# Pregnat Dubia Roach?



## TFCherry

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum, but have been on reptileforums.net for a while now. A few months ago I switched to feeding my australian water dragon dubia roaches. I discovered that I now hate crickets with a passion and Bruce LOVES the roaches. It's the only thing that he cannot get enough of. And feeding is easier because i can just throw them in a feed bowl because they can't get out and it's easy to moniter how much he eats. 

I have also started a colony of my own so I won't keep having to buy roaches, he's still a juvenile (little more than a foot to go) and already eating 4-5 mid-sized dubia's a DAY. The colony is not big enough to feed from yet, but they did have their first set of babies last week. They seem to be doing well and growing. 

But can anyone tell me how to tell if the females are pregnant? Do they just look fatter than normal? And about how long inbetween clutches for each female?


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## Zdravko

Hi, I also have question about my colony, that I have for about a month and a half.
I still don't have babies, but it seems that the most of the females are pregnant.
Yesterday evening I saw one of them... I don't know what exactly she was doing, at the moment I thought she was gaving birght. But now there are no babies and the roach is still pregnant - she's still having this white thing in her ass  . Can someone tell me what exactly happened?

I keep them warm, have a water dish, plenty of food...
I have patience, but now i'm worried is everything OK with the buddies


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## sydward

it took me to pregnant and birthing femal dubis to realize i had babies...found bout 10 out side the cage one night....the females die after birthing their young, and if i am not mistaken they give live birth. that long white/yellow thing you seen is the sac, for some reason they push it out and suck it back in....weird.please make sure you have a tight lid, because these babies can get through alot of small areas.


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## Zdravko

The only way they can get out of their tank is climing glass, that as far as I know is not possible.

The night when this happened I fed and water them. Is there any chance that the female was stressed and that caused this sucking back the eggsac?
or maybe she was stressed and the birght began prematurely but it was stopped or something? 
But whatever it happened, the eggsac was not on the place the female was.
Is it possible that it was eaten? (i dont think so, but who knows...) 
Are there cases when the babies were canibalized?


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## sydward

haha, thats what i thought when i seen my first eggsac, they didnt eat it,and these roach can climb glass. i have heard if you put a thick layer of vaslne around the top it will stop escapes. and i dont think the little lady was stressed, just wait and occasonally check dark areas that they can hide in...i found at least 20 babys i wasnt aware of under a rock....whoa, it was heart racing because when i picked up the rock, they scattered everywhere! and if you find your female dead, its okay. it happens when the give birth....i also just looked it up, i was thinking of hissers...reallly sorry..but theres some handy dandy info on them....


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## Zdravko

Thank you for your quick answers!
I'll wait and see what will happen


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## sydward

yeah, i dont think dubia will be so much diff. from the hissers...roachs are roaches and they breed like rabbits...let us know the out come!


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## Zdravko

I almost forgot, what's the size of the newborns? 
Yes, i'll let you know


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## sydward

they are gona be pretty small, could you see the egg segments in the sac when you seen it? round bout that size if you did.


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## TFCherry

when you say that they die after giving birth are you just talking about hissers? i dont really think its normal for them to die after birth, only if the conditions are not right, like too much or too little humidity, not the right temps, and because my dubias had babies and there are no dead females. i have also read that they can give birth many times in their lifetime. i am aware of the eggsac and that they pull it back into themselves and give live birth, but how do you tell if they are pregnant when you cant see the sac?

also, DUBIAS deffinitely DO NOT climb glass/plastic, or very well at all for that matter. they are very slow and clumsy, and the babies tend to play dead and are even worse climbers than the adults. In the months that i have been feeding/keeping dubias (100's at a time) not a single one has escaped. but on the other hand i had to buy a couple dozen crickets last week because i ran out of the feeders, and i am now finding crickets ALL OVER MY HOUSE, little devils....**mutters angrily**


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## sydward

no, i was talking bout the hissers climbing, and i have read about lots of people finding dead female hissers after birth.....both my ladys died...so i thought those people to be right...but i dont know if dubias die....im not a roach expert, but i will share what ever i have heard. and if i am wrong, please let me know otherwise.  sorry if there is any confusions.


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## clam1991

the white thing that came out is the egg case they let it come out if they need to dry it a little
or if they are going to abandon it
as far as i know they dont die after birth
and just give it time they arent giving me babies that fast either


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## NinjaPirate

Dubia's don't climb, and they don't die after birth normally. They extend the eggsac out for temperature control. Seeing the eggsac sticking out of their butts is how you know you've got gravid females . 

Gestation is ~30 days memory serving and the babies are fairly tiny. Takes 2-4 months for the nymphs to mature. It usually takes ~6mo/year for a starter colony to become stable enough to harvest from on a regular basis, but that depends on what kind of starter setup you got and how many adult females you started with 

And if you want them to breed more, raise the temperatures and feed well, high protein (cat food or the like) supplemented with vegetables/citrus fruit (but not lemons). Mine love Zuccini and Oranges. 85F+ will get them going like rabbits. Humidity isn't a huge issue so long as it isn't bone dry and they can get water from somewhere. Just has to be high enough to allow for molting. I have an open water source that works great, but you have to have a very rough textured dish because if it's smooth they can't climb it and they drown.


