Dubia colony not breeding

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rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
I have a colony of dubia roaches (majority juveniles). I added 12 adults to the mix at the start of December, 2 males, 10 females. Over 2 months later I'm down to 1 male, 8 females. And there are no offspring. The death rate is very low within the colony, around the heat mat it's 28-31°C. There's plenty of spaces to hide with some humidity. I feed them the veggies I feed my beardie, along with oranges and a few bits of dog food once in a while for protein.
 

CooperDragon

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It sounds like your setup is OK. I remember it taking several months for my colony to start breeding (although I started with mixed sizes no adults). Try adding some favorite foods to their meals. They seem to love squash and pumpkin and orange slices.
 

Claudiusx

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IMO and experience, a high of 87 at the hottest spot is too cool. That means the rest of the enclosure will be much lower temperature wise. I was having trouble getting my colony to initially kick off too. Until I made some temperature changes.

My heat mat covers about 80-90% of the bottom of the bin. And the thermostat probe for the temperature is set to 92 or 94. And I don't have it resting on the bottom. So the bottom actually gets warmer than that, but, that keeps the ambient air temp in there at around 85+. Since the egg crates allow them to move higher or lower (warmer or cooler) they get to pick which temp they like the best.

I used to just set it so that the heat mat at it's hottest was 85, no success. I'm sure if I measured the bottom of the bin now it would be more near 100 at the hottest.

You might try bumping your temps and seeing what happens. It helped a lot for mine.

-Brandon
 

rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
claudiusx":2spqni9n said:
IMO and experience, a high of 87 at the hottest spot is too cool. That means the rest of the enclosure will be much lower temperature wise. I was having trouble getting my colony to initially kick off too. Until I made some temperature changes.

My heat mat covers about 80-90% of the bottom of the bin. And the thermostat probe for the temperature is set to 92 or 94. And I don't have it resting on the bottom. So the bottom actually gets warmer than that, but, that keeps the ambient air temp in there at around 85+. Since the egg crates allow them to move higher or lower (warmer or cooler) they get to pick which temp they like the best.

I used to just set it so that the heat mat at it's hottest was 85, no success. I'm sure if I measured the bottom of the bin now it would be more near 100 at the hottest.

You might try bumping your temps and seeing what happens. It helped a lot for mine.

-Brandon


Oh wow, that's interesting I never heard of that. My heat mat doesn't have a thermostat on it as it's only about 7watts, and can't go any hotter unless I tape it to the inside of the bin. If I taped it on the side, would that be safe?
 

rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
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Claudiusx

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Wrapping a blanket around the bin would probably help more. Or some form of insulation.

It does take awhile for them to start breeding, but typically by 2-3 months you should start seeing your first babies. For instance, some of the females I initially bought when restarting my colony, came already pregnant. So I started seeing babies quick. But like I said, after a couple months I saw no more babies at all. Not until I raised the temp.

You might want to pick up a few more roaches if you can. The more you have, the sooner they will have a population explosion, which is what I'm currently experiencing right now.

-Brandon
 

MrSpectrum

Gray-bearded Member
rhaegaldrogo":wgu5xtbm said:
I have a colony of dubia roaches (majority juveniles). I added 12 adults to the mix at the start of December, 2 males, 10 females. Over 2 months later I'm down to 1 male, 8 females. And there are no offspring. The death rate is very low within the colony, around the heat mat it's 28-31°C.
Too cold. According to dubia breeding temperature (and every dubia breeding vid I've seen) it should be 90°-95°F (32°-35°C). :wink:

Non sequitur: Not to be pedantic, but shouldn't this thread be in Feed-ers? :?
 

rhaegaldrogo

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
MrSpectrum":2s4a7tgp said:
rhaegaldrogo":2s4a7tgp said:
I have a colony of dubia roaches (majority juveniles). I added 12 adults to the mix at the start of December, 2 males, 10 females. Over 2 months later I'm down to 1 male, 8 females. And there are no offspring. The death rate is very low within the colony, around the heat mat it's 28-31°C.
Too cold. According to dubia breeding temperature (and every dubia breeding vid I've seen) it should be 90°-95°F (32°-35°C). :wink:

Non sequitur: Not to be pedantic, but shouldn't this thread be in Feed-ers? :?

Oh sorry I didn't see that section ?. And I'll try see if I can increase the tempsz thanks guys :). One of my female roaches actually had babies earlier ??
 
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