Looking for Information on Roaches...

[snared99]

Hi,
Im thinking about roaches as a staple for my aft and leos, and of course beardies. I go through 7000 bugs a week, not looking to produce that much btu cut down on the bill. Please let me know your experiences on dubia, and in specific if they escape. thanks guys.

 

[Neill]

I love dubia roaches.

Your wondering about escapes, if you have a tight close lid and dont stack anything they can climb (egg creates for housing) near to the top you wont have any escapes.

You have all sizes with there life cycle tiny tiny babies for young animals to super huge mom and dad roaches for beardies.

There care is easy keep as well, just need a warm and dark place with a few moisture sources with in the caging.

They do produces pretty well but if you ever get to many just throw them in freezer. They are slow at first to get them really going.

 

[houseb]

Best feeders ever! Plus, I've heard beardies can't get enough of them. Super easy to care for, and really easy to contain. They're actually incredibly poor climbers, and though the males have wings, I have yet to see one even flutter fall. Ian at the roachranch.com has a great video on how to set up a dubia tub to prevent escapes http://theroachranch.com/care_sheet.html

 

[robin]

pat you will dig dubias. they are easy to breed just give them plenty to eat a place to hide and keep them warm. make some back up colonies for when you are out of mealies or crickets or if you want to feed dubias

 

[KelliH]

Whatever you do, do NOT get the Turkistan red runner roaches!
Dubia are great though!

 

[ReptileWorld]

Dubia are great once they get going you wont have to spend so much on feeders. but the dubia do go through a lot of food and water gel once the colony gets larger and the temps are high and they get very active.

i have yet to have any escape been keeping them 10 months now.

 

[gothra]

Whatever you do, do NOT get the Turkistan red runner roaches!
Dubia are great though!

Why Kelli, I got some lateralis and I kinda liked them...I liked how they're smaller and softer than dubias; you just have to be triple careful when housing and handling them.

With dubias, as long as you have a tall bin with smooth sides, they won't be able to escape. It's important to leave at least 12 inches from the top of egg crates to top edge of the bin though, the males can jump and flutter a very small distance.

 

[theCREECH]

I love them too. But one thing I found out, even with perfect conditions 10 to 20 takes a long time to grow. I got some free once, I had 12 females to 3 males and it took months before I saw any new babies.. I was even giving them oranges.

Buy a huge chunk right off the bat if you want to start feeding right away. Maybe 200 or so mixed and then some adult pairs. Then try to keep a ratio where there's more females than males.

 

[cinderbirdswing]

I've had a colony going for 15 months or so and they are great. I just wished they produced a little faster. They are my main feeder, followed by meal worms. Rarely I offer supers and 2x a month wax worms as a treat. Every few months I seem to buy a few more bugs to put into the colony. Fresh blood, new fresh breeders, etc. It seems to have benefited. My adults are BIG. Some of my adult females are nearly 3 inches. After 11-12 months the older animals will start dieing off.