Dubia Colony Info for newbs

[augsburg1530]

For those of you considering raising dubia or those with new colonies, I thought I would post the following info for your enjoyment and to give you some idea of what to expect from a breeding colony!

I just sexed and separated my dubia colony.

I started my colony in May with 55 adult females and 20 males plus another 150 mixed from http://www.theroachguy.com I have left them alone in their tote to breed and breed, only feeding off excess males occasionally.

When I separated my colony today, I counted 103 adult females and 30 adult males (I've previously fed off some males to keep their numbers down close to 1 male for every 3 females) plus another 100+ medium size male nymphs and about the same number medium sized female nymphs and another 300+ nymphs too small for me to worry about sexing.

All the female nymphs, big enough for me to sex, were put back in the breeding tote and I put the male nymphs, plus all the small nymphs too small to sex, in their own tote and left the adults and female nymphs in a tote of their own to continue breeding. I also put another 15 or so juvenile male nymphs into the breeder tote to replenish the studd pool for the next generation.

Assuming I keep the number at 100 breeding females and these have 20 babies per month, that is 2000 (two thousand) babies a month they will produce! More than enough to feed Spike

Needless to say, I am incredibly happy with the results I've had rasing roaches!!! I can't thank Jason at http://www.theroachguy.com enough for all his help and dubia's!

For anyone thinking about raising their own roaches, all I can say is DO IT you won't regret it!

Eric

 

[Falthazur]

Where did you buy the adult pairs and for how much? Since may, are they ready for feeding off now?

 

[ArchiesFamily]

cool!

 

[augsburg1530]

I bought my adults from someone here on the forums that was getting out of raising roaches, I think because they no longer had their dragon. I paid $45 for the lot, which was a great deal! I then bought another 150 mixed from theroachguy.com to augment my colony and don't remember the cost but do remember the great customer service and quality he provides.

With Spike eating 10-15 roaches a day now, my colony is ready to support his feeding. If he were still eating 50 a day, I think I would have to wait at least one more generation before feeding off them. With 400+ nymphs now available and over 100 breeding females to keep pumping out babies, I should be good to go.

Eric

 

[Falthazur]

Oh yeah. And what size tote and heating do you suggest for a one-beardie sized colony? Fal's around 4-5 months right now, so by the time they're actually ready he'll probably be slowing down on live feeders I wish I would have known about roaches way sooner!

 

[augsburg1530]

Yeah, if I had known ahead of time how much they really eat, Petco are such liars, I would have started a feeder colony way before getting a dragon. Spike almost ate us out of house and home, thank God I found aaronpauling.com and less expensive lobster roaches!

I use a large rubbermaid tote for my breeders and have moved the new feeders into a medium size tote.

I use a human heating pad for the bottom of my breeder tote and have a zoo med bottom tank heating pad for the feeder tote but won't use that until it gets colder as I am not worried about keeping them warm for breeding purposes

Eric

 

[Falthazur]

Falthazur's stunted from listening to pet stores. T__T 4-5 months old and 10". I'm hoping feeding him roaches and crickets will help give him a bit of a spurt, but there isn't a single person in my house willing to order and house the correct amount of feeders for him and it'll be months before a colony (which has won with a 2:1 vote. Dad and Grandpa yae, mom nae) is ready since no one will order online. Fal's healthy in every other aspect though, so I try to not feel as guilty as I do.

ANYWAY. Would one-two critter keepers, and a ten gallon tank do for sorting? the critter keepers are small, so I'd probably only throw the feeders for a few days at a time in there, then keep the ones for the week in the 10 gal?


OH YEAH: How well does dust stick to dubia?

 

[augsburg1530]

Your set up sounds just fine and dust stick perfectly well.

