Roaches Not Breeding Well

[Desdemona]

So, my bin of roaches dont' seem to like each other, ha! I've had I think 4 "litters" but that is it. The not yet adults are growing fast, no one has died, no signs of infestations or anything like that. Their warmer side is in the low 80s and I monitor the temps often but don't see it change much.

Any ideas? Are there any roach love potions out there? hehe

I should have more than 10 full sized females (with many more growing up) and since a few of my younger ones turned out to be males I think I have 7 or 8 of them. Would less males help?

They are in a plastic bin with 24/7 access to food, water crystals, and more times than not vegis. I also have the egg crates in there.

 

[Designer Geckos]

I like the temp a bit warmer than that. We house our roaches at 90. We also put in fresh large organic carrots sliced in half lengthwise daily. We also use Science diet high protein dry adult cat food.
Ours do very well. They also love organic celery. Apples not so much.

Good luck, and be patient...it takes time but then they start to pump out babies like crazy....

 

[Desdemona]

maybe I'll warm them up then. Right now they have roach chow which I bought from the same breeder I got these guys from. My plan was to make my own once I ran out. They don't seem to eat it in large quantities though...so maybe I should just find them something different.

I give them carrots unless I have leftover stuff from cooking dinner or whatever. I gave them a apple core this morning, I'll have to peak in and see if they ate it when I get home.

 

[fuzzylogix]

i agree with the temps. if you are talking dubia, they are a tropical species. they need high heat and higher than normal humidity. i don't use any water crystals or anything, just apples, carrots, some greens, and oranges. i also supplement them with a high protein dry dog or cat food.

 

[theCREECH]

I've heard some say that Oranges are like roach Viagra.. Try that.. maybe

 

[Desdemona]

hmm, I have like 9000 little mini tangerines, so maybe I'll see if they help. Wouldn't hurt I am sure.

Do you keep a cool side and a warm side on your roach habitat? Right now their cool side is maybe 2 inches across because I have a pretty um.. creative setup. They are on a wire rack in my closet (we have a cat who LOVES bugs.. and not in the right way, haha) and I have a heat cable curled up under a stone slab.. with the plastic on the stone. There is limited space on the wire rack and of course its really uneven with the slabs on one side and nothing on the other. If I hang it off just a couple of inches they are even.

The cord keeps temps a lot better than the cheap heat pads I have.. but I do plan on getting a thermostat for them soon... they they can have a more conventional setup.

 

[gothra]

I do leave 1/3 of floor space without heat, so the fruits and water crystals won't dry out so quickly. But yea, higher temps, higher humidity, higher level of privacy, and oranges are the keys.

 

[T-ReXx]

I keep my roach colonies in 30 gallon opaque bins with a section of 4in heat tape under one end. I keep them at 90-96F on the warm side. I pack the bin with egg crate, put in a dish for veggies and one for dry. I keep dry dog and cat food mixed in there 24/7 and feed a variety of carrots, oranges, celery, apples, pears, and squash every other day and my colonies are booming(especially the lateralis, I have too many of those, haha). Generally heat, humidity and oranges will get colonies going quite well.

 

[ChickenChump]

My dubia roaches are kept 95 degrees on the warm side, and low to mid 80s on the "cool" side. They get a diet of ground on dog/cat food with oats mixed in. Water crystals to the side, bananas and oranges every week, and a leaf of lettuce every so often. They have grown much faster than I anticipated!

 

[ReptileWorld]

Give your Colony a little time to get established and then they will start breeding regularly.. When i first started my colony i was checking all the time for babies since i started it with only adults.. i wanted to always see if they were eating and moving about at night ect.. a good friend said stop stressing the temps and humidity ect.. and just let them be. whether your temps are low 80's or high 90's they will still need time to get established.

i wanted my temps to be at about 90. and my humidity at about 50%

the highest i can get my bin with just the heat pad is 85 and humidity between 40 and 50%

so since my temps kept bouncing from 80 to 85 i just took a towel and threw it over the bin and left it alone for about a week i didnt check on them to see the temps or if they were eating i just added a small dish of ground up cat food. a dish of oranges and a dish of water gel. i took a 16oz container filled it half way with water put a lid on it and poked some holes in the lid with a thumb tac and then slid it to the warmer side of the bin right on top of the heat pad. and i just let it sit for a few weeks.

returning to the bin i found out they have been very busy.. oranges ate down to the peal water crystals almost gone and them sworming the cat food dish. babies everywhere! just have patience and it will get going..

Oranges+dark space = babies.

 

[Desdemona]

I have them in a closet... so just leave the light off? I wasn't sure if they had some kind of sleep cycle so when I remember I turn the light on for roughly a half day. I keep forgetting to ask if anyone thought they needed it..

Sort of off topic, but I have had 3 males get loose. Are they extra good at squeezing between the lid and the container? It's not the most high dollar container in the world so it wouldn't surprise me if there was a gap somewhere. No one else has gotten loose. I moved the egg crates away from the edge, but I can't see any other way that they are getting loose!

Edit: Oh, I have been giving them mini tangerines since I have a bunch that need to be eaten, they do love those things!

 

[ReptileWorld]

You dont need the light for them at all and infact they will produce for you much better if they just stay in total darkness. i notice that once everyone in my home is asleep and the lights been off a while they are extremely active and feeding.. during the day their gone.. once i added the towel over the bin to keep them dark they now are active 24 hours a day and are constantly eating and moving about. i have seen a higher production rate.

as for them escaping, that was my biggest fear considering my fiance said if 1 gets loose they are gone for good lol. i took the egg flats i have and i sliced them with a knife to be exactly a inch and a half below the rim line of the bin. about 2 and from where the egg flat ends i have very smooth packing tape spread out around the entire bin. So far i have not had 1 escape. i have the heat pad on the bottom of the bin ( iv seen some people mount it on the side or back.) and i notice they stay on the lower parts of the egg flats. and also i have the egg flats slanted so that they come no where near the top. so i have yet to see any climbing the sides of the bin not baby nor adult.

as for a food item besides the standard chow im giving them. i see they prefer apples over oranges. dont ask me why everyone of my friends say theirs goes wild over oranges.. when i add a apple in there.. forget it.. its the largest response i have gotten out of them since i had them and fed them everything i can find lol.

I give it to them with no skin just 1 pealed apple solid and they break it done within a few hours.

 

[Desdemona]

I will do apple as well, i am sure they would like some variety.

 

[gothra]

Tosha, if you have missing males and you think there is no way that they can escape, then its most likely that they died and got eaten by the others. Dubia males can jump and flutter a very short distance, I leave about 10 inches between the top of egg flats to the lid.

p.s. I had a male fluttered out of the bin once when I had higher egg crates!