Help with My Dubia Colony

[Pyxis]

I know there are a ton of threads on here about this, but I didn't want to distract from anyone else's issues, so I thought I'd ask my own questions, especially since I intend to have a very small colony. I've just gotten sick of coughing up the money for crickets every week and I want to do this in a more sustainable way, so I don't ever have to worry about running out of food for my two reptiles. I want to start with a small colony, like maybe 15 females and 5 males. So here are my questions:

*What do I feed them? Do I have to feed them breeder chow, or can they eat, say, bananas and the beardie's salad leftovers? I've heard cat food works?

*How big should my rubbermaid tub be? I want to keep the colony small, so it should never get too big.

*How long should I wait until feeding out of the colony?

*I see that you have to keep half the tub warm with a heating pad. How warm? Can you safely put the heating pad right on carpet? Is that the side the egg flats go over?

*How many egg flats do I need to stack?

*How do I get them to breed? Are they just going to breed if the conditions are right?

*Could someone give me a timeframe of the dubia lifespan and lifecycle? I'd much appreciate it.

*What do I use for bedding in the colony?

Thanks in advance for any help! This is my first colony so I want to do it right. If you can think of anything else I should know, too, I'd appreciate hearing it

 

[jducky18]

So I'll give you the answers that I know from reading around, but I don't know how to answer all of your questions seeing as I just got my order of adults yesterday. (I also want to note that the adults get really big, one was almost the size of my palm, which if I had done my research properly I would have known, but seeing as I didn't, I was terrified when I opened the container and saw giant mutant bugs. I just felt like adding that in just in case you happen to be a little squeemish about bugs but you love your beardie too much not to do this)

So, on to your real questions, in order of what I know for most certain to least certain:
No, dubia do not require bedding, it's actually easier not to have it because you can clean the tub much easier and you can find the little nymphs if you need to.

You don't have to feed them breeder chow, most of them are a blend of cat food and oats, which you could easily make yourself. Leftovers from beardie salads are perfectly fine to add since roaches are scavangers anyway, but just make sure you take out what they didn't eat after a day or two, just so that you don't get any mold.

I have a 10 gallon tub, which will most likely be too small for the number that I ordered, which is a little upsetting for me, but whatever. If you start with a 10-18 gallon you should be fine, because once the colony gets too big for the bin, you can sell them off or give them to a rescue shelter or split into an entirely different colony.

With only 15 females to start with, it might be up to 6 months before you can feed from your colony. On a purely numbers standpoint, you need enough adult males and females to produce the first round of babies, then you need those babies to grow up and make more babies, and if you start with a decent mix of sizes in addition to the adults, you have enough bugs to replace any die-offs in about 3-4 months. On some thread, if I can find it, someone described this really well, I'll see if I can find it. It really comes down to, you need your colony big enough to sustain itself before you can take the extra.



I don't know the answers to the rest of your questions about heating, number of egg flats, breeding conditions (although I heard that oranges are a kind of bug-viagra for these guys and while you're using them only to breed, you can give them oranges), and the lifespan (although I'm pretty sure they can live up to a year)
I hope this helped, I'm still doing a lot of research myself so anyone is welcome to correct me.

 

[aussiefreak101]

*What do I feed them? Do I have to feed them breeder chow, or can they eat, say, bananas and the beardie's salad leftovers? I've heard cat food works?
You can go as simple as jducky stated with cat food and oats ground together. I raid my local health food stores bulk bin and create a superfood complex but that is because I'm a breeder so have to have the best going into the insects and animals that I produce and sell.

*How big should my rubbermaid tub be? I want to keep the colony small, so it should never get too big.
The size is up to you, a simple 18 would be just fine. The colony will only get as big as you let it, meaning you have to be getting rid of what you don't want because having a small tub will not keep them from breeding and crowding.

*How long should I wait until feeding out of the colony?
With such a low number that you are starting with it will be a minimum of 6 months if not more. There is a good mathematical equation so you know how many females you are needing to be able to supply your two beardies.
"Say I have a 5 month old dragon who can put away 120 crickets on a good day. I multiply by 30 to get 3600. Per month. Then I divide this by 20 to get 180. If I have 180 adult females, I will have MORE than enough to feed this dragon every month.

I have a four month old who is a bit of a slow eater. He only eats 80 crickets per day. 2400 a month, divided by 30(because I don't want to always have extra roaches around) I get 80. I need 80 females.

Say I have two dragons(I do! lol), one subadult who is a pig and eats 130 crickets on a good day, and a picky eater who only eats around 75. I add the two numbers together to get 205. 205 PER DAY. multiply by 30 and I get 6150 per month. Then I divide by 40 because the picky one is picky on more days than the pig is a pig and I want to give them other feeders to add variety, and I get 153.75. I need 154 adult females to sustain my two dragons."

*I see that you have to keep half the tub warm with a heating pad. How warm? Can you safely put the heating pad right on carpet? Is that the side the egg flats go over?
Ideal temperature differs for everyone. I keep my breeding tub at 90-95 and they are over 3,000 strong. You don't want too cold or it can promote mold in your bin and that is the quickest way to have a colony die. I have mine directly on the carpet no problem but I also have a rheostat controlling the output. The heating element goes on the side of the crates, opposite to the side of the food.

*How many egg flats do I need to stack?
I can fit 8 crates about in my small ones and 10 in my larger ones, each crate separated by a piece of cardboard so that they remain standing straight and snug.

*How do I get them to breed? Are they just going to breed if the conditions are right?
Keep the temperature 85-95 and the humidity 30-50 and they will breed on their own. Offering fresh fruits like oranges and veggies like left over salad, especially carrots and that seems to help speed things up. I'm guessing it triggers something like 'food is plentiful, season is just right, we can produce and support more young' thing in their insect survival brains.

*Could someone give me a timeframe of the dubia lifespan and lifecycle? I'd much appreciate it.
It's said the average lifespan of a female is supposed to be 2yrs and 6 months for a male. I'm not sure if that was guessing or actually documented. Make sure your temps are right, food and water is always available, and that you keep the male ratio low and you should be able to maximize their lifespan.

*What do I use for bedding in the colony?
No bedding, it makes cleaning the bin a pain in the butt.


End note: I suggest having a separate feeder bin or something close to a cricket keeper when you do start to feed out of your bin. Messing with your colony like going in everyday to pull out feeders can stress out the females and make them less productive. I suggest going in only maximum once a week and pulling what you'll need.

 

[Pyxis]

Thanks! I'll have to do the equation. I just received my starter colony; it has 15 females, 5 males, and 150 mixed age nymphs. I think I'll get more females and a bigger tub once they get more settled. And, how do you tell males from females when they're young? I know the adult males have wings, but what about young ones?

 

[aussiefreak101]

It is much harder to tell with the nymphs. I'm not sure if it's been tested and proven but supposedly if you look at the last segment of the dubia, the larger segment means it will be a female. So, grab a couple large nymphs and flip them over, look at the last segment of their butt and the larger ones will be the females.

 

[Pyxis]

Thanks! So, one final question (for now, lol): how much space do you need for a colony? I ask because I'm thinking of moving my colony into the ten gallon that my juvenile leopard gecko is about to move out of, and I'm wondering how many dubia I can have in there.

 

[aussiefreak101]

Dubia are pretty happy being crowded. That being said, it is not easy to keep a smaller enclosure clean, kind of like a small aquarium compared to a larger one. Also, if there are too many males in a smaller space they will fight and end up stressing out your females into lowering their production. For your started colony it will be just fine. Mine didn't explode until month 4 so you have time to get a larger bin, say an 18 gallon, since you want to keep at a lower colony scale.