Dubia Roaches

I have just decided to start a dubia colony for my beardie since his eating habits are getting so expensive! I've just received 10 female and 4 male adult roaches. I also bought 100 small nymphs as I heard people say that already having nymphs helps to encourage breeding. I put 2 quarters of an orange in there and as soon as i put it in, they automatically went for them. I also put in a mixture of crushed cat food and calcium powder for actual food. I have a few egg containers in there. I don't have a heat mat but should have one in 2 days. I do also want to purchase water crystals. Would oranges provide enough hydration for them? I also plan to mist the cage with some warm water to help with humidity levels. Any advice? I'd appreciate all input.
Here's what my set up looks like:

It's good that they are eating and active. It may take a few months before you start seeing a significant second generation though. I don't use the water gels or misting. I just provide orange slices and fresh veges and they are OK with that. My colony LOVES squash. This is a good guide to follow for overall/general care. http://www.southtexasdragons.com/dubia-roaches.html I've found that they are pretty hardy and do well with very limited attention.

thanks a bunch

Yep, Coopers right....its going to be many, many months before your going to have a big enough colony to start feeding your dragon.
I've had some dubias and orange head roaches for about 6 months. I bought 100 of each them as large nymphs. My second generations are still too small to breed.
So be patient..don't give up or feed them off. You should also keep most of your 2nd generation, just feed off some males.
I prefer orange heads over dubias. They are bulkier so and not as ugly as dubias. But they do have a bit of a defensive smell. Its not too bad though, it only happens when they are disturbed.

Do you house the Dubia and orange head together? ABdragons was having a sale and I ordered orange head ones, can I just add the orange ones or start a new bin? Thanks for a response

Sorry didn't see this til now. No I don't house all the roaches together. I'm not sure how that would work out. I would just keep them separate.
I have ordered from ABDragons before, I think that's where I got mine from.

Adriana0918":1s9838dp said:

I have just decided to start a dubia colony for my beardie since his eating habits are getting so expensive!

Any advice? I'd appreciate all input.
Here's what my set up looks like:

Click to expand...

Adriana,

How is your Dubia colony going now? Do you have any issues because you have a clear bin, or do you keep the bin in a dark room/closet?

I just got my first Dubia roaches over the weekend (a few adult breeders and a sampling size). I should get my under tank heater, egg crates (12x12), and thermostat tomorrow or Wednesday. "Monster" (1 YO Bearded Dragon) really loved the sample roaches so I ordered a batch of 200 large nymphs to feed and hopefully some will also grow to adulthood to toss in to the breeding pool. Worst part so far was for my wife when she picked the roaches up from the post office and they shouted out, "Hey, the roach people are here!"

From what I was reading somewhere on an extremely long page somewhere, roaches do better with larger food (meaning it is not ground into oblivion powder) that is separated, such as a pile of high protein food, fruits/veggies and water crystals if needed. This way when they crave protein for growing, they can consume high protein food, and when they no longer crave protein, there are other options, so you don't 'force feed' too much protein. I think I also read that it is hard to give nymphs too much protein because they are growing so fast, but the adults need the options more as the excess protein turns into uric acid. In nature, roaches feed on protein and store the excess protein as uric acid and when the protein is no longer available, the uric acid is metabolized back into protein as it is needed (almost like a 'fat' store in the human body). But if someone feeds high protein food all the time the uric acid will just keep building up. That is actually a question for anybody that wants to chime in on what they have read and observed.

Taffer - owner of a 1 year old female bearded dragon named "Monster" ~20 inches long.

Taffer you are correct on much of that. Some roaches are more vegetarian than others. They do pick and choose what they want and need to eat. So feeding things separately is usually a good way to go. I don't do it that way though, I mix my own food for them and its powdered and mixed together. I feed it wet with orange juice at an oatmeal consistency and don't have to use water crystals. The uric acid issue from high animal proteins can be very unhealthy for the roaches, which in turn can be unhealthy for the dragon that eats them. Vegetable and plant proteins do not convert to uric acid. Its the purines that get converted to uric acid and most plant matter isn't comprised of purines. Beans and nuts do contain some purines but still at a lesser degree than animal proteins. I was feeding a diet high if alfalfa which is protein rich, but ran into a problem with it is after my colony got large my roach bin started having a really bad ammonia stink. The nitrogen levels of alfalfa was getting converted to ammonia...so I have really cut back on using it. Its too bad because alfalfa is actually good at preventing gout in your dragon.

