couple questions about starting dubia colony

[ash0587]

even though I am deathly afraid of insects, after only having yoshi for 3 weeks, and thanks to midmichicer for posting the vid of his colony, I've decided I think I want to start a dubia colony, but I have a few questions.
first of all, does anyone have a really good descriptive care guide with pictures? I've gotten a lot of the info through just reading posts over the last few weeks, but having a nice guide to access when problems arise would be pretty stellar.
secondly, these water crystals everyone uses, is there a specific brand or can I use the ones from the local craft store? I think I even have a pack left over from my wedding, sitting up in my box of crap that never sold on craigslist
Thirdly, for those who own these awful creatures known as cats, how do you secure the screen to the boxes so when annoying cats get onto the box the screen doesn't crash through letting all the little roaches escape? I used hot glue to "secure" the screen on my "cricket" keeper (which has only had roaches in it thus far) and my cats of course go nuts over the neato box full of fast moving crawly things, and have already broken the screen, which is temporarily being held on with tape, and is being kept in a closet where no kitties can get to it.
and finally at what age did you guys start feeding adult dubia to your dragon? I know they all grow at different rates and such, but I find it hard to believe that yoshi will be 16 inches long (or longer) within a year and would hate to have a ton of adult roaches that I can't use.
Oh yeah and post your pics of your colony too so I can "borrow" everyone's awesome ideas!
Oh and thanks for being such a great community of people! I am so glad I found these boards, Yoshi is going to have such a better life because of all the info you've all shared with one another!

 

[Claudiusx]

Here is a good caresheet on them: http://www.theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm

No, the brand of watercrystals doesn't matter. You can use the ones at the craft store. And probably can use the ones from your wedding

Well, I have my bin in a closet the cats can't get to. If you are worried, you might want to go with a sturdier screen, maybe a metal screen.

I only feed my adults to my adult dragons. You might be able to feed adult roaches when your dragon is bigger, not necessarily an adult.

-Brandon

 

[Carnivorouszoo]

Ah, when you say water crystals, do you have little salt looking things that turn to jello like stuff when wet or do you have hard plastic gems that look good in fish tanks and vases? There is a difference. The stuff you want is the same stuff sold for crickets. I got mine on ebay for like $3 shipped. I have enough for 2 gallons of it when hydrated.

I JUST set up my colony lol. I know for sure I have 4 females and 3 males. I put a bunch of ones that need 3-5 more molts to be adults. When my feeder bin is thinned down more I will order more mixed dubia from the guy I got these from. if things work out I will be ordering 10 females on monday

 

[MrWhite]

for the screen, I just used metal screening and used liquid nails to secure it to the underside of the top. I don't have any evil things otherwise known as cats to sit on my bins.

here's a couple of pics of my two bins, the dark blue bin is my adult breeding bin, the light blue had mostly small nymphs but they are both setup the same way. Any questions, fire away :wink:

 

[ash0587]

Ah, when you say water crystals, do you have little salt looking things that turn to jello like stuff when wet or do you have hard plastic gems that look good in fish tanks and vases? There is a difference. The stuff you want is the same stuff sold for crickets. I got mine on ebay for like $3 shipped. I have enough for 2 gallons of it when hydrated.

MY GOD! I wish I had known you could get it that cheap on ebay if you use the correct search terms! when I was planning my wedding I paid like $10 for a 1 gallon pack and needed 3 packs to fill all the vases.
Mr. White thanks for posting the pics, it didn't occur to me that I wouldn't need to cut half the top off to put screen in. with the little slits I don't think I'd have to worry as much about the cats pulling the screen off of the glue. and thanks for the liquid nails idea too, that has to be much sturdier than hot glue
My biggest questions right now is, would a heating pad under the breeder bin be sufficient for heat?
I was at work so I forgot most of my questions, so I'll be on tomorrow with like a million more questions, unless I find answers on some of the other threads I've been picking through

 

[MrWhite]

My biggest questions right now is, would a heating pad under the breeder bin be sufficient for heat?

I think it depends on where you are keeping the bin, In most cases, a heating pad will work fine. If your bin is going to be stored in a cooler area, you might think about using a CHE like mine. I was using a pad and it was working fine, but I know my basement gets chilly in the winter so I went with the CHE setup.

BTW, I can't take credit for the CHE setup, I got it from jodyberry in another thread. :mrgreen:

 

[ash0587]

thought of another important question. how much physical work does it take for you to take care of the roaches in terms of lifting and time spent cleaning the containers and such? I'm having surgery at the end of november and am not allowed to do any lifting at all for 30 days. I was going to wait until after the surgery to start the colony but it just occurred to me that waiting would mean having to have feeders shipped when its -20 (depending on how crappy winter gets up here in ohio) which would mean extra costs for overnight and heating packs.
also, how long can the roaches go without food, water and a clean environment? not saying that they would end up going for a long period of time, but I could be in the surgical ICU anywhere from 1 day to 1 week, and making sure that the dog, cats and beardie get food and water is going to be hard enough, let alone making sure the roaches are being cared for. My hubby is very forgetful and sometimes just downright lazy so I have this feeling he would be so "Busy" taking care of the other animals and checking on me that he would "forget" to make sure the colony was kept up with.
I think that's it for now. thanks again for all the info!

 

[MrWhite]

first of all, good luck with your surgery, hope all goes well.

it doesn't take a lot of physical work, once things are all setup, the most you'll have to do is open the top lid, clean out any remaining fruits and veggies(you don't want them getting moldy), make sure the water gel crystals haven't dried up. basically food and water maintenance. you don't have to clean the container very often at all, once a month, even longer if you are good about taking fruit scraps out and not letting them mold. in short, you won't have to lift the whole container, just be able to lift the top off. I would also find a comfortable high to put the bin so you won't have to do any bending/leaning over.

I think if you have plenty of crushed up dry dog food in there and plenty of water crystals for moisture, a week would be fine in my opinion.

 

[ash0587]

great! I think I'll be getting started on this colony very very soon. I bought silk worms and super worms for her last week and she wont touch the supers, and the silks all seem to be getting stuck together and dying, meaning buying more food 1 week later wish I could just get ahold of another 1000 dubia nymphs for a decent price but all the places that sell them want crazy amounts and that's only 1-2 weeks worth of food for this pig :shock:

 

[jodyberry]

MrWhite did a great job on his bins!!

Here's the link he was mentioning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YiYykhNHuw

I know that a lot of people use heating pads and under-tank heaters, but no matter how I tried using them, I just couldn't get my temps up. So I ended up using the CHE heater you'll see in the video.

Good luck!