Any people happy they made the switch to roaches.

[augsburg1530]

Theroachguy can answer this better, but I think adult dubia last 12-18 months. What I do is keep about 1 adult male for every 4 females and feed off mostly the male nymphs. I do keep back male nymphs to become the next generation of studd.

I started my colony with something like 100 adult females and 30 males with another 50 mixed nymphs thrown in and it took me about 5 months before I could begin feeding off them. The more adults you start with, the quicker you will begin to exponentially multiply.

Eric

 

[BestRoach]

After their final molt, 12-24 is to be expected. It depends on their care, and competition for food, etc. You should at least get two generations of new adults by the time the first set expires.

 

[Theroachguy]

Quick question ... As your colony grows and you start feeding the babies ... How long do the adult breeders live to keep reproducing? I imagine you have to let some babies stay as you go to get to breeder age right?

the adult female will produce for at least a year or more. like best roach says it would depend on the care of the roach

 

[jbodkin]

When do you know you are able to start feeding from your colony ... When you have a large number on babies and juvies? I guess you get a feel for how fast they reproduce and grow to keep from using up to much of the colony?

 

[augsburg1530]

What I do is feed off my nymph males. I keep enough aside to be the next generation studds and don't feed off the females. So as long as you have enough males set aside, you can then feed off the ones you don't need. I started off feeding 10 male nymphs a week, then 20, then 30 and now that their population has exploded, I am able to feed totally off the nymphs.

Finally, now that the population is exploding I can also start feeding off female nymphs because I don't need as many females in my colony.

Eric

 

[jbodkin]

At some point though (if you are feeding off all your Nymphs) you have to start leaving behind a few to become the next wave breeders (to replace the ones that die off at 1 - 2 yrs) ... Right? So it is kind of a cycle ...

Feed of males till the population gets large enough to feed off male and female Nymphs ... Then every few months let a few Nymphs grow to adulthood to rewnew the breeder stock.

I think I am getting it

 

[BestRoach]

The other option is to bite the bullet and buy a massive quantity. That way, you don't have to wait :lol:

 

[dawnki]

Maybe someone has already answered this.....but how do you tell if a dubia nymph is male or female????

 

[dociledragons]

roachguy,

what is the highest number of roaches do you recomend for a 35 gallon container?

 

[Falthazur]

I'm probably going to try to start a dubia colony pretty soon. A man at the local pet store just walked away with a few dubia for his pacman frog, and after starting a conversation (sparked more by asking to pet the mouse that was going to become snake chow XD) that the sales clerk jumped in on, she'll bring me a dozen of her teeniest dubias for my sorta teeny dragon (9 3/4" ) for Fal to taste-test along with my usual cricket haul.

If Fal gives the approval (which I know he will ^_~) then the worker'll work out selling me a handfull of adults to start a colony and I can say BUH-BYE to crickets! I am sick of the little hoppy smelly noisy blend-in-with-my-carpet ( ) buggers!

I just told my parents they look like pill bugs and pray that she doesn't say the word "roach" when they're in ear shot or else I'm screwed...

Now how many dubias will a 9 3/4" beardie go through in a day, keeping in mind I err more on the side of caution and feed about 3/4 the size of the space between his eyes?

 

[Rockymountain]

Ok - so i made the leap to dubias about a month ago. They are so easy to deal with. I'm amazed with them. My husband does not like them in the house at all so I put them in our spare bedroom so it's kind of out of sight out of mind. Tee Heee. I bought FROM Jason (The RoachGuy) http://www.theroachguy.com. Jason was fabulous to deal with and answered all my silly questions before I made the leap to order from him. I'm thinking of buying more next week to get the colony moving faster. I've only fed a few but Roxanne LOVES them. She came flying down off her log to see what was in her viv and devoured it in seconds. Order from Jason he did a fabulous job and everything I ordered arrived as expected.

 

[BestRoach]

Lots...younger dragons have big appetites. Depending on how many adults you get, it may be a wiser choice to let your colony breed for a few months before feeding off of it. This way, you won't run out of dubia.

To answer the question about tote size, a 35 gallon bin with at least 4-6 egg crates can hold several thousand full grown dubia.

 

[augsburg1530]

Maybe someone has already answered this.....but how do you tell if a dubia nymph is male or female????

here is a link to a great tutorial on sexing dubia
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=78729&p=614051&hilit=sexing+roaches#p614044

Eric

 

[augsburg1530]

At some point though (if you are feeding off all your Nymphs) you have to start leaving behind a few to become the next wave breeders (to replace the ones that die off at 1 - 2 yrs) ... Right? So it is kind of a cycle ...

Feed of males till the population gets large enough to feed off male and female Nymphs ... Then every few months let a few Nymphs grow to adulthood to rewnew the breeder stock.

I think I am getting it

Yep, you're getting it. One thing to keep in mind, once you have an established colony and your breeding numbers explode, you won't be able to feed off all your roaches anyway so you will always have some surviving to be the next generation breeders. When that happens you can slow down your breeders by lowering the temps. At lower temps roaches don't stop breeding but they will slow down significantly.

Eric

 

[Falthazur]

I've seen a lot of sites suggest cat food for a source of protein for dubias. Would beardie kibble work well too? Got a huge bag right here that of course Fal won't even look at. Here's the nitty gritty of the stuff from what I can see.

Crude Protein: 30% | Crude Fat: 3.4% | Crude Fiber: 3.7% | Calcium 1% ("Complete" beardie diet my fat fanny!)
Ingredients: Cereals, yeasts, and "Derivatives of vegetable origin." (What is this crap? Beardie spam!? Good thing Fal won't even eat it as a salad topper!)