Good information, thanks. I decided to start my own Dubia colony after doing a lot of research. My initial hesitation was the worry about them getting loose and infesting the house. I bought a 14 gallon Rubbermaid bin and but out the top and hot glues screening in there. More to protect unwanted bugs from going in because it sounds like they couldn't climb the walls of the bin anyway. I have a heating pad coming but I read that it's best to attach it to the side of the bin so the roaches can regulate their heat by moving to the opposite side.

LouP

Yeah, a lot of people tape heat tape around the outside of the bin. I tried it on mine, it wasn't keeping it very warm anywhere except near the wall of the bin. The roaches won't climb the bin, however some species can even climb glass. The lid is basically good for keeping phorid or fruit flies out. It keep light out and keeps humidity high.
My orange head colony is so large now I put a fan inside to bin to vent it. My bin is a huge Coleman cooler and I didn't want to put more holes in it. It looks nice and didn't want to make it ugly
I just posted a picture of one of type of bins in a thread about keeping dubias warm.

Lou, unless you keep your house REALLY WARM, you shouldn't have any issues with any escaped Dubia roaches breeding. First, only fully grown adults can breed, and Dubia roaches (at least the adults) are pretty poor climbers. It's almost as if when they molt that final time they lose a lot of their ability to climb...I'm basing that off of watching several I had in a bin today sorting out a few for feeding. The younger roaches could climb the slick tank while it was inverted fairly well, but the adults looked like they were on wet ice and couldn't climb. So escapees have to molt before becoming adults, and unless your humidity is probably 40% of higher (halfway guessing here), they may not survive the molting process to reach adulthood. And finally back to the temperature thing - Dubia roaches are "Tropical" roaches, meaning they are from Central America and they need warm/tropical temperatures to successfully breed. I've seen numbers all over the place, but the median values I've seen seem to suggest 90-95 degrees for good breeding. If you keep your house between 68 and 72, they won't be able to breed successfully.

The under tank heater I bought was 8"x8" and 8 watts, and it didn't provide crap for heat. I plugged it in straight without a thermostat and after 3 hours using an infrared heat gun the area the UTH was attached was only 88 degrees, so it wasn't going to provide enough heat to do the job. With something covering it, it may have struggled to get to 90 degrees at the bottom. So, I found a foot warmer on Amazon (search for Cozy Products FW Foot Warmer Heated Foot Warming Mat Rubber Design if you're interested) that puts out 90 watts (has a high and low setting), and I put it on my thermostat today. My plastic tank is slightly elevated (maybe 1/2 inch?) on the 4 feet that came with the UTH and it seems to be working well so the contact isn't direct. I need to go double check that the temperature probe is on the bottom of the tank, but when I looked earlier there were plenty of roaches on the bottom and the heat didn't seem to deter them from hiding there with the heat. I plugged a small power strip into the thermostat and plugged a lamp into the power strip while I worked today (I telework full time) and it seemed to be about a 20 minute on/20 minute off/cooldown time (ballpark) with the thermostat set at 93 degrees. Although after seeing Rankins insulation, that may be in the works down the road if I have any more issues maintaining heat. I screwed up with my first tanks because they were too small. I wanted the 12"x12" egg crates standing up so the frass would fall to the bottom and my tank was less than 12" high. I didn't want to reduce the size of the egg crate (trying to maintain as much real estate for them as I can for future growth), so I bought some 27 gallon totes from Home Depot for ~$11 each. The lids hold on well so if they get knocked over somehow the lid should stay put. I figured I'd want a little ventaliation to move air, so I'm letting physics do that for me. I'll cut a 6" hole in the top of the bin on one end, and cut a 6" hole in the tote on the opposite end on the vertical surface. As the heat rises and exists the hole in top, by default it will draw air in through the hole at the other end, slowly circulating the air.

Good idea about the foot warmer. I didn't realize they didn't have an automatic turn off like a heating pad.

Thanks guys,

So 14 gallons is not going to cut it I guess. :-( I bought that based on the fact that some people are using 10 gallons and I wanted to have some wiggle room. Dimensions are 15.9"l X 23.9"w X 12.2"h.

Also, I went and ordered the foot warmer, thanks for pointing that out. I'm going to need help with the heat as these are going to live on my basement floor.

LouP

Woah I guess we do learn new things every day.I my self am just getting ready to start breeding dubias ( I have about 16 nymphs ik I need more ) .I was also planning on breeding them in a 10 gallon .I use a UTH 8 watt version .Now that I read this I should have maybe done more research on whether this is a good set up ask for feed I give mine the Flukers high calcium diet and Flukers Quencher for water but I don't even see them come out .

This is why we're here. Most of us are learning. I'm kind of bummed I bought the 14 Gallon container and already did all that work on it. Oh well.

LouP