Dubia Roaches barely breeding

[RocksMama77]

Hi, I have dubia roches and want to breed them. I think my house is to cool for them so what are my options. Can I put a uth on their enclosure. It is plastic and I am worried the plastic will melt. I also have a small tank. Would that be better since it is glass. Any tips would be great. I feed them on cat food and water crystals with fruits and veggies.

 

[dsmalex97]

I have done a lot of research on these guys, and they need temps of around 80-85 degrees in order to breed. I'm sure you can use heat bulbs from the top as well. I'm not sure if a UTH is going to generate enough heat to heat the entire bin. If your house runs cold normally it might be tough, so one of those red heat incandescents should raise the ambients temps up to snuff.

Heres a good vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W07cFgEoeU&feature=related

 

[Kristi23]

We keep ours in a thick rubbermaid type container from home depot. We have an uth on there with no problems. Ours weren't breeding well until we got the temp up.

 

[Tanga]

I keep my dubia's in a 18 quart rubbermaid container with plenty of egg crates , pro gecko gutload, fresh fruits and veggies once a week, water crystals, and a regular heating pad with a low, medium and high setting (the ones found in a pharmacy for backs, like 15 bucks), it hasn't melted the plastic container and I use the low heat setting for the summer months and the high heat for the winter and my dubias breed fantastically.

 

[boxhitter]

my dubia are breeding like crazy i keep them in a rubber maid container that sits on top of my rack. i give them apple every 3 day and i throw in about two hand fulls of fish pellets ever month. i get 25 now around a hundred babys in 2 months.(A hit; dont mess with them they dont like to be stressed stress=no breeding)

 

[Tanga]

Oh snap, I just noticed in my last post I said I keep them in an 18 QUART container...no way, that would be too small, I keep them in an 18 GALLON container. And like boxhitter said, don't bother them for awhile, just leave them be and only open the container to change their feed and water gel (twice or three times a week at the most). Of course also keeping them very warm will speed up the breeding process (85-95 degrees F). They're very shy and usually stay in the egg crate stacks during the day - mine are very quiet during the day but I hear the little pitter patters of their feet at night when they come out to feed.

Oh duh...and most importantly, how many of the dubia roaches do you have? If you only start off with a couple dozen, it'll take a few months (maybe even a year), to really start up a colony to feed off to your geckos. I recommend starting off with at least 100, with 2 pairs of adults male and female.

 

[CHAMpion]

I have mine in a sterilite container with a peice of 11" flex watt tape and it keeps the temp right at 95, it's perfect. I've had them in there for 2 weeks and there are already babies. I started with 50 and keep them in a 10 gallon container

 

[Barbel]

Mine didnt' breed for at least 6 weeks after I got them. I keep them in a rubbermaid tub also with an UTH. It works great! Once they finally did start breeding, it seemed to take off and I have a bunch now.

 

[Chewbecca]

We keep ours in a giant rubbermaid container with a hole and screen on top.
We have a clip lamp that we clip to the shelf above, and we use an infrared heat emitter to heat them.
Within 3 weeks, we already have a ton of nymphs in our breeders' container.

We give them repashy insect gut-load, water crystals, bananas, oranges, and watermelon.