Dubia colony (almost) 1 year update :)

[Wenzer]

I'm really happy about how well my colony has been doing! This post is quite long, just a forewarning.

When I first started it up (around the end of June 2022 I think?) I only had a handful of adults and another handful of mixed nymphs, courtesy of a friend that was raising them for her reptiles.
I had a fairly large colony over 10 years ago when I had a small collection of bearded dragons, but this time around I had a lot of trouble really getting this colony going.

I had minimal breeding happening, and quite a few female dubia "prolapses" (I still don't know what to call them, tried searching for info but nothing very conclusive besides 'its just something that happens sometimes' lol). I think it was due to very low humidity at the time, though. Since I made adjustments to their setup, I've had zero "prolapses"!

What I've found to work best for me is a very simplistic approach: water crystals for water, non-medicated chick mash for feeding (with occasional fresh food, but majority is the chick mash), and a very thin layer of coco fiber along the bottom of the bin.

I'd really like to get rid of the coco fiber but it turned out to be majorly helpful in maintaining higher humidity... I just dumped, sorted and cleaned the bin tonight and I'm trying it without coco fiber to see if it stays productive.

I also seem to have some of the pickiest roaches on earth because they absolutely will not eat fresh foods for me... Before I brought in the water crystals (which is also helping my humidity problem) I was having a steady, albeit minimal amount, of die-offs for various issues that I believe all came back to humidity and/or dehydration. The only fresh I've ever gotten them to eat much of was some overripe blackberries and mandarin oranges (of course ). Everything else is ignored or barely picked at.

After reading some threads here and across other Google search results I decided to just go the simplistic route like many people advise. I'd love to give my roaches a more varied diet but settling for the chick feed is probably the best I'm going to get, and they eat that stuff like crazy!

After sorting them tonight I found I have a little more than 100 females (mostly adults but some larger juveniles that have yet to sprout their winglets) and at least 60-70 males (also a mix of adults and some juveniles), and a bunch of smaller nymphs I won't attempt to estimate or count lol.

Considering I only really managed to stabilize and help the colony thrive within the last 4-6 months (horrible memory/judgement of time here) I think they're doing fantastic! I'm positive they've at least doubled in total colony size in the last 2-ish months, so hopefully the trend continues
I'd like to eventually be able to help out some local friends and fellow hobbyists since we don't have a great selection of feeders for sale locally.

I'd really like to start a b. lateralis colony too, but thinking I may need to wait on that. I never had allergy issues with my first colony years ago, but it seems I've really developed some allergies to them now. Even with a facemask on while cleaning them tonight, by the end I was wheezing and coughing! Thinking I'll have to do bin cleanings outside from now on... Normally I just get itchy and/or runny nose when I need to feed/water/spot clean, but cleaning out the frass was not a fun experience!!

It's kind of sad because I do like to occasionally handle the roaches, I was always messing with them with my first colony. These ones are much more skittish though and I'd rather only touch them when necessary considering my worsening allergies, which is probably preferable to them lol.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I'm really happy about how well my colony has been doing! This post is quite long, just a forewarning.

When I first started it up (around the end of June 2022 I think?) I only had a handful of adults and another handful of mixed nymphs, courtesy of a friend that was raising them for her reptiles.
I had a fairly large colony over 10 years ago when I had a small collection of bearded dragons, but this time around I had a lot of trouble really getting this colony going.

I had minimal breeding happening, and quite a few female dubia "prolapses" (I still don't know what to call them, tried searching for info but nothing very conclusive besides 'its just something that happens sometimes' lol). I think it was due to very low humidity at the time, though. Since I made adjustments to their setup, I've had zero "prolapses"!

What I've found to work best for me is a very simplistic approach: water crystals for water, non-medicated chick mash for feeding (with occasional fresh food, but majority is the chick mash), and a very thin layer of coco fiber along the bottom of the bin.

I'd really like to get rid of the coco fiber but it turned out to be majorly helpful in maintaining higher humidity... I just dumped, sorted and cleaned the bin tonight and I'm trying it without coco fiber to see if it stays productive.

I also seem to have some of the pickiest roaches on earth because they absolutely will not eat fresh foods for me... Before I brought in the water crystals (which is also helping my humidity problem) I was having a steady, albeit minimal amount, of die-offs for various issues that I believe all came back to humidity and/or dehydration. The only fresh I've ever gotten them to eat much of was some overripe blackberries and mandarin oranges (of course ). Everything else is ignored or barely picked at.

After reading some threads here and across other Google search results I decided to just go the simplistic route like many people advise. I'd love to give my roaches a more varied diet but settling for the chick feed is probably the best I'm going to get, and they eat that stuff like crazy!

After sorting them tonight I found I have a little more than 100 females (mostly adults but some larger juveniles that have yet to sprout their winglets) and at least 60-70 males (also a mix of adults and some juveniles), and a bunch of smaller nymphs I won't attempt to estimate or count lol.

