Dubia colony questions

[pepatt]

I started a dubia colony a couple weeks ago. It is small (approx. 120 mixed).
I have a few questions.

• I have a heating pad under them with the bottom of the tub reading about 105°, but the air temp is never able to be kept at 90° (more like 78° at the top of the tub). They have vertical egg flats to nest in.
  Is this OK for them to breed?
• I am feeding them chow that came with the colony (plus some greens), but they eat VERY little.
  is this normal? Crickets clear out ten times as much!
• I have approximately 12 adult couples; how long before I can expect babies? (assuming the temps are OK)
• Should I put on some Marvin Gaye to set their mood?

 

[RioReptiles]

Looks like you have a good set up. I would say to give it about a month or two to start seeing babies. It's not a fast process. You will notice that they start eating more and more as they breed. It depends on how much you're feeding at a time too. I have a 3" diameter lid and I put in a slice of apple and sweet potato chopped up, every other day and it's gone. It's good you have the heater, I have a blanket wrapped around my bin and over half the screen. It helps keep it warm and holds in the humidity. I can feel the hot, wet air come out when I take the lid off. Hope this helps.

 

[patrickb]

Your temps should be fine. If you could, get a reading at the bottom of the eggcrates. There is going to be a heat gradient naturally and this is actually a good thing, since the roaches can move to thermo regulate. You should be aiming for around 90 degrees at the bottom. Seadooz use of the blanket can be a good idea and help, but it will restrict the ventilation more so you will have to watch carefully for mold if you use that approach to get the temps up.

As far as eating, keep in mind that you only have about 120 roaches. They won't appear to eat all that much compared to crickets. Crickets have a very high metabolism (They only live for about 2 months) and just blow through food. This is one of the first things I had noticed about the roaches. Once your colony grows, the food won't last long at all, but their rate of consumption would never compare to crickets. This is another big plus in favor of the Dubia.

If you have mature adults now, you should be seeing some nymphs within the next month. Leave them alone! heh Seriously disturb them as little as possible no matter the temptations. The more comfortable they are, the faster they produce. A little patience and you will have more than you know what to do with. A year from now you may be saying, "Look at all them roaches! I need another beardie to feed em to!"

 

[augsburg1530]

Your temps are fine. You won't be able, nor do you want, to have your temps high throughout the container. Use a prob thermometer to check the heat at the bottom and middle of your egg crates. You should be some above 90 at the bottom and cooler as you go higher in the crates.

You said you had 12 adult couples. You only need 1 adult male for every 10 adult females, so you might want to consider thinning the male herd. You also want to cull the males in your nymph's too. There is no reason to feed males and allow them to compete for resources when you don't need them all. I feed off only males and keep my females as breeders.

Eric

 

[pepatt]

You said you had 12 adult couples. You only need 1 adult male for every 10 adult females, so you might want to consider thinning the male herd. You also want to cull the males in your nymph's too. There is no reason to feed males and allow them to compete for resources when you don't need them all. I feed off only males and keep my females as breeders.

Good thinking. What do you do with those suckers? Porter can only eat ones that are 3/4" long. It would take him a week to nibble down one of those bad boys! I hate to just kill 'em off!

Guess I could ride them to work!

 

[augsburg1530]

How big is Porter?

I fed my extra adult males to Spike when he was still about 12 inches long. I did remove the wings so they would be a softer feeder, and he munched them up and enjoyed every last drop!

Eric

 

[pepatt]

How big is Porter?
I fed my extra adult males to Spike when he was still about 12 inches long. I did remove the wings so they would be a softer feeder, and he munched them up and enjoyed every last drop!

Porter is only about 8 1/2" head to tail. He has eaten some nymphs that were a little bigger than recommended, and he seemed to take his time and chew his food well, but these adult roaches would be a little big.

I could probably cut them in half and he'd probably go for it if they were still squirming!
I know, that's gross, but come on, they're bugs.

 

[KINGSAME]

augsburg1530,

does the space between the eyes rule still apply with roaches? I have seen some adult male dubia and they look huge.

 

[bigmac1]

augsburg1530,

does the space between the eyes rule still apply with roaches? I have seen some adult male dubia and they look huge.

yeah the space between the eyes still applies of you are feeding roaches, the males are pretty big for a baby but a full grown adult can handle them easily.

 

[patrickb]

Guess I could ride them to work!

Now that's a vivid mental picture! lol
Like Eric said, you don't need the excess males. You could cut them in half if you wanted and they would squirm and squiggle, but realistically you are going to have way more males than you will need at some point. Either find a new animal to keep that can eat them, or if you have someone that lives close to you and keeps reptiles or arachnids see if they could use them. Otherwise just kill them off as they are doing more "harm" than good. Best way to terminate them is to throw them into a container and plop them in the freezer overnight. Another good method is to drop them into water with dishwashing soap added to it. The Dawn brand works I know, but i would imagine others work just as well. Takes about 15 secs or so to kill them in that manner.

 

[augsburg1530]

Before freezing a bunch of males or giving them away, I would sort my dubia according to sex, if I were you, and keep all the females and enough males for breeding and feed the rest of the male nymphs to your dragon before they get too big.

Eric

 

[pepatt]

Before freezing a bunch of males or giving them away, I would sort my dubia according to sex, if I were you, and keep all the females and enough males for breeding and feed the rest of the male nymphs to your dragon before they get too big.

Yeah, I started sorting some last night. The culling of males would only be the mammoth ones that are too big for Porter to eat.

I think I'm going to take them to the shop where I got Porter. Maybe trade these big males for some crickets to get by until the colony grows!

If they don't want them, I might keep 'em alive for fishing season.

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

Here's a thought to ponder before you go get rid of all your males, especially since your colony isn't that big right now. Way back when I started breeding Dubia my buddy James over @ Blaberus.com gave me a little information that's worked like a charm. Since he seems to be pretty popular here on the board I'm sure that The Roach Guy will attest to this as well. I was told to make sure that I have a constant supply of Males because they will die before the females and sometimes quite often or for no apparent reason. My first question to him was how long a lifespan are we looking for a male dubia? He told me that if you average it out expect them to live no longer than 6 months. Obviously some will live longer and some will live shorter. Remember that most females will easily breed for a year if not more and I rarely see them dead until they are all done as breeders. Males.... Not so much. It's been words that I live by and has saved my butt more than a number of times.
Good Luck w/ the new colony!

Ian

 

[augsburg1530]

Ian is right on, you want to thin out your males but you must make sure you keep enough around to breed. I keep 1 adult male for every 10 adult females and 2 male nymphs for every adult female. That way I have replacement males ready in the wings.

Eric

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

Ian is right on, you want to thin out your males but you must make sure you keep enough around to breed. I keep 1 adult male for every 10 adult females and 2 male nymphs for every adult female. That way I have replacement males ready in the wings.

Eric

Eric,
Everyone I know who breeds these little suckers have told me to keep it a 3-1 Female to Male ratio. Makes for optimum breeding and believe me I'm buying it! I'm producing about 15,000 nymphs a month per colony right now.
-Ian