Dubias eating the Males Wings.

[Bailey91990]

Hey everyone how you doing?
I breed my own Dubia Roaches. I started off two Months ago with 25males & 25females. But I ended up giving away about 15males because I like to follow the 1-3ratio. So My colony had 25females & 10males. The guy I bought them from said he tried to pick out the females who looked pregnent for my Colony would start blooming alittle quicker. I then added maybe 5medium size roaches just for it can start with a normal colony life cycle for it could go quicker.
After two months, I now have over 300babies & looks like a few more female adults.
I been noticing lately the males wings at the end towards there butt looks like there getting ripped off or chewed on. I did some research & they said if the Colony is hungry they will start eating the Males wings! Which I take it as thats not good.
How can I stop or prevent this?? This is how I have my colony set up:

-I have them in a Dark Blue (for you cant see in or out) 22gallon bin. I have 3holes ontop of the bins top, with mesh on it for air & sirculation.
-I have 4 egg crates in their to keep them close together because I learned they like to be in tight places with eachother like grouped up tightly & also have 1paper towel roll in there.
-The temp is at 98 at all times & they seem to love it.
-I cant check how much humidity or mositure is in there.
-I mist the sides of the bin few times a week for mositure & humidity (nothing gets soaked for there will be no mold)
-I keep a fairly high large container of warm water in there & then taped the top & left alittle area for that to breath for mositure & the humidity at all times changing it every few days.
-I keep a food container of my own personal Roach Chow in there at all times changing it once a week (doesnt seem like they eat much of it)
-I keep a water container with water gel in their at all times changing it the most every other day.
-I also keep Flukers Orange Cubed Complete Cricket Diet in their as well that I just started doing the other day.
-The container I have that holds the water gels & food is cut down the center, so Im using half of a container, this way they dont have to climb to get in because its flat on one side.
-I feed them mostly carrots because it seemed like they didnt eat the oranges or apples I tried to use.
-I put about 12baby carrots in there every two days, & take out the old eaten ones. They seem to love them & eat them all the way down till theres a tiny hair length left. & I put them carrots spread out through the bin & in the egg crates for the carrots will be where they hangout because when I put them in a food dish it seems like they didnt eat them much.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Sounds like there protein intake is to low. Try adding in more to there diet. Also sometimes when they are older the wings look like that.

 

[Bailey91990]

How could I up there protein intake? I use roach chow mixture cat & dog food and I crush it up, but they dont seem to eat it that much. & yea there adult males & I had them for 2months & idk how long the guy before me had them so maybe there just old.
Can I dust the roaches food just like you dust the beardys food? This way there get more protein & vitamins?

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Can you post a pic of the males wings maybe I can see if that is the problem. Also make sure that they have enough room so they are not on top of each other.

 

[Bailey91990]

I just moved around the Egg crates around & added a few. But heres a pic of the colony setup
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/316218_466891090060103_985521982_n.jpg

This is the first time Im trying this new setup I break a small piece of the egg crate off and using it as a holder for there food. I always kept the egg crates flat because I can put the food in there with them were they all hangout & this way the frass will fall and get caught & the babies can eat it. But I see most people use a set up like this & they all are successful so Ill give it a try. My other way worked fine for 2months I got alot babies pretty quick & they were eating. They just dont really eat the RoachChow . So I put some Fluckers Orange Cube Cricket Diet in there with them because that has protein & hopefully there want to eat it

But I couldnt get a picture of the males with the eaten wings I couldnt find them.

 

[Brieana]

What brand of dog food is it? The cheaper stuff is lower in protein than you'd think.

 

[saiyan25]

My colony didn't like cat/dog food very much. I give them ground up special K cereal (with dried strawberries) and mixed a little bit of ground up cat food with it. The smell of strawberry seems to attract them a lot. I also found out that they like butternut squash over any fruits or veggies, but I think it depends on the colony.

 

[Bailey91990]

Its the exspensive kind of Dog food. I cant think name off top my head but we dont buy my Dog the cheap stuff we like get her the good stuff. Im thinking like you said that its just not attracting them cuz its just plain dog food that maybe I need to spice it up a bit for them. I do only have a total of 35adults, so there isnt alot. I have a few hundred nymphs but they rarely eat anything other then the frass. I watch videos on youtube and see people put in a bunch of food & the roaches go crazy for it so thats what im expecting. But those people have ATLEAST 70adults. But none has died & the babies seem healthy. I have two dragons to feed so maybe I should think of a way to get more adults. Its been almost 3months & the colony is going good but I want it to go better.

 

[raegsmith]

I have two different bins. One for my breeders and one for all the juvies and babies. The breeder bin has more than 500+ females and more than 100+ males. The adult roaches don't ear nearly as much as the juvies and babies do. I can put the same amount of food in both container. The food in the breeder bin will last 4-5 days and the food in the juvie/baby bin will last 1 day. Granted there are a lot more juvies/babies then adults, but the adults are much, much bigger, I just don't think they eat as much.

There are always several males that have their wings nipped or completely torn off. I think it's a dominance thing. The stronger male gets the ladies. I wouldn't worry to much about it. It will only take a few months before you have more males than you need (females = important, males = not important).

 

[Bailey91990]

Yea I gotcha. My colony as you see is quite small. 25females and 10males & like 2 300nymphs.
I use seperate bins also, I have a Colony bin & a feeders bin. But I dont touch the colony bin unless Im moving things around in it or giving them food. I dont take feeders out of it. I put all the roaches I order for feeders into feeder bin.
I have a friend on here thats going to give me 60females 10males 200 medium-large nymphs for 60$ for my Colony, but my girlfriends debit card got stolen so we need wait till she gets another card & add it to paypal to get them.