to hot for the dubia?

[NickZafo]

Hey guys I’ve had my dubia for a while now and they have been breeding but it all just seemed to come to a screeching halt. The temp is usually 90-95 at all times. if it’s too hot will they not breed?

 

[beardiebandit]

i noticed mine slow at one point...then i feed off some males and it seemed to jump start them into a breeding freenzy! lol! what do you think your male to female ration is?

 

[NickZafo]

no idea... ive had the colony for a few months now.
maybe tomorrow ill take em all over and see how many boys i have.
it might be a gooooood day for my dragons lol

 

[clear]

I have kept mine in the 95F range with no problems, they just drink and eat more.

 

[beardiebandit]

yeah mine are at the 95 range also. i have about a 5/1 ratio goin right now. it seems to be pretty good. what i have kinda seen is when a male and a female start to mate all the males are attracted to that activity.. and then it becomes a competition for the female....i think havin too many males just makes for too much competition for females and food...

yeah your dragons will like you tomorrow! : )

 

[Theroachguy]

Beardiebandit has a point about the male ratio but also how often are you checking in on your guys are disturbing them often, also what’s the humidity like are you having any nymph die off’s? If so it could be a humidity problem. I have also noticed with my colonies I tend to add a new blood line at least once or twice a year. Seems to do the trick for me.
Good luck Jason

 

[NickZafo]

ok so i went into the tub and separated them all.
it came to about a 1:1 ratio of males to female and i lowered that to a 3:1 and my dragons have never been happyer... ill post videos later lol.

so now my count is 45 females.(weird it came to a number divisible by 3)
and 15 males.
and a butt load of juvies

ill keep the temp at 90-95 and hopefully they start poppin out some more babies
thanks for you help guys

 

[diggerdrake]

weed through the juvies and feed off most the males keeping a few back to replenish the adult males as they get older. males live considerably less than females and you do need fresh blood to keep the girls happily producing babies for you. if you need help sexing nymphs do a search and there are some great pics to help with determining which are which.

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

First off 95 degrees is fine. You shouldn't have any problems other than keeping food in there for 48 hours. They're probably riffling thru fresh veggies and roach chow.

Beardiebandit has a point about the male ratio but also how often are you checking in on your guys are disturbing them often, also what’s the humidity like are you having any nymph die off’s? If so it could be a humidity problem. I have also noticed with my colonies I tend to add a new blood line at least once or twice a year. Seems to do the trick for me.
Good luck Jason

Jason brings up a great point here that not too many people are aware of. You need to be introducing new roaches at least once every year into your colonies to strengthen the bloodlines. It keeps production to a maximum. Talk to anyone who has really good success at breeding roaches (no matter what species) and they all agree, new blood is key. I send my customers to all sorts of different breeders around the country for their yearly strengthening of their colony. I ain't shy about spreading the wealth ( so to speak) and sending people to other breeders. As long as they stay happy and continue to breed healthy strong colonies to feed their animals out of.

So that leads me to my next question. How old is your breeding colony?

-Ian

 

[NickZafo]

my colony is only a few months old... maybe 4 months
it hits 95 max temp... its usually 90 on the dot.

I disturb them maybe twice a week to replenish their food is that too much?

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

I change out my fresh fruit and vegetables every 48 hours on every single one of my colonies, that includes roach chow and crystals if needed so I don't think that you're bothering your roaches. Your temps seem to be money. Check that ratio and thin out the males like people have mentioned. There's a couple people on here that even keep a 10/1 ratio w/o any problems. So anywhere between 5/1 and 10/1 seems to work.

You say that all breeding came to a screeching halt. What kind of numbers were you getting compared to what you're getting now?

-Ian

 

[NickZafo]

You say that all breeding came to a screeching halt. What kind of numbers were you getting compared to what you're getting now?

i wasn't getting many numbers at all... then i just stopped getting babies all together.

I have to say thanks guys. your all amazing lol. 2 days after cleaning them out and feeding off the extra males...... i had babiesss. about 30 of them. thank you so much everyone i really appreciate it!

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

That's great to hear. See no need to worry. There's no such things as problems, only solutions.
Enjoy the roaches!
-Ian

 

[MNbeardie]

I'm sure there are quite a few ppl on here that would be willing to trade to strengthen each others colonies