In short, I'm fed up with crix, and I want to start a dubia colony! How many should I start out with? What size? I only have a few hundred crix left, so I want to order the dubias today. I'm suddenly stuck with the problem of how many of what size? I assume I'll start with adults? How many males? How many females? Also, I don't use cricket water for my crix; I use orange slices. Will this work for dubias too, or do I need to get some of that gell stuff? If so, is the cricket water stuff ok, or do they need a specific dubia water?
Ouch. 100? Oh no! They're so expensive. I was thinking about 100 mixed, 2 female adults, and 1 male adult. I honestly can't afford 100 adults. How long do you think it would take for the 100 nymphs/sub-adults to grow up and stabalize the colony?
I think they are ready to breed in like 4-5 months, so after that use the offspring as feeders and build up more of a colony.
i order all my roaches from www.blaberus.com To start my colony I ordered 500 mixed for 125$ and havent need to order any more ever again. Take into considerationt hat i am feeding two beardies and four leos. I am still overrun with roaches! Having said that, if you are just feeding a couple critters than 100-200 would be totally sufficient to start a colony, and orderingt he mixed lot is fine. The mixed usually comes with several adults, as well as younger ones. Just set them up and leave them be for a couple of months while they mature and start breeding. Once they are breeding properly then you can start feeding them off. They are excellent feeders - i have been keeping roaches for a year or so now and i shouldve done it years ago! As for watering/feeding/general care: I hate gel cubes and other watering things cause they just get nasty. For water with my roaches i simply mist the tank down a few times a week and feed them lettuce and other greens as part of their diet. This is nutritious, and also gives them plenty of water. Blaberus.com has a great roach diet you can buy - but i prefer to save money and make my own. You can feed them the same sort of gutload you would feed to any other insects. My gutload consists of the following: oatmeal, baby rice cereal, wheat germ, bran flakes, tropical fish food, rep-cal iggy pellets, seaweed, and high quality dry dog food (ground up). You dont need to use all those ingredients, pick a few that are easiest for you to get and go with that. for general care they are pretty easy. Use a small tank or a dark rubbermaid tank (if using a glass tank you will need to paper the sides or cover them with a towel to keep it dark). Supply paper towel tubes, egg crates etc etc for them to climb on and hide in. Give them a dish of food. they do best when maintained around 80 degrees, so a small heat pad works well for this. You will have a faster growth rate and higher breeding rate if the tank is heated. I personally keep two tanks, one for feeders and one for breeders. I go into my breeder tank once a month and take out any babies and transfer them to the feeder tank. The point of this is to avoid stressing your breeders out by digging around int heir tank every day or two in order to get feeders out. You can keep them all in the same tank, but if you are constantly stressign the breeders they may not breed as much.
Thank you very much, MimC! I have been looking at blaberus.com, and their prices are much better than other sites I've seen. Unfortunately, I do not have $125 to spare at the moment. I think I'll spend $40-50 this time, and maybe buy a few hundred more if I get some extra cash. That is a really good idea, keeping the breeders and feeders in separate tanks. I never would have thought of that. A few more questions: Do they lay eggs or do they deliver live? What is their gestation period? Will they birth the eggs/babies in the egg crates or should I provide a nesting box of some kind? Is there anything I should know about dusting them? Is it the same as with crickets? Again, thank you all so much! You have been very helpful.
I think they actually do a little of both (egg and live)...here is a quote from blaberus.com "Once the egg sack is extracted it is then retracted back inside into a special cavity. From here the babies hatch and the female gives birth" I've seen my roaches running around with egg sacks hanging out - then they suck them back up in and apparantly spit out the live babies once they hatch (i've never seen that part). I have no idea what the gestation period is, but i dont think its very long. When you get your roaches just set them up and leave them be for a couple of months - it takes 4-5 months for the roaches to sexually mature and start laying..when you order a "mixed lot" you will get some that are already mature so they will start breeding right off the bat, the others will mature and start breeding. The biggest key is to be patient at first, especially if you are only getting a smaller number of roaches, leave thembe for long enough for most of them to mature and start laying, then start feeding off. You can get 100 mixed lot for 30$, so this should be enough to get you started easily, provided you allow them a couple months to start breeding. You do not need to provide them with a lay box or anything - as long as you have egg crates, paper towel tubes, etc etc - they will breed just fine Dust them just as you would any other insect :-D
