Dubia starting question

[Buckmaster299]

Sorry I did not answer before. My phone was flipping out and I could not get it to let me type. I have been told that a roach is equivalent to about 2-4 crickets. I usually feed my juvie beardie about 6 small to medium roaches when I feed them to her. My larger beardie eats rolly 4-6 large roaches. The only problem I have with them is sometimes they don't move enough for my dragons to want them so i have to poke them with somethign to get them to move. LOL. As for starting out, I just went and bought i plastic tote from walmart and some window screen like you put on your home windows and a hot glue gun with glue sticks. I made sure that the inside walls of the container were smooth so they cannot climb out. Depending on the size of your colony you will need 1-8 egg crate flats. you can get these in plenty of places. I had a local resturant save them for me and I would go pick them up twice a week. Starter kits can be good but you can start your own and make it last.
My suggestions for you: if you have a plastic tote and a heating pad then you are well on your way to breeding. Get you some dog food, crush it up, i even throw in cheerios or some sort of ceral in there just to liven the chow up. They go nuts over it when I feed it to them. They actually fight over the cheerios when i throw them in the food section of the tote. Water crystals are important. Get you some oranges, they are good for them I hear. As your colony will grow you will notice that food is gone quicker. I started off only having to feed once a week and now I'm feeding 2 times a week. Oh, I almost forgot, make sure you have a thermometer in the tote to monitor temperature. I keep mine in the 80's and my population has exploded since I first started. I hope that all of this helps. If you have questions please feel free to ask and I will help you as much as I can. Everyone else, please chime in if I am missing anything or saying something wrong. I am just saying what is working for me.

 

[Buckmaster299]

oh, and as for the amount of roaches to start off with, 25 bucks will get you around 500 small ones if you buy from I believe it is jd in the forsale section. I am actually about to order another 500 to 1000 from him to use as just strictly feeder stock. Again, I hope all of this helps.

 

[gyrene2083]

So, I pretty much have the tote and some heat, the screen is easy I have to go to Home Depot anyway to get some other stuff.... All that I need to get are egg crates, and I guess the Roaches. Should I just buy some medium roaches, and hope there are females in there and they'll colonize? Or do I specifically need to buy females? I suppose I'm asking for the quantity, how much should I start with?

What do you think? Also, does anyone have a safe place they go to that they can refer me to?

Seems you answered when I was typing, lol thanks.

 

[Buckmaster299]

If you have all of that then looks like all you need are the roaches and a quite dark area to put them in. I started with 100 mixed on I believe it was either mullberryfarms.com or gacrickets.com I'm not sure where I bought them from and then i got another 100 mixed when I bought my 500 from jd on here. as i said i have had mine for probably 3 or 4 months and they are growing and progressing wonderfully. you want to have plenty of babies thougth as I have read that they will help to keep feces down in the habitat. you want to keep the male to femail ratio as low as possible. I have been told to keep it somewhere around 1 male to every 4 females in the habitat. Again, someone chime in if I am wrong in any of the information that I'm giving. This is just how I am raising my colony

 

[ikkie78]

Does anyone here order from The Roach Guy anymore? I know a few years back when I had a colony for a little bit many people used him...haven't seen him mentioned here since I got back. He was very helpful to me and seemed to have great customer service...just curious if something changed?

 

[froggy88]

Sorry I couldn't respond sooner, having login troubles. Plastic tote is fine, you could start with the starter kit that the Roach Guy sells, that's what we did. In the beggining however either only feed a few adults (try not to use females) every couple days so you have breeders. Or you can order a small set of adults to use as feed until you start getting nebies on your own. We had a regular household lightbulb (100w) on lid and a heat pad on bottom. They don't eat much of the chow, but LOVE veggies especially potatoes and broccoli. Make sure to use egg crates and change them every so often. I know there have been other posts since last night but I wanted to post so you didn't think I was rude. Good Luck.

 

[ikkie78]

I know everyone says don't feed off the females but how do you know if you have to feed the smaller dubias? Is there a wait to tell before they become adults which sex they are?

Also glad to hear you use the roach guy as well...I was happy with his service before just wasn't sure if anyone still used him at all. I was looking at another one of his starter kits again and I think they include a few adults as well...think it was like 250 mixed and a couple adult pair plus supplies.

 

[gyrene2083]

Thanks guys so much for all your input, I was thinking of getting this as a startup from the RoachGuy;

Starter kits will include roaches, 1 lbs of chow, 2 dry oz of water crystals, 3 egg flats, a 10 x 10 piece of screen for ventilation of the tote. This kit has everything need to get started, only thing you need is a tote and a hot glue gun to glue the screen in place.

125 Mixed Kit 1 Adult Pair +1 Free Adult Pair --- 42.00 Sale Price 38.00

I already have 1000 Phoenix worms on order anyway. So, that should last Dante a bit while this colony starts to populate....

What do you guys think?

 

[mudskipper]

Thanks guys so much for all your input, I was thinking of getting this as a startup from the RoachGuy;

Starter kits will include roaches, 1 lbs of chow, 2 dry oz of water crystals, 3 egg flats, a 10 x 10 piece of screen for ventilation of the tote. This kit has everything need to get started, only thing you need is a tote and a hot glue gun to glue the screen in place.

125 Mixed Kit 1 Adult Pair +1 Free Adult Pair --- 42.00 Sale Price 38.00

I already have 1000 Phoenix worms on order anyway. So, that should last Dante a bit while this colony starts to populate....

What do you guys think?

My 3-month old 23-gram baby would eat all the ones she can fit in her mouth in a few days. She's been eating 40 0.25" - 0.5" nymphs a day. Just to give you something to compare with.

Unless you have months to wait, the starting kit is fine. But it would be better to just buy 250 medium sized ones (0.5" - 1"?) and water crystals from a garden store. You can get free egg crates from a supermarket or a restaurant. They throw them away. You should still buy roach chow unless you want to make it yourself.

 

[ikkie78]

Well just picked up a big sterilite plastic tote tonight and I'm going to pick up a heating pad tomorrow so other than putting in an order with the roach guy ill be all set!

What brand of heating pads don't have an auto shutoff? I thought someone said sunbeam in another thread...how hard are they to find without an auto shutoff?

 

[Buckmaster299]

I bought mine off of amazon. I can't even remember the name brand. it runs 24/7. I set it on top of some egg crates so I wouldn't mess up the floor. LOL

 

[ikkie78]

Thanks ill check amazon.

 

[mudskipper]

Well just picked up a big sterilite plastic tote tonight and I'm going to pick up a heating pad tomorrow so other than putting in an order with the roach guy ill be all set!

What brand of heating pads don't have an auto shutoff? I thought someone said sunbeam in another thread...how hard are they to find without an auto shutoff?

Zoo Med heatpads don't have auto shut off. They are meant to be run 24 hours a day.

 

[gyrene2083]

Crap forgot about a heat pad! So I want a heat pad that will run 24 hours? Also I have an extra ceramic heater would that work or is that too much?

 

[ikkie78]

Well just picked up a big sterilite plastic tote tonight and I'm going to pick up a heating pad tomorrow so other than putting in an order with the roach guy ill be all set!

What brand of heating pads don't have an auto shutoff? I thought someone said sunbeam in another thread...how hard are they to find without an auto shutoff?

Zoo Med heatpads don't have auto shut off. They are meant to be run 24 hours a day.

I wanted to find a human heating pad...it'll be on top of a counter and just feel safer having a human on sitting between the counter and the plastic bin...did find some on amazon...think I'm gonna order one tomorrow.