So a few weeks back, I received 25 adult female roaches and 10 adult male roaches from dubiaroaches.com for 45 entire bucks.
I have them, as well as whatever leftover nymphs I had from an order of 500 nymps in a 10 gallon terrarium with heat mats and a towel on the top. I have egg crate flats in there for them.
I made a blend of collard greens, spaghetti squash, carrots, and apples dusted with calcium for both the colony and my beardie. I also throw in some of the flukers orange cricket diet since i know they can have that for hydration and food if they want it. The colony doesn't seem to eat anything I give them but they aren't dying. Does anyone know the best food and water source for dubia roaches?
I also want a cleaner crew for the frass- does anyone know of an inexpensive colony i could buy online?
Dubia take about 10 weeks to gestate once the adults mate. Some guides I've read say it takes 12 weeks, so 10-12 weeks waiting for your first nymph babies. You will have to be patient.
I've used water crystals (polyacrylamide hydrogel) in a swallow textured plate and now I give them an orange every week. I also had a problem with my first nymph babies dying because my house is very dry, so I started spraying water at least every other day and added spagnum moss. I feed them the same salad choices as my bearded dragon, and I decided to switch them over from gel roach food to dry oatmeal
At some point you may have a problem with food or water or humidity so check on them once or twice a week. Mostly it is time waiting for the babies to start. Also remove old food so there is no mold, mold is very toxic to these roaches. A plus side to spraying down things with a water bottle mister it's easy to wipe up extra frass with a paper towel (and gloves and wear a mask of course). Leave some frass because the babies will eat frass as their first meal