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## Matt K

First of all:  www.roachforum.com

Second of all: No female roach ever dies after giving birth.  She will only die from other issues with her environment or old age.

Third: It may take a while to start getting loads of raoches to feed off when you start with a smaller colony.  Looking in on them or disturbing them only slows the process up.  Leave them alone except for food and watering.  Keep them temp in the 80's.  That's it.

Last:  Does nobody ever use the Search function on this website or Google anymore?  :wall: :wall: :wall:


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## Dom

Matt K said:


> Looking in on them or disturbing them only slows the process up.  *Leave them alone except for food and watering*.  Keep them temp in the 80's.  That's it.


They will produce very few young if you keep disturbing them. I try to make sure they have fruit/food for a week and only open the container to add more. When I want feeders I remove a couple of months supply of nymphs and put them in another container so I'm not disturbing the breeder colony.
Took me awhile to get my numbers up before I learnt about *leaving them alone except for food and watering.* .
The search button will give you more answers/info quicker than waiting for replies IME. You will also find answers to questions you haven't gotten around to asking.


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## arachyd

Dubia roaches don't die after giving birth. They don't climb glass or any very smooth surface. They extend the "egg case" probably for moisture control, not heat. Since they are not warm-blooded having it extend half an inch out of the body would not affect temperature. Mine never cared about being disturbed. They get disturbed every day when I pick out the maturing males and still breed like crazy as long as the temperature is fairly high and they are fed plenty of protein food, fruits and vegetables. Roachforum.com is an excellent site for any questions you have about keeping/breeding roaches.


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## TFCherry

ok so the only way is if you actually see the eggsac. Thanks for the infomation everyone.

AND MATT K: THERE IS NO NEED FOR THE ATTITUDE. I HAVE SEARCHED PLENTY, HOW THE F**K DO YOU THINK I FOUND THIS SITE!!!! WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE THESE DAYS? TOO LAZY TO HELP OTHERS? JUST DON'T WANT TO GET INVOLVED? IS THAT IT?


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## Anthony Straus

TFCherry said:


> AND MATT K: THERE IS NO NEED FOR THE ATTITUDE. I HAVE SEARCHED PLENTY, HOW THE F**K DO YOU THINK I FOUND THIS SITE!!!! WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE THESE DAYS? TOO LAZY TO HELP OTHERS? JUST DON'T WANT TO GET INVOLVED? IS THAT IT?



Easy champ...no need to go CAPS LOCK ON HIM. ALL of the answers to these questions *have* been posted numerous times on the forums, he stopped by to clarify some points out so obviously he's not to lazy to help...I think its people being to lazy to search...


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## TFCherry

i have searched the forums and have learned nothing new. i wanted an answer from someone that actually new what they were talking about, and he didnt even answer it.

I wanted to know how you tell if they are pregnant if you don't see the egg sack outside of the female for 'venting'.


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## arachyd

For that question...if I have females and they have been in contact with a male recently I assume with quite a bit of certainty that they are pregnant. They seem to be baby making machines when they're healthy. I don't know if there is any outward sign to say one is pregnant and another is not (except for the conclusion you arrived at about seeing the egg case).


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## james

*dubia*

You can usually tell when the dubia are gravid as the females are pretty darn fat. The white thing is called the ootheca and roaches will extend it out and rotate it to evenly grow the babies. They give live berth and any ootheca remains usually getting eaten up right away. The females will have 10-30 babies usually and within a short time will breed again. They actually seem to do better when a little more crowded and it is best to not disturb them that much. I have some new breeding set-ups that let you almost never disturb the adults while getting all the feeders you need. Working on the document with pictures this weekend. It does take 6-9 months to get a colony going so you have to be patient. Keep them warm and well fed and they will do the rest.
James
www.blaberus.com
james.blaberus@gmail.com


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## TFCherry

ok thank you. yeah i more or less leave them alone. i keep them in my closet that is dark all day, and i go in the closet maybe once a day to grab an outfit, but it doesn't seem to bother them. yesterday when i changed their food*** i noticed that at least two of the females are very fat compared to the others, so i believe that they are pregnant. and i think there is probably about 30 babies, first ones i have seen so far. 

***have you observed any mating behavior before? because when i went to feed them earlier in the day i noticed a male and female together and the male was lifting his wings up and moving his butt up and down and following the female....possible courtship? i watched for a minute then left them alone because i didnt want to disturb them.

I started with a small colony several months ago and have been adding new stock with each new feeder shipment. i realize it will take a while for the colony to grow, but because I am only feeding one lizard i am not too worried. also, i use the loose coconut fiber for lizards as a substrate because they do love to dig and the babies like to hide in it. also when i do start to feed from them i have no use for the small babies other than to let them grow to about mid-size, so sorting the small babies isn't really an issue for me.

i need to add more females though. ive noticed that more end up being male than female, so i am going to weed out the adult females from the feeders when i can tell for sure. so far only one has died, that wasn't fed off :}


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## arachyd

Yes, you witnessed courtship. Good luck with them.


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## james

*dubia*

males usually grow faster and mature out so you could have more females on the way. You can sex nymphs as well by looking at the underneath segments. If the last segment is long than female, if is it small and "V" shaped then male.
James
www.blaberus.com


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## TFCherry

james-do you happen to have any pictures of the differences?


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