Dubia Colony-Questions

[laura_leigh]

ok, I've had my dubia colony started for about a month, and it seems to be doing pretty well (if i say so myself, lol)
I started out with about 250 dubia from Aaron Pauling and they seem to have multiplied a bit, I haven't counted them, just have seen several babies floating around in there

Anyways, I just got in 1000 mixed nymphs from BlapticaDubia.com (awesome sale, lol), 5 lbs roach diet, 8 oz Water crystals, roach flats, and some climbable (if thats even a word, lol) food and water dishes (the itty bitty babies are climbing in to the water crystals dish) and bug stop....

So I'm pretty sure my setup is ok, i've got a big rubbermaid container with about a 4x7 screened area in the lid. I have a human heating pad underneath running on high. The temps at the bottom are running about 90 degrees on the bottom. I was feeding my own food up till today, supplemented with fruits and veggies and greens for moisture. And egg crates of course..... I've got anywhere from 1400-1600 dubia running around in there

So here are my questions:
1.) How in the heck do I pick up the big buggers to feed falcor? They gross me out really bad. I'll play with the babies all day long, but the big ones freak me out.
2.) Should I seperate the adults from the nymphs and get a feeding colony set up so i don't feed off my breeders? If so, how many adults should i keep in the breeding colony and at what ratio for feeding a single sub-adult dragon?
3.) How the heck do i clean out the container? I had previously just been putting the food on the floor of the bin, and now its a mess and driving me nuts!
4.) Any additional suggestions outside of my questions are definately welcome as well! :wave:

 

[patrickb]

No need to pick them up directly. You never stated what size of roach you need for your beardie. You can pick up the eggcartons and shake them out into another container and either use tongs, or what someone recently called "panning for Dubia" method which involves putting them in a stainless steel bowl (or something similar) and skimming out the sizes you need.

http://theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm At the bottom of the page, there is a bucket sorting method Jason details there for sorting out sizes. That works really well to get a specific size of roaches out of the colony. What I recommend is that you use that method, every week or two and put those sorted roaches of the size you need for feeding into a separate bin. Feed from that bin and when you run low, do the sorting method again. You could sort enough for two weeks and not worry since they won't grow a whole lot over that period of time.

As far as cleaning, don't. Every 6 months or so you should clean out all the old frass (poop and molted skins) to keep the levels down, but it will look unorderly no matter what you try. I do recommend you attempt using "dishes" of some sort for the feeding. They should be shallow and easily climbable for the young nymphs. Be warned, the roaches will drag food out of these dishes anyways and it will end up all over the place. After a while, you will learn how to much to feed them each time you refresh the food and can keep the mess to a minimum, but it will always probably look messy to a degree. You might be a bit like me on the compulsive side with cleanliness. Just let it go and let them have their fun.

Other than that, just leave them be. They almost thrive on neglect. The less you disturb them, the better they reproduce. I usually only replenish the food/water sources twice a week. As I said, you will see how much they consume and can judge how much to do each of those times after a little time with the buggers. heh

 

[laura_leigh]

Thanks for the suggestions! I can try the panning thing tonight after I get rid of the possum in my basement, lol. I think I need about the 1-1 1/4 inch ones, but he has downed the few adult males I've managed to knock off of egg crates into his cage like they were nothing, so I don't really know if I need to be feeding him the adults, or if I should be feeding him smaller ones..... another thing is I don't know how many to be feeding him. With Crickets, I just let him go in a tub with nothing but crickets until he quit eating, and then I put him back in his cage. Do i do the same with the dubia? Right now he's about 15 inches long (snout to tip), give or take an inch or two.... he wouldn't sit still for me and I haven't measured him in a long while. He's around 9 months old now. He also gets greens and fruits n veggies daily.

I think i have it figured up that I will need about 300 dubia a month if he eats 10/day, so if each female dubia averages 15 nymphs/month I will need about 20 adult dubia and 3-4 males for the breeding colony. This is all estimated from what I have read on here and various other sites that talk about dubia (PLEASE correct me if this is wrong). I'm guessing that it will take 2-3 months for nymphs to reach the 1-1 1/4" stage, and I think I have plenty to get me that far until then with the 1k I just got in and the other nymphs I already had, so i should be ok if I pull out just what I need for the breeding colony. Plus I won't be disturbing the breeding colony as much as I would the feeder colony.

Let me know what you think. I really have no clue what I'm doing.

 

[midnight_962002]

Laura,

I just skimmed this thread but....depending on the size of your beardie he could be eating way more than 10 a day if he is a juvi. Or as an adult way less then 10 a day.

As for your feeder dishes. Blaptica Dubia has a feeder bowl that I use and love. Or you can use the top aof a butter container. But, when your coloney gets going you will go through a full food dish from Blaptica Dubia once every couple of days. I go through 5 pounds of food every 2 months on 1 coloney that is really going and one coloney that is growing. 500 or so nymphs in the growing coloney and 1000's in the ramped coloney.

