Dubia Colony Wanted

[Zombiepanda]

Sounds like your on your way to having a colony. If the males don't have wings they are not sexually mature. It does take awhile to build the colony up, so don't get impatient.

Cool I'll leave them alone then. I have two tubs set up. The largest ones -maybe 30/40 and a small one for feeding. Ideally how many should I set aside to grow?

 

[Rankins]

As many as you can spare, the more the better. Keep your roach bins warm...about 85°F. Keep them fed good, and they will grow faster. My dubia colony started off with 100. My orange head colony started with 50. My orange head colony grew quicker...
I rarely give my Rankins orange head nymphs. I'm actually trying to feed off the dubias. I don't want to breed them anymore...I just can't whittle the colony down. Once they are gone, I'll just breed my orange heads, ivory heads, and probably will add death heads soon.

 

[Zombiepanda]

One day this week I'll get one of those foot warming pads and a space blanket. The big issue I'm having now is trying to find somewhere to stash the breeder tub out of the way. Other issue is that I gave Maggie a batch of them and she was like "MEH"

 

[Rankins]

Yeah, room is limited at my place also. The reptile room is totally full...but I made room for the dubia bin. The orange head and ivory heads are in the garage. They are in my Colman cooler bins.
I found my Rankins really liked roaches for awhile, but kind of started refusing them. ButI switched to mainly a veggie diet...they only occasionally eat a few dubias. They are adult Rankins now, so I'm okay with feeding less insects.

 

[Zombiepanda]

I came upon a happy surprise this morning! There's a concentrator that runs 24/7 in our house. I stuck the adult in in front of it and it heats it up to about 82-92. Also I put squash, collars greens, and pellets soaked in OJ in both bins and this morning they were both completely empty. Oddly satisfying seeing them eat all of it. Now to see how Mags eats on these bad boys today. Luckily my males are only (I think) one molt away from being big boys.

 

[JessPets]

Females are more important than males though. If you have too many, they can actually fight. The ratio should be 1:2-1:5

 

[Zombiepanda]

I think my ratio is roughly 1:2 or 1:3 I didn't actually count just sorted with a "you're huge let's go buddy" and then I went back through and pulled out the smallest males. Maybe I should go back through and actually count them. So the biggest pitfall I've found today is that Maggie has ZERO interest in them. By now she's normally eaten 10ish crickets and she's is blatantly refusing the roaches. She'll lick them and then walk off...I've been getting stink eye for nearly an hour

 

[Rankins]

That's good news!! Easy way to heat the bin. I never pull my adult males out of my bins, its probably better if you do cull out the male population sometimes. I do mainly pull young male nymphs out to feed the Rankins. They are pretty easy to identify because they are more narrow than the females.

 

[Zombiepanda]

Jess I took your advice and culled down the males significantly. If they didn't look like they were only one molt away from being mature I put them in the feeder bin. If they develop in there good for them, if not they will be cut in half for Maggie. However I do now officially have three full grown dubias!!!

 

[JessPets]

That's wonderful! I have heard people keeping 50/50 males and females without problems, but from personal experience they do fight when there is too many.

 

[Rankins]

I never pay close enough attention to even notice dubias fighting. I'm sure they do though...
My orange head colony is gigantic and full of males and females. If I had to seperate them it would take forever!! The males are a tad bit harder to identify also. Both sexes have wings, males just have a white strip on their rear end. Its not very easy to see.

 

[Rankins]

I'm going to see if I can video all the roaches in my orange head bin and post it on my reptile Facebook page
I've tried it before and it didn't turn out good. I think most people would be grossed out...but everyone on here would appreciate how large the colony is

 

[Zombiepanda]

I maybe have 20 total and I'm hoping at least 2/3 are female. Fingers crossed. They're molting really well and growing and eating like crazy! But alas I'm impatient and I want babies now. Right now. That video would be awesome, but I don't have fb so idk if I could see it or not

 

[Rankins]

Can't be impatient with growing roaches
It takes awhile from nymph to adulthood. Its worth the wait...so don't get frustrated.
Too bad you dont have Facebook. I have most (not all) of my venomous on there.
I only have 4 Rankins dragons...but there are a few pictures of them as well

 

[Zombiepanda]

I ditched it about two years ago and it was the best thing I've ever done!! I do miss out on a lot of stuff, but I really am a hermit at heart. Maybe I can see it without an account. I'll be patient with these roaches, I've got some good humidity and good warm temp gradient and within three days they were molting into adults so I'm just going to hope the progress keeps up. It takes what.. 2 months to incubate the babies?