

We have some.... Well a lot lol. We give them water crystals,oats,oranges,apples .... They are easy to take care of. No smell really so that's a good thing. Once they get breeding and your number of adults increase then you can start feeding off a few. Our Sav just loves them!

im thinking about starting a colony for my emperor pair as crickets are annoying and they die quite fast and im getting annoyed of running to the pet store every week for crickets.
what size tub would i need?
also where would i get some?

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Originally Posted by mark and marley

im thinking about starting a colony for my emperor pair as crickets are annoying and they die quite fast and im getting annoyed of running to the pet store every week for crickets.
what size tub would i need?
also where would i get some?

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a big tub from wals mart would do well...dont know size but enough so theyll expand and you dont have to worry about being too small...i got my dubias on kingsnake and it was free shipping i believe.

thanks ill check em out there.
:hijackd:sorry

Oh another question about these guys. How often does a female have babies? I am assuming she has several sets of babies throughout her lifetime. The little babies are scurrying around. They are in the 56qt now and I realize I need more adults! I'm going to the store tomorrow for live feeders and will probably be picking up more.

When I kept dubias I essentially fed roach chow from http://www.theroachguy.com/ exclusively. I also used water crystals to provide moisture.

I went from one hundred or so to THOUSANDS (so many I couldn't count) in the biggest tub I could get at wal-mart. Seriously, go as big as you can.

They really are super easy, pretty much feed and forget. Once a colony gets going, there is no stopping it :D

I lost one male, but other than that these guys I've pretty much just left alone except for giving them some oats and oranges. Do you think they'd eat that powdery stuff at the bottom of rodent lab block bags? I have an almost unlimited supply of that stuff. If I could use it as roach food, that would be awesome. If not, then I'll stick to a homemade food.

I'm pretty sure I have more babies. They are almost.....cute. :P If I can I plan on getting 20-30 more adults. My tub's not very big and I currently don't have space for a bigger one. Once I move I might be able to up the size of the tub and go bigger. Dubia roaches as food are not very common in my area. So far only one store carries them. I got them to breed so I'd have a good supply of feeders for when I start breeding leopard geckos but for right now I just have the one leo. I could sell extras to people in my area. :D Once the colony gets going anyway. I'm also trying my hand at super worms. I've got about 7 or 8 pupa and 1 beetle. They are sooo slow.

I got 20 more roaches. 5 males and 15 females. :D I can't wait to start seeing a whole bunch of little baby roaches. I think this is it for buying any more. While these are incredibly cheap, 29 adult roaches and their babies are enough for now. I'm basically just going to feed them and leave them alone to produce babies. I probably have around 30-40 babies right now.

Yes, they will most definitely eat powdered rodent block food. They love the stuff, way more protein than oranges too.

Thanks.

With the addition of the 15 new females, my tub is bursting with babies. I was gone for a few days and when I checked on them this morning, I found a ton of babies. There is over 100 and I think the first batch has already molted once. This is soooo incredibly easy!

I have 29 adults and over 100 babies in a 56qt tub. How many adults and babies can you house in a tub this size? I plan on getting a bigger tub once I move, but if I can fit more adults in this tub, I'd like to get more.

They like, and can withstand an incredible population density. They like being close to each other, and the babies benefit from many adults because until they reach their first molt they only eat the frass (poops) of the other mature roaches.

I've got a 56quartish bin, (not the super big ones, but the 18hx22l by 18w ish) ones and I think i've started reaching the population density for the bin. I've got at least 2000 roaches in it. I've got a video up on youtube showing all the bugs-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QW3e...el_video_title

Vertically stacked egg crates (allow the frass and molts to fall to the bottom) are what I use for hides. Other than gutload (fruits.veggies,etc) they get a mixture of cat food, roach chow, puff cereal, protein and whey powder and whatever else I find that I toss in there. I have found that if they are not getting enough protein in their diet they will start nibbling at the males wings (you can see in the vid that quite a few of my older males have ratty wings). I've adjusted the food, and have found that the newly molted males are left alone. Scraps at the end of "pet food" bags, rodent seed, etc. Anything with a decent nutritional value is good. They're ROACHES they'll eat anything. I give them leftover pasta, sometimes a piece of pizza or a cookie, whatever is laying around.

