My new dubia colonie

[bigt0006]

So i ordered a starter colonie and just got it all set up. Hopefully now i wont have to keep buying dubia for my beardie and Ts have 15 females and 5 males and about 200 assorted sized nymphs
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[PitOnTheProwl]

Nice. I have ben kicking the idea around myself but my wife has a mortal fear of roaches.

[DooLittle]

Nice. I have ben kicking the idea around myself but my wife has a mortal fear of roaches.

I'm with your wife. Those things are nasty.......

[MrLang]

I thought they were nasty at first and I was NOT into them for a long time but I really couldn't say anything better about them now that I have them. They don't jump, chirp, smell, or any of the things that make crickets a pain. They are EXTREMELY simple to keep and breed and you won't even know they're there. They have the best nutritional balance of any of the insects and you only have to feed 4-5 of them versus 30+ like crickets to a beardie.

Seriously, the longer you wait to start breeding these things the more you're going to kick yourself later. I've saved hundreds of dollars at this point. I throw them a scoop of the rat food and a scoop of water crystals twice a week and keep the tub behind the mini fridge where it's warm. That's it. I clean it once every 3 months. Yes, once every 3 months.

OP: congrats on the colony. My best advice is keep them warm (80-90) and don't feed out of it for 2-3 months. The females take probably 6 months from nymph to adult but then they live for a very long time as breeders. They also seem to breed better when they're very crowded, so wait till the colony is just clusters of them before starting to feed out of it.


EDIT: oh, and they can't climb smooth plastic... so easy to keep

another pro tip is to go to your local grocery store and get the store manager - tell them you are wondering if they have egg cartons kicking around because you want to do crafts with them. My local hannaford gave me a 5 foot sleeve of unused egg cartons that is going to last me years - for free

[I-KandyReptiles]

I wish we could have roaches here. I feel that I'd be better with roaches than those scary gross crickets.


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[bigt0006]

Crickets pissed me off. I couldnt keeo them alive longer then a week. So i started looking around and found out dubia are easy to keep and breed. Ive been buying small nymphs for my beardie my leos and my Ts. They like em alot better then crickets my beardie is still small probably 7 maybe 8 inches including tail and my leos are picky eaters and they eat dubia great before dubia they would only eat wax worms. So after buying dubia for a month i decided i was going to breed them. Still have a seperate bin full of small dubia nymphs that im feeding while the colonie gets going


Oh and from what ive read if any do happen to escape theres nothing to worry about they should die within a day or 2. Ive read horror stories of other roaches escaping and starting colonies think it was lobster roaches

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[Mike41793]

Nice. I have ben kicking the idea around myself but my wife has a mortal fear of roaches.

Whenever you're ready to convert shoot me a PM and I'll send you some.

Dubias are great. They take a little while to get going but once they're going they produce pretty well. There's no need to do anything except for feed and water them. When the cardboard gets nasty you can just replace it. They produce better with some heat.

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[Stewart_Reptiles]

Nice. I have ben kicking the idea around myself but my wife has a mortal fear of roaches.

I was the same way, I overcame that fear. I could not imagine breeding any other type of bugs anymore. They are easy to care for, don't stink, don't die on you like crickets, don't cannibalize their youngs, don't jump....really you should do it.

[Pyrate81]

Brief thread hi-jack, I get to play with Madagascar Hissing cockroaches on a weekly basis. They are super fun to get to hiss, even just by walking by the tank. They are for display but they do procreate so any babies do get fed off.

[BFE Pets]

dubia are nice but if you have lots of tarantulas I recommend B. lateralis all the way. they reproduce faster and are perfect size for even the smallest sling or the biggest T. they are egg layers so gathering the ooths weekly i'm able to keep them sorted by size with ease. the adults are about the same size as adult crickets and the babies are similar in size as new born crickets.