Ernie

 

[laura_leigh]

Thanks, I have the feeders, and they are definately better than what I had before, nothing, lol.... Here is my exact setup, and a summary of my above posts:

Rubbermaid RoughNeck 31 gallon tote
Walgreens Heat Pad by HomeMedics, set on medium, running about 85 degrees give or take a few
BlapticaDubia.com Roach Flats, about 12 stacked vertically
BlapticaDubia.com Food & Water Dishes
BlapticaDubia.com Bug Stop a few inches from the top of the tote
BlapticaDubia.com Water Crystals - just got in 8 oz yesterday
BlapticaDubia.com Mega Nutrient Protein Diet - just got in 5 lbs yesterday
I got 250 Mixed dubia with about 5 adult pairs from Aaron Pauling about a month ago, and they had started having babies already, I've fed off about 3 or 4 of the adult males to fix the ratio, but I have a lot more now, lol
I got 1000 Mixed nymphs from BlapticaDubia.com yesterday. I'm not sure how many dubia I have now, but there's a lot in there, lol.

Falcor is 9 months old, and about 16 inches. He ate approximately 10 of the 1" nymphs this morning, and is working on his salad now.

How many should I be feeding him each day?
Should I be feeding him twice a day now?
Should I be dusting the Dubia with calcium and multi vit?

How many Females:Males do you keep breeding for a single dragon?
How many can I keep in a 31 gallon tub?
Should I seperate my breeders from my feeders?
Basically, I know I have the general setup for my Dubia ok, but I need to know the rest of the specifics! Thanks guys!

 

[patrickb]

How many should I be feeding him each day?
Should I be feeding him twice a day now?
Should I be dusting the Dubia with calcium and multi vit?

How many Females:Males do you keep breeding for a single dragon?
How many can I keep in a 31 gallon tub?
Should I seperate my breeders from my feeders?
Basically, I know I have the general setup for my Dubia ok, but I need to know the rest of the specifics! Thanks guys!

He should probably be eating twice a day still, as many as he will eat in 15 mins each feeding. Yes, you should still be dusting them. One feeding per a day with calcium 5 days of the week, and one feeding per a day with vitamins 2 days a week I think.

How many females and males you will need depends on how much he is ultimately eating. I always like to consider that the mature females will only produce 15 nymphs per a month (it is much higher than this) This will allow for the colony to replenish itself and grow in size at the same time. Recommendations for the amount of males to females vary, anywhere from 1:3 (males:females) up to 1:10 seem to work, with the master Jason using 1:10 himself.

You can keep a lot in a 31 gal. 5k+ depending on how much furniture you offer them. You will notice wing biting in the males when they get overcrowded and reduced reproduction rates.

As far as seperating, I do it once every two weeks myself. Using the bucket method as detailed http://theroachguy.com/caresheet.htm I sort out the size I need for feeding for the next two weeks. I keep those sorted ones separate from the main breeding colony so I don't have to disturb the breeders. I keep them the same way as the breeders. Then after two weeks, I dump the left overs in the main bin and resort to get the sizes I need again.

 

[laura_leigh]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I guess I'm gonna have to figure out a way to dust them now then. lol. I split out all of my adult females (about 25 of them) and about 4 adult males into a seperate bin. I think its about an 18 gallon. I have it in my closet so that they don't get disturbed but about once a week when I feed them, or toss in an apple or veggie here and there...

The Nymphs are in the big tub, I've been knocking the ones I'm going to feed off into a 5 gallon bucket and tossing that into falcor's cage, but I guess I've got to figure something else out so that I can dust them. I may actually have to start picking them up.... YUCK! tried picking them up with regular tweezers and that didn't work out so well.....

Anywho... Thanks!

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

I haven't started my colony yet, but I've heard suggestions of using paper towel rolls. They roaches will climb in there. You can pick up the rolls iwht the roaches inside without ever touching the roach!

 

[ktizzle188]

just pick them up i just put my hand on a crate and push a few in my hand. i was sketched out before but after u do it once you'll come to realize their not that bad. and for cleaning check out theroachguy.com on the site he tells you how he cleans his bins out.

 

[laura_leigh]

I think I figured out what works for me... I've been scavaging my feeder bin for adult females to pull out and put in my breeder bin (I'm up to 50 females, 8 males and about 50 little nymphs over the past two weeks ) I'm using the "panning method, I put a large stainless bowl down in the feeder bin on the food side, I pick up the egg crates one by one and knock off with some long computer tweezers what I want.... I occasionally get some smaller nymphs that I don't want to transfer out, and I just slide them out of the bowl back into the bin.... So all seems to be working well.

I do have a couple more questions though,

1.) What ratio do you use for male to female? I've currently got about 1:7
2.) What should the humidity levels be? I'm not doing anything about humidity, and after some more reading, I think I should be.

Otherwise, I think I have everything else pretty well under control. Thank you to everyone for your help!

 

[zebraflavencs]

Hi ! I use 1 male to about 4-5 females. I also place half an orange in the bin to keep the breeding going at full pace ! It acts like roach Viagra !
Janie.

 

[laura_leigh]

ok, so add a few more males and I should be set then....
I use fruits, veggies & water crystals for moisture currently, but I read somewhere that I should be keeping the humidity at 60%, but not to spray the container with water or anything like that, so I was worried.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Yes, you don't want to see condensation on the walls or floor of the bin. You can coat the top 3-4 inches with any of these items to help keep them from getting out:
Vaseline, olive oil, and The Roach Guy has a product ( I think it's him) that keeps roaches away from the top. Dubias don't climb well at all, so I think if you gap the lid now and then, you should be fine.
Janie.

 

[laura_leigh]

I use bug stop from blapticadubia.com just below the top on my bins to keep them from escaping, and I have 5x7 screened cutouts for ventilation.... I guess I could throw a towel or something over them to increase the humidity and just remove it for a couple of hours a day, but remembering that could be quite the chore for me, lol...