Females have babies every 30-40 days, and they live for 9-13ish months, I started noticing die off after about 12 months for my original colony. I will open the bin and find someone dead every once in a while, it's not a cause for concern as long as everyone else is happy. Do be ware, mold WILL kill them. I had a little mold issue in the colony a few months ago and lost a few adults and nymps. Watch the ventilation, and make sure things have a chance to dry out. It's a delicate balance, too little humidity and they die during molts, too much and the food molds and kills them anyway.

I love having them, if I had to deal with crickets I wouldnt have nearly the number of insect eating animals that I have. I even offer a package deal sometimes for new gecko owners to get a gecko and a starter colony of roaches if they want to try out the dubias. They're catching on :)

I've mentioned dubias to a few people who have come into the Petsmart I work in. Most people give me this face that says "You raise WHAT in your house?" I've offered my sister some dubias for her bearded dragon once I get the colony going but she refuses. She's terrified of roaches. She was in my reptile room a week ago and I took the roach bin out and opened the lid. She was starting to freak out, especially when I picked a roach up and held it on my finger. I tried explaining they didn't bite, but she wouldn't listen.

Is it weird that I almost think they are cute? If I can get this colony up and going and produce enough, I'm definitely going to get more leos and maybe even get a few new species of gecko and lizard.

We're getting ready to buy a colony ourselves so I'm glad to hear it's simple!

sent from my EVO

What are you feeding these little guys off to? One thing I would like to point out is that gutloading your feeders is essential. Whatever your roaches eat, your animals eat as well. I like to feed my Dubia collard greens, dandelion greens, kale, butternut squash, orange, apple, carrot, papaya, and more. I also provide them with a dry gutload that has spiranela and other stuff (don't remember what else, lol). I recommend doing a search on your pets diet requirements and go from there... Some fruits and veggies can be harmful to your critters if the roaches eat it. I gutload according to my Chameleons requirememts, feeding dog, cat, or fish food has WAY too much protein which is not good for some critters. :) Also, you don't really need to provide them with water crystals, they can live off of the moisture from really juicy fruits and veggies like orange and cucumber. Oranges will make your colony produce a bit quicker (don't know why I need to research it). Sorry I wasn't able to get into full detail for you but I hope I helped a bit. :)

um yes you are weird to think that they are cute!!!!! Of course my asf's are growing on me and hate to feed them off :(

I cringe to think of bringing them in for my beardie and keeping them but would love too for his sake. maybe the next show Ill have to look around for them.

I will be feeding them off to leos and bearded dragons eventually. For now I'm just trying to grow up a colony. In all honesty, I just have no room to keep fresh veggies and fruits in the house. (Due to our house guest, the small fridge we have is full to bursting with her food. We barely have space to put a 1/2 gallon jug of milk) Once we move, my husband and I are making some big changes in our diet and having fresh fruits and veggies around will be one of the changes. I will have plenty of fresh foods to offer the roaches. As leos and beardies both have calcium requirements, would adding food like kale and butternut squash help with calcium intake? I just read up on foods high in calcium and those two and oranges were on the list. So were oats.

I'll have to do a bit more research on the nutrient requirements of leos and beardies and adjust the diets of my roaches accordingly. (I'm not aware of any foods I SHOULD NOT feed to the roaches because they could be toxic to my leo, but if anyone knows of any, please let me know)

So feeding the insects a diet that is designed for the nutrient requirements of the lizard, would it be best to have separate colonies going if you had another species with vastly different requirements and feed them a different diet? For instance, the cham that was mentioned, doesn't need a whole lot of protein, but some lizards would do best with a high protein diet. Would it be better to then have two separate colonies of dubia roaches and have them fed on different diets to cater to the needs of the different species of lizard?

(Not that I plan on having a crap ton of different lizard species, but just a thought.)

as long as you don't go overboard on the protien for the roaches most critters won't have a problem handling it, I feed dubias to beardies, leos, cresties, tokays, pacman frogs, pyxie frogs and several different tree frogs, all are healthy and have no problems.