Considering I only really managed to stabilize and help the colony thrive within the last 4-6 months (horrible memory/judgement of time here) I think they're doing fantastic! I'm positive they've at least doubled in total colony size in the last 2-ish months, so hopefully the trend continues
I'd like to eventually be able to help out some local friends and fellow hobbyists since we don't have a great selection of feeders for sale locally.

I'd really like to start a b. lateralis colony too, but thinking I may need to wait on that. I never had allergy issues with my first colony years ago, but it seems I've really developed some allergies to them now. Even with a facemask on while cleaning them tonight, by the end I was wheezing and coughing! Thinking I'll have to do bin cleanings outside from now on... Normally I just get itchy and/or runny nose when I need to feed/water/spot clean, but cleaning out the frass was not a fun experience!!

It's kind of sad because I do like to occasionally handle the roaches, I was always messing with them with my first colony. These ones are much more skittish though and I'd rather only touch them when necessary considering my worsening allergies, which is probably preferable to them lol.

yea that’s the same problem I had hence the thread I started Called picky Dubias but the soluton was apples that kept my colony from dying off they started eating finally .
weird I don’t have roach allergy’s at all yet im alergic to urticating hairs of my Ts. What do toy heat them with? You can pm me if product name not allowed here .
Could you get some pictures of the colony?
Thanks ! I’m in the beginning stages of starting a new colony a mix of my old and new one .

 

[Wenzer]

yea that’s the same problem I had hence the thread I started Called picky Dubias but the soluton was apples that kept my colony from dying off they started eating finally . I got a starter colony to add to my small one I got now, I’ll try and count how many I got later.
weird I don’t have roach allergy’s at all yet im alergic to urticating hairs of my Ts.
Could you get some pictures of the colony?

That's great you found out they like apples! I have to remind myself sometimes to separate dubia's from the house pest roaches I know of that have a reputation for eating essentially anything they can get their little mandibles on, lol.

Here's some pics of the colony I just took, normally I was stacking the egg crates vertically so the frass could fall down to the bottom easier, but since Im trying without the coco fiber this time, they seemed to have a lot of trouble flipping themselves upright when they got knocked over. Time will tell if I decide to bring the coco fiber back I guess!

I have their food and water dishes sitting in the center so they shouldn't have trouble getting to it. I noticed, with the lip that goes around the outer part of the base of the bin, that putting the dishes in the corners on one side was oddly difficult for them to traverse. I think they're just helpless at this point the egg crates around the sides does seem to help them move around easier than the slick plastic. Maybe it would be worth taking some sandpaper and roughing it up? Just enough for grip without making it impossible to thoroughly clean it...

As a side note, they have a heating pad attached to a thermostat on the right half of the bin, so they're mostly congregated there.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

That's great you found out they like apples! I have to remind myself sometimes to separate dubia's from the house pest roaches I know of that have a reputation for eating essentially anything they can get their little mandibles on, lol.

Here's some pics of the colony I just took, normally I was stacking the egg crates vertically so the frass could fall down to the bottom easier, but since Im trying without the coco fiber this time, they seemed to have a lot of trouble flipping themselves upright when they got knocked over. Time will tell if I decide to bring the coco fiber back I guess!

I have their food and water dishes sitting in the center so they shouldn't have trouble getting to it. I noticed, with the lip that goes around the outer part of the base of the bin, that putting the dishes in the corners on one side was oddly difficult for them to traverse. I think they're just helpless at this point the egg crates around the sides does seem to help them move around easier than the slick plastic. Maybe it would be worth taking some sandpaper and roughing it up? Just enough for grip without making it impossible to thoroughly clean it...

As a side note, they have a heating pad attached to a thermostat on the right half of the bin, so they're mostly congregated there.

I was going to use a kk temporarily until I get one of my bins cleaned out are you saying I should move the heatmat to the side ?

 

[Wenzer]

I was going to use a kk temporarily until I get one of my bins cleaned out are you saying I should move the heatmat to the side ?

I don't think it's absolutely necessary as long as they have plenty of vertical space to move away from the heat if they need to! I would probably put mine underneath the whole bin if I had more of the large cardboard egg flats that I can line up vertically. As long as it doesn't get too hot for them or they have a place to move to if they want, I think you're probably fine!

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I don't think it's absolutely necessary as long as they have plenty of vertical space to move away from the heat if they need to! I would probably put mine underneath the whole bin if I had more of the large cardboard egg flats that I can line up vertically. As long as it doesn't get too hot for them or they have a place to move to if they want, I think you're probably fine!

Yeah hopefully in a year or so I have close to as many roaches as you . I added 100+ large & adults to my colony of 18 adults and 40-50 or so babies . I used to have hundreds but when I quit using heatmats because I had too many they quit breeding . They even bread room temperature for a while but got heat dependent.
Congratulations on your success!