It is funny how some folk are still afraid to shop on line. 99% of everything I buy is done on line from books to clothes to Christmas presents. I know people who are afraid to use a credit card on line but have no problem giving their card to some guy behind the counter at a gas station or using the pay at the pump which has been proven to be risky for identity theft while using a service like paypal to buy on line is almost 100% safe. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

Eric

 

[Falthazur]

That's my argument. -.-;; We're so far in the hole at the moment that I stopped arguing that point, and my grandpa, bless his soul, just randomly decided to buy me everything I wanted for my beardie and me too, but I feel so darn guilty for it since he's blown 100 in two days for a new tank, more heat, a digiprobe, and a timer... and I still need a lid, a hood, a UVB lamp, and the crickets, with a dozen roaches if Amy remembers to bring them tomorrow. I almost hope she doesn't!

However, we're both so happy to see Fal finally happy that it makes me forget sometimes. ^_^ I overheard him talking to dad after he got my tank. He said something along the lines of you'd think he'd given me a million dollars for just getting that tank for her little monster. XD

 

[augsburg1530]

These are expensive beasties, not the dragon but all the stuff they need to be happy and healthy!!!

Make sure you give your gramps some extra attention and tell him you love him. I'm sure he gets just as much out of helping you as you do getting the help. So make sure you share with him how much you appreciate his help and how much you love him and forget the guilt, he did this for you out of love and there is no guilt in love. :arrow: (if there were an angel emoticon, I would put it here, but there's not ;-(

Blessings,

Eric

 

[Theroachguy]

That's my argument. -.-;; We're so far in the hole at the moment that I stopped arguing that point, and my grandpa, bless his soul, just randomly decided to buy me everything I wanted for my beardie and me too, but I feel so darn guilty for it since he's blown 100 in two days for a new tank, more heat, a digiprobe, and a timer... and I still need a lid, a hood, a UVB lamp, and the crickets, with a dozen roaches if Amy remembers to bring them tomorrow. I almost hope she doesn't!

However, we're both so happy to see Fal finally happy that it makes me forget sometimes. ^_^ I overheard him talking to dad after he got my tank. He said something along the lines of you'd think he'd given me a million dollars for just getting that tank for her little monster. XD

Yeah man he did it because he loves you and like Eric said give the old man attention and go work off some of the money with out him asking just do what ever. Also share with him the things you love about the dragon may it be something so small and stupid to you it will be huge for him to hear the interest you have for the dragon.
i spent almost 200.00 on a few horse lessons over the summer for my baby girl and for the first 3 weeks she would do nothing but stand and watch the horse wouldn’t get near it. Man did that piss me off but i can tell you one thing she is only 4 years old and she can tell me every name of the 12 horses out there, what they ate who ate what who likes what and anything else you could think of asking. So that 200.00 was more like spending 2.00

Eric i think everyone here needs to give you a slap on the back and say thanks for being a helpful addition to this site. You sure do add tons of helpful info too many people here and i think we need more people on this site like you.
Take care Jason

 

[Theroachguy]

Where did you buy the adult pairs and for how much? Since may, are they ready for feeding off now?

I just started selling pairs in addition to buying starter kits; this will help people get up and going twice as fast.
An adult pair is 2.25.

Eric that’s pretty much how i figured up how many I would need to sustain my dragons good breakdown

 

[augsburg1530]

Thanks for the complement, Jason. We have a pretty good community here, most people are helpful. Sometimes someone gets a dragon up their butt, but for the most part everyone is great!

Eric

 

[gregorydragon]

As one of the new members of "ther roach people" I just felt compelled to reply to this post. This is great information about starting a colony. Thanks Eric. Also, I feel like TRP are all on discussion threads together offering advice. I am officially on the bandwagon to get rid of crix, but for now I need them. :love10: I guess its kind of a love hate. No, actually there is no love. Beardies just need to eat.

 

[stephenrose06]

I am hopeful to get my Dubia's tomorrow or Friday and get everything started. although I may need to take a bunch of the smaller ones to feed right now, but I did order an extra 10 sets of the adults mixed