For feeding my colony it's fresh greens leftover from the beardi salads twice a week, oranges once a week, and cat food and water crystals in the bins full time.

With the cat food, I've noticed they eat better if it's been run through the blender to powder it first.

Currently have 5 18g tubs of roaches.

I"m curious. How do dubias react if they get out. Do they freeze or do they scurry off like native north american roaches?

I'm also wondering how they'd fair if they got loose. My husband isn't too happy about the roaches in the house, but he figures if they stay in the tub and NEVER get out, he's okay.

A few of my females are nice and fat. More babies on the way.

I have one or two colonies of dubias for several years. If they get loose in the house, they will not breed and eventually die off. They need the warm temps to survive. I hate crickets and after a big escape in my home, will never have them again. I have developed an allergy to the dubias, which I have heard is not unusual. So, my wife handles them. Regardless, I'd rather have dubias in the house than crickets any day. Good luck with your colony.

I have tons of babies. I wouldn't be surprised if I had well over 200. One problem I'm having is the food molding too fast. It seems to be molding within a day so I'm having to replace it very often. I think this house just has higher levels of mold in general. I can actually see different groups of babies. One group is just a bit longer and bigger than the other group, so I think they've molted at least once. I haven't lost any more adults so far. Other than the food molding, these things are incredibly easy. There isn't a large accumulation of poo either. The babies seem to be taking care of that. I only see small amounts along the edges of the tub.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I have tons of babies. I wouldn't be surprised if I had well over 200. One problem I'm having is the food molding too fast. It seems to be molding within a day so I'm having to replace it very often. I think this house just has higher levels of mold in general. I can actually see different groups of babies. One group is just a bit longer and bigger than the other group, so I think they've molted at least once. I haven't lost any more adults so far. Other than the food molding, these things are incredibly easy. There isn't a large accumulation of poo either. The babies seem to be taking care of that. I only see small amounts along the edges of the tub.

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Too moist = mold. Stop what you are feeding. Get the cheapest cat food you can find and grind it up in a coffee grinder. Throw it in there with a little bit of cricket gell and you will have no mold and they will eat it up. Supplement every once in a while with an apple or other piece of fruit.

Here is a picture of a newly molted roach. I found two of these in the bin when I put some food in there today. I'm sure there are more, I just didn't look very hard. I believe this is one of the first batches of babies. This would be the 2nd molt I think. How many molts do they go through before becoming adults? I know it takes 3-4 months to become adults. This is a little more than a month old.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...727_115738.jpg

If you are seeing molts, that is good - your humidity is spot on. I never counted or tried to count the molts. My colony is thousands and thousands strong and keeping up with molts would be impossible.

They sold so well at the last show, we're branching out our colony to another bin. All I do is what I've put above - cat food, some occasional fruit and cricket gel. Leave them alone, they breed better when warm, dark and left alone. After a while, you will have so many you will be shocked.

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Originally Posted by Don

If you are seeing molts, that is good - your humidity is spot on. I never counted or tried to count the molts. My colony is thousands and thousands strong and keeping up with molts would be impossible.

They sold so well at the last show, we're branching out our colony to another bin. All I do is what I've put above - cat food, some occasional fruit and cricket gel. Leave them alone, they breed better when warm, dark and left alone. After a while, you will have so many you will be shocked.

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This exactly. I feed from the bin maybe 3x a week, other than that they are left with their heat pad, in the dark, in the laundry room which is the least used room in the house.

If you're experiencing mold issues, you have too much humidity. Get more ventilation or less moisture. I have NEVER misted the tub, i just change the size of the water bowl/crystals available depending on the season (bigger bowl in winter, smaller bowl in summer).

To answer a few questions - I keep mine in a tub in my snake rack. Perfect temp. The tub is a 31 quart which has no air holes in it to retain humidity. Rodent chow is perfect to feed them - high in protein which should increase your reproduction. Supplement this with greens, veggies and fruits. Don't put it on your egg crate! It will soak up the water and get funky.

My Beardies love them. They have a very high meat to chitin ratio.