Babies!! (and other Dubia related stuff)

[c4chaos]

I've had my dubia colony since December. Nothing was happening. I talked with other dubia breeders both online and in person at expos and they said I was doing everything right.

Today I open up the bin and there were babies! YAY - FINALLY!!!!

So a few questions:

- How often do you mist your bin? Humidity is important... I use a spray bottle, but am never sure how much or how often I should mist them.
- I have a shipment of 500 baby dubia coming in sometime in the next few days. Can I put them in the breeder bin or will that overwhelm the adult females?
- How often do you check on your roaches? I know you're supposed to leave them alone as much as possible.
- Other than using the bucket sorting method, is there another way to sort different sizes? I was considering getting a like a colander or something that already has holes so I don't have to spend an afternoon drilling holes into buckets. My colony isn't big enough to sort quite yet, but I'm waiting for the day when I'll have to.

I have more questions, but don't remember them at the moment.
Thanks for your feedback!

 

[Soulwind]

I don't mist my bins at all.
The dish of water crystals evaporating in the warmth provides enough humidity while keeping mold from
becoming an issue. No mold and no molting deaths so far....

If you are wanting to use the 500 new nymphs to expand your colony, sure throw them in. It's not like
the adults are burping and changing diapers on the nymphs or anything. Know that it takes about 6 months
for a baby nymph to grow up into a breeding adult though, so those 500 babies aren't going to be doing anything
productive for quite a while.

If you're planning on feeding those 500 nymphs off anytime soon though, then you'd do better to have them
kept in a seperate "feeder" bin. One of your goals should be to disturb (ie clean, sort, pull from, etc) the
breeder bin as little as possible. I only pull feeders out of my breeding bin about once per month and transfer
them into my "feeder" bin that I don't worry about messing with, since they'll never reach breeding age in that bin.

Anything with smooth sides and the proper sized holes can work for sorting. For Frass/Babies seperation, a
collander does work well if you don't want to drill a bucket. Larger sized seperation may be hard to find anything
with proper sized holes though.

 

[unkempt1]

As always, not only does Soulwind beat me to the punch, but I agree with what he says. :mrgreen:

One thing I have is a half-full water bottle with holes punched in the cap, and all along the wide area right below the neck of the bottle. I keep it on a corner of the warm side they don't spend a lot of time on. All of my roaches molt normally. I also include fruits and water crystals that help the humidity, but my home has really low humidity and I work long hours, so I have the bottle in there as a backup.

Edit: I almost forgot - congrats on the newborns. Got enough cigars? :lol:

 

[DawnsNova]

My colony is finally at the right temp and humidity levels. I'm pretty sure at least one egg sack hatched at some point since I shook the egg crates today and at least 30 nymphs were on the bottom of the bin. I got my initial colony on January 11. I got additional adults and some mixed sizes about a week later bringing my totals to about 15 adult females, five adult males and a few hundred mixed sizes. When I can, I know I need many more breeders to be able to support my bottomless dragon. Anyone out there have a colony roughly the same size? If so, how much ground chow do you go through? Even though I change it regularly, it doesn't seem like the chow is getting eaten very much. Fruit gets picked at, but I always end up removing the fruit unfinished before it goes bad. With the exception of sheds, there is very little fras. So far I have only seen one female with a visible egg sack, the day after I received the first batch. Should I be seeing more egg cases? How long do the females run around with the sack sticking out before they move it into their brood pouch? What do I do if I find an abandoned sack?

 

[unkempt1]

It's going to take a bit more time than what you've given them.

Sounds like you bought them and a few days later started shaking egg crates. If I were you I would only do that when separating and cleaning. Too much poking around in the bin will cause the females to stress out and abort the egg sacs. If you find an egg sac leave it for a few days; I have read situations where a released egg sac still hatches.

You have a very small colony. I'm not surprised at all it seems like they are only picking at the food (but trust me, as long as you don't bother them too much and keep them in a dark place they WILL eat it).

Give them 2-3 months. You'll see them turn into little decomposers in no time. :twisted: