Providing Variety

[slices mommy]

Those are actually pretty cool looking roaches

 

[Germ]

Discoid & Dubia incubate their own eggs, they will expel an egg sac, then retract it into another body cavity for incubation & are then hatched. The thing is that the colony should be kept at an inside temp of 85-90 F for the best growth & breeding. If my memory serves me right I think humidity of 60-70% or higher is necessary, but that is very easily achieved.

 

[slices mommy]

That is a lot easier than these cricket's. I have them in Slice's old tank and a extra light fixture I could set on top and just buy the bulb. Yep it's starting to sound more appealing to me. Just waiting for payday Where did you get the egg crates? I don't think we can eat that many eggs lol.

 

[Germ]

I get them used from restaurants, I've had better luck with smaller privately owned ones, most that serve breakfast specials are more than happy to set them aside for you, providing you pick them up when you say you will, because they just toss them anyway.

 

[Germ]

Another issue with a Roach colony is that if you don't start out with a decent number of adults, particularly females, it can be a long time getting it established so you can readily feed out of it. It takes until they are 4-5 months old before they have their final molt & mature into adults & breeding age. Then they have to breed, produce the eggs, then incubate them. Once established, every female will produce 20-40 nymphs every 4-6 weeks. So it is not a quick process. If you start out with younger nymphs it can be 8-10 months before it is established enough to feed out of it. So it is much more productive to acquire as many adults as you can to start with, preferably 3-5 females per male. But adults can be expensive, particularly if you don't know what sex you are buying, you could wind up with mostly males because the breeder is keeping the Females for his own purposes, so beware.

 

[slices mommy]

Ok great i'll find a restaurant. I had the same issue with the cricket's. It was fine for a couple days then he ate more than normal for a couple other days and then my cricket colony was wiped out. I'll probably do the plastic tub thing so I can still buy cricket's and have a place for them until my colony is established. Thanks for all the help Germ!!!

 

[Germ]

Roaches are nocturnal so it's better to use a dark solid tub, not opaque with the smoothest sides that you can find. Also for heat, none light emitting is better also for this reason, a CHE or heat tape works well. It is also a good idea to put a 2" band of good quality packing tape around the top perimeter to help prevent escapees, it is too slippery for them to climb, should the lighter nymphs possibly climb the walls, just as a precaution. Some keepers will smear a thin 2" wide layer of Petroleum Jelly to achieve the same safeguard, but I find that can be messy on the clothes inadvertently touching it.

 

[slices mommy]

So you don't put the lid on it at all? I can do that it will all pay off for me in the long run so it's worth the little investment.

 

[Germ]

Yes a ventilated lid should be on it, screened or with holes drilled into it, here's a pic of my bins. The top perimeter thing is a safety precaution to keep escapees to nil, for when the bin is open or should any be light enough to climb if the sides are not completely smooth, it there is a a rough scratch the little ones will use it for traction . If they are well fed, the should have no need to try to wander .

Well I think we have hijacked this thread enough. If you need more info, start another thread .

 

[Vincent]

you can get them from www.theroachguy.com

 

[Toasty]

Dubias are very easy to keep and definitely the most popular feeder roach due to them not being climbers, but Germ is correct in that you need to start out with a pretty large number with enough mature females and even then it usually takes at least several months for the colony to be established enough to feed out of. I keep overfeeding from my dubia colony and right now I have so few that it will take a LONG time to get it back to where it needs to be. I will most likely just add a bunch more to get it going faster. Lobsters breed much more quickly so an established colony can be achieved fairly quickly, especially if you start out with a large starter colony. But due to them being very adept climbers, they're not as popular as the dubia. I actually was given a free lateralis starter colony the other day by another beardie owner after I mentioned to her that I'd been wanting to try lats and she ended up having a bigger colony than she needed. I set them up yesterday and I can already tell I'm really going to like them. The can climb, but not nearly as well as the lobsters, so even though I do have a barrier along the top of their tub, they really haven't even climbed high enough to reach it yet. Lats also breed very quickly and easily which is another plus and the fact that they are much more active than dubia makes them more appealing to some lizards.

My lat colony:

Inside of dubia bin (I don't have that many eggcrates in there since there are so few dubia currently), the containers w/the water crystals are to increase humidity since I was having issues with the tub drying out really quickly

Lobster tank--they're all underneath the eggcrates or camouflaged by the substrate, theres a TON in there

You can see where the lobsters stop at the barrier here

This is what I use as a barrier, its Johnson's Lavender Baby Oil Gel. One of the reasons it works so well is that it goes on in a very thin layer. Usually when people use Vaseline and it doesn't work, its because it has been applied too thickly, you only want a very thin layer of whatever you're using.

 

[Vincent]

why do u use subtrate????

 

[Toasty]

I use substrate for a few reasons. I have a very hard time maintaining high enough humidity levels without the substrate which was affecting breeding. Another reason is that I use a mixture of eco-earth or plain potting soil mixed with a generous amount of decaying leaf litter which is really good for the roaches, some require it to reproduce actually. I have isopods in all my bins also that serve as a clean-up crew and they require a dirt substrate.

 

[Vincent]

do u have trouble cleaning the tubs

 

[Toasty]

do u have trouble cleaning the tubs

Nope, you only need to clean the tubs every few months at most anyway.

 

[Vincent]

how do u clean it, why im asking is cause dont they burrow

 

[beardedALAN]

I'm glad mojo is readily eating his greens so far I found he likes romaine lettuce, collard greens , and kiwi those good choices?

 

[Germ]

A good color coded list of what is good to feed & not so good to feed. Try to include as much of the selections in green as possible in their diet.

http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutritionframeset.html

 

[BeardieMama]

The cats knocked a carrier with cricket's off the counter in the middle of the night and let about 90 cricket's loose in the house. So the sound is pretty bad sometimes but we can all sleep still.

At least you had cats to blame. I accidentally let the crickets out of their bag while trying to get them into the cricket keeper the day I bought them. There were almost 100 crickets loose in the house. Funny though every morning my son would find 2 or 3 hiding in his shoes, they must have liked his feet smell, lol. I just let Harry out and he helped to find a few. At least I had dusted them all before they escaped.

 

[HerdOfTortoi]

Sputin gets crickets, superworms, mealworms (only once a month, in small amounts), roaches, slikworms, hornworms, waxworms, pinkies (again, only once a month, the smallest they have at the store) - I agree variety is key. For veggies he gets spring mix, collard greens, mustard greens, squash, zucchini, watermelon, plum, mango (his favorite), papaya, hibiscus flowers (I grow them), carrots, strawberries . . .

I also make sure to gutload all insects at least 48 hours, usually with Repashy Superload, and I dust the insects with Calcium Plus and dust the salads with SuperVeggie, also both from Repashy. By the way, I switched from just calcium and vitamins to Repashy products a few months ago, and I have seen a huge improvement in appetite, activity level, and his coloring. Fantastic products!