Breeding Dubia Roaches Question! Please Help!

[Tiffany Boles]

Hi Everyone,


My name is Tiffany and I have a 6 month old bearded dragon named Beardie, and since October (when I got him) I have been feeding him crickets and I'm starting to hate it because they smell horrible and are so loud when I'm trying to sleep and I go to Pet-smart to buy the crickets and I'll spend about $20 bucks a week and when I get home, they will all be dead! So I have been doing some research and was wondering do you guys think Dubia Roaches are better than crickets? And I have been looking into breeding roaches and had 2 questions on that. 1. Do they escape easily? I have heard that people have had the roaches to eat a hole in the top of their enclosure, but heard that if you use aluminum that they won't? My second question is 2. Could I keep their plastic enclosure in my bedroom? Since I live in indiana and its pretty cold here so I could not keep them in my garage or my back-porch.

Thank You In Advance
Very Much Appreciated

 

[Geneticjim]

I know there are a lot of people that raise roach colonies for those reasons. I just got discoid roaches due to Dubia are illegal here in Florida. They honestly
don't smell, can't climb smooth surfaces and don't fly. Also they are much more nutritious the crickets!

 

[Tiffany Boles]

But could I keep them in my bedroom since it is too cold right now here in Indiana to keep them in my garage or my screened in back-porch.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I bred crickets for 5 years and I switched to Dubia's and have a very happy colony...they don't smell, don't make noise, don't fly...put them in a ventilated plastic tub the darker the better, cut the top of the lid and put screen material, for them to breed they need above 80F so you will need a heat lamp on them.. When you decide to do this buy 6-8weeks or more depending on how much your dragon eats because you will need to leave the colony alone except to change out the water crystals and put in fresh oranges along with dry chow..if you move them about and disturb them they won't produce well.. I have my colony tub that I take the babies out as they appear (I leave the tub alone if I see a female with her egg sack out regulating the temp of the eggs it looks like a red tube deal out her back end she can push it out or in as she needs then the babies (nymphs) are birthed live) and I put them in my other tub for feeders.. you want to have a 3:1 ratio female to male.

I guess you could set them up in a closet ...

 

[Hdrydr31]

When you want to start your colony I would highly recommend Brandon his name here is sixofwandstattoo I've gotten 2 shipments from him and he has very good Dubia's and fair $ check out his thread in the for sale section.. I'm in WI and I just got a 500+ shipment with only a couple of them that didn't make it in the cold..

 

[Canicke]

dubias totally beat crickets in every sense! yes - your bedroom would be great. make sure they have a heat source - like Hdrydr31 said - above 80deg. I have a hard time believing that they ate through something - unless it was just a cardboard box and they were hungry. rubbermaid containers are great. soooooooooooo much better than aforementioned crickets !!!

 

[bouncer36]

How high is too hot for them

 

[Hdrydr31]

How high is too hot for them

I believe they can get up to 100-110F (you will have tons and tons of babies with that high heat) I keep mine about 80-85F with about 20-30% humidity and they breed just fine

 

[bouncer36]

Good I was worried it was a 102.0 one ago. Right now it said 81.5

 

[Tiffany Boles]

Have you guys ever had a Dubia Roach escape? That is the only fear of starting my colony is them getting out in any way shape or form. My parents and grandparents would have a fit!!

 

[PatsyB]

Have you guys ever had a Dubia Roach escape? That is the only fear of starting my colony is them getting out in any way shape or form. My parents and grandparents would have a fit!!

I don't think dubia survive long if one gets out. Red runners though...you have to be very careful with because they will breed anywhere!

 

[Hdrydr31]

Nope Dubia don't live long enough if they get out of their enclosure to breed, they really do need the high heat and humidity to molt, grow to breed. I've had 1 or 2 escape but I think that was when I was sorting them... I use egg flats cut in half so they are not very tall so they are a min of 3 inches below the lid..

 

[Paarthurnax]

My Dubai eat pretty good. Since it is orange season still here we just go outside everyday and pick a fresh one. Cut in half and put one on each end of the container. My feeder bin is a large cricket keeper an it gets an orange and carrot long with smaller cup of roach chow supplied by Brandon.
I have missed the funnel a few ties transferring feeders and they use fall upside down so pick e up and flick the back in the funnel. Have had the escape in the dragon tank, Jim will hunt them down till he gets them.

 

[Hdrydr31]

That's nice to have super fresh oranges!!

 

[DeeS]

I have my colony tub that I take the babies out as they appear

How, please?

 

[Hdrydr31]

How, please?

Well you can use the bucket trick where you have multiple buckets with holes drilled for the various sized to fall thru to the next one...
I have mine sorted into my breeder tub with just the 3:1 ratio so it's easy to take out the babies by shaking them into a dish as I go thru them and I use a Popsicle stick. I have an all female tub and a all male tub so I only have babies coming from the breeders..