Dubia Roaches

[mainbutter]

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

[Jay_Bunny]

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.

[cinderbird]

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

[Jay_Bunny]

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.

[jbean7916]

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

sent from my EVO

[PrettyInInk87]

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.

[rperry03]

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.

[Jay_Bunny]

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.)

[dpal666]

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.

[Raptor]

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