# Ditch the Dubia!!!



## Jacobchinarian (Jun 10, 2011)

I had a very small colony of dubia roaches that wouldn't breed and only my Goliath would eat. My tarantulas never ate one and I had to keep buying superworms which killed my 3rd instar pamphobeteus platyomma because of the many diseases found at petsmarts. Basically my tarantulas were starving (some almost to death). I knew I needed something else and I wasn't goin back to petsmart. I fed off the last few dubia to my Goliath bird eater and went to lonestarroach.com. I bought 1000 adult lateralis Cockroaches for 12 dollars plus 13 dollars shipping. I went to work feeding them and all but 4 of my 16 tarantulas ate like pigs. Several of them ate so much they couldn't hold anymore but were still trying. If I could take anything out of this it is this: feed or sell your dubia and buy yourself <some> lateralis cockroaches


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## BrettG (Jun 10, 2011)

Shoulda tried discoids. Breed pretty easily. I used lats ONCE,and they just were not for me. Just a pain.


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## Weird_Arachnid (Jun 10, 2011)

The one thing I hate about dubia is that they're smart. If i were to drop a dubia in with a T and the T hovers over it, the dubia would "play dead" (not move), making the T uninterested. I now have to pretty much use the tongs to hold on to either a leg or wing for it to wiggle about to entice the Ts.

As far as breeding, I am literally reduced to separating them. One tank has males while the other has females and babies. I REALLY need to downsize :/


Good luck with your roaches and T's


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## Meecht (Jun 10, 2011)

Trouble breeding dubias?  All it took for me was a heat pad/lamp, some food, and some water crystals.  After a month I saw the first ootheca (sp?) and the breeding has been constant since.


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## RJ2 (Jun 10, 2011)

it is annoying when the dubia play dead, tong feeding I found keeps the dubia scurrying enough to really envoke a good feeding response.


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## Lolita (Jun 10, 2011)

all of my T's (21 of them) all eath dubias i've never had a problem with them


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## Mr Goodkat (Jun 10, 2011)

I just started a small colony today as buying different sizes of crickets was starting to get a pain in the a$$. 
My T.Ockerti took a medium sized one today as totally hammered it!! it didn't have enough time to play dead 

Hopefully the rest will be the same when i feed them over the weekend.


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## Maxrpm (Jun 10, 2011)

I smash the heads on all my dubias when I feed my T's.  Keeps them from burying themselves and they don't play dead.  I can throw em in and if they don't get ate they are easy to find.


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## Weird_Arachnid (Jun 10, 2011)

Maxrpm said:


> I smash the heads on all my dubias when I feed my T's.  Keeps them from burying themselves and they don't play dead.  I can throw em in and if they don't get ate they are easy to find.


Ah yes, burying themselves is another annoyance. -.-

Smashed heads sounds like another plan I could use (not only for my slings either)


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## Jacobchinarian (Jun 10, 2011)

Maxrpm said:


> I smash the heads on all my dubias when I feed my T's.  Keeps them from burying themselves and they don't play dead.  I can throw em in and if they don't get ate they are easy to find.


Only problem is if the t doesn't eat it then the cockroach dies. I know some people have had success with dubia but the breeding wasn't my only problem. I so far have loved my lateralis and t's I thought were “bad eaters” have put down 15 lateralis roaches.


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## gmrpnk21 (Jun 10, 2011)

Roaches can live for days with a crushed head.


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## Jacobchinarian (Jun 10, 2011)

gmrpnk21 said:


> Roaches can live for days with a crushed head.


Really that's cool. Either way im still much happier with my lateris roaches.


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## super-pede (Jun 10, 2011)

lats are a lot more healthy than the dubias. they have a lower fat content and a higher amount of protein.


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## Mojo Jojo (Jun 10, 2011)

lats are infesters and I don't think I could take the chance of bringing them into my house...just in the event that something happened and they all got out.


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## kru008 (Jun 10, 2011)

I've been considering of buying lats for a while now.. Some people told me that they stunk REALLY bad. I did had a massive colony of dubia roaches going on but when I left for 3 months for vacation and just had a personal friend feeding and watering the ts and my other pets. He said that he was "creeped out" with all the noises of that the dubia made. He decided to put a flease blanket over the tub and blocked the ventilation. So.. I came home with a giant bin with over 4" of dead roaches and it smelled REALLY bad. So.. Other than the fact that dubias are smarter than the average roaches, what're the other pros and cons of setting up a lats colony?


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## JC (Jun 10, 2011)

Lats are the best feeders I have used. But they will stink if kept under certain conditions, and I mean stink BAD.


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## Jacobchinarian (Jun 11, 2011)

Another thing I got out my hermit crab and dangled a live lateralis roach in front of it. It killed it and is eating it now. I tried the same thing with my vampire crab which is underwater. It grabed it faster than most of the tarantulas!

---------- Post added 06-11-2011 at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 06-10-2011 at 11:59 PM ----------




JC said:


> Lats are the best feeders I have used. But they will stink if kept under certain conditions, and I mean stink BAD.


What kinda conditions do you mean?


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## JC (Jun 11, 2011)

Jacobchinarian said:


> Another thing I got out my hermit crab and dangled a live lateralis roach in front of it. It killed it and is eating it now. I tried the same thing with my vampire crab which is underwater. It grabed it faster than most of the tarantulas!
> 
> ---------- Post added 06-11-2011 at 12:01 AM ---------- Previous post was 06-10-2011 at 11:59 PM ----------
> 
> ...



Low ventilation, all protein diet, rotting roaches on substrate, over watered soil.


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## skar (Jun 11, 2011)

I prob have alot less ts than all of you. yet. . . mine eat whatever I give them, roaches, crix, mealworms. keeping my fingers crossed now.


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## Jacobchinarian (Jun 11, 2011)

JC said:


> Low ventilation, all protein diet, rotting roaches on substrate, over watered soil.


Thanks I just wanted to know what to look out for.


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## MrEMojo (Jun 11, 2011)

B. dubia all the way. you can't go wrong


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## malhomme (Jun 12, 2011)

All my juvies and adults eat dubias, and even most of my slings.  Sometimes a sling won't go for a dubia nymph, so I'll give it a cricket.  Also, the first time my adults eat after a molt, after waiting a couple of weeks, they won't take a dubia.  They need something quick and jumpy to drive a feeding response.  After that, they'll eat dubias.

So far I've only found three problems with dubias:
1)  Boluses placed in a water dish ferment overnight into the most foul, slimy soup ever!  Why don't cricket boluses smell as bad???

2)  It doesn't take many dubias to fillup my tarantulas.  I have 26 spiders and one 'pede and my dubias are multiplying faster than my t's can eat 'em.

3)  I think I may have a skin allergy to cockroaches (well, it was confirmed by my allergist a few years back).  I was an exterminator for years and have had more exposure to cockroaches than the average person.  Anyway, my skin itches quite a bit after handling 'em, though not significant enough yet for me to get rid of them.

Apart from these three small issues, I'm glad I switched from crix to dubias.


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## Jacobchinarian (Jun 12, 2011)

I do like dubia more than crickets for sure. But my t's love lats.


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