Colony starting questions, Dubia

[Nightshade15]

Hello,
So I only have one bearded dragon and I am not planning on getting any others, I just want to spoil her. However, I’m starting to plan a Dubia roach colony and I have a few questions. I live in a small apartment so I’m trying to keep it small, about a 20 gallon container that will go in my closet. My apartment stays at 78-82 degrees because I’m always cold and the humidity is pretty high due to my location and a few fish tanks in the apartment. Would a 20 gallon storage container with air holes in the closet and roughly 6 females and 2 males be enough to start the colony? And as far as heating would I need to heat it or is my ambient apartment temperature enough to produce? I have small Dubias I currently keep for feeding in the closet and I feed them a mixture of the veggies my beardie gets and fish food, is this an adequate diet for the breeding Dubias?

 

[CooperDragon]

Based on what I've seen, they will be fine at room temp. It may take a while to get a whole colony started with just a handful of adults. You might want to add a mix pack in there to create some different generations. Once it gets established though, it should be fairly hands off and thrive. I usually just feed leftover salads and veges from my dragon's food supplemented with some kitchen scraps. I will occasionally toss in a treat for them like orange slices (they love it) or some bread slices or pumpkin guts etc. They aren't too picky.

 

[Claudiusx]

Hi there,

The more you start with the quicker you will be able to feed out of it. But your numbers will work as long as you plan to leave them alone for a few months first.

I tried doing no heating and just room temp and it really didnt work for breeding at all. They all survived for a few months but no new babies. And a lot of my younger ones grew up, but no breeding. Now I have near 100 adult females lol.
I added heat (which is how I ran my colony years ago) and things are going much better.

All that's to say that you really should make sure they are able to stay in the 80-90 range to breed. They stayed in my dragon room which is the hottest room of the house, but of course once night comes and temps drop, it was getting too cold for them to want to breed.

-Brandon