Dubias not putting out babies

[WhitenerJ]

So I have a colony of Dubia roaches with 16 females, 6 males, and other smaller nymphs. . I've had the colony for almost 3 months and have not seen and babies. I have a heating pad to keep the temp around 90 and have been feeding oranges. Does it normally take this long to produce babies?

 

[Tenevanica]

So I have a colony of Dubia roaches with 16 females, 6 males, and other smaller nymphs. . I've had the colony for almost 3 months and have not seen and babies. I have a heating pad to keep the temp around 90 and have been feeding oranges. Does it normally take this long to produce babies?

They're pretty slow breeding (for a feeder that is). I wouldn't worry about it. The only thing I would think that would be stopping them would be stress. Is the bin in a dark place? Do they have hiding places? How often are you disturbing the bin?

If you don't see babies in 1-2 more months, it's probably time to worry.

 

[WhitenerJ]

They're pretty slow breeding (for a feeder that is). I wouldn't worry about it. The only thing I would think that would be stopping them would be stress. Is the bin in a dark place? Do they have hiding places? How often are you disturbing the bin?

If you don't see babies in 1-2 more months, it's probably time to worry.

I keep them in a dark bin in a quiet room and only open the bin once a day at most. They have plenty of egg crates to hide in as well. I'll give it some more time. Thanks.

 

[chanda]

So I have a colony of Dubia roaches with 16 females, 6 males, and other smaller nymphs. . I've had the colony for almost 3 months and have not seen and babies. I have a heating pad to keep the temp around 90 and have been feeding oranges. Does it normally take this long to produce babies?

They do take a while to get going. I think it took about 5 or 6 months after my dubias matured before I got babies. What else are you feeding them, besides oranges? I give mine a mix of fresh vegetables, dry dog or cat food (for protein), and Total Bites gel cubes.

 

[brolloks]

Ya mine have also taken quite some time to establish. Compared to my Oxyhaloa deusta which keep popping out babies like crazy, dubia breed super slow.

 

[Tenevanica]

Ya mine have also taken quite some time to establish. Compared to my Oxyhaloa deusta which keep popping out babies like crazy, dubia breed super slow.

Once you start exploring the roach hobby and get experience with more feeders, you realize how slow dubia breed.

Speaking of O. deusta, how long did they take to establish? I've got some individuals, and I'm wondering how long it'll be before I have tons of little ones!

 

[brolloks]

Speaking of O. deusta, how long did they take to establish? I've got some individuals, and I'm wondering how long it'll be before I have tons of little ones!

I caught one at the start of May 2016 and she had babies 2 days after I caught her. The babies have now had babies
and the original one had more babies as well. I have not really been keeping track of them since I don't use them as feeders yet. I am breeding them to use as feeders for scorplings and anything that a full grown dubia would be to large for.

 

[Trenor]

So I have a colony of Dubia roaches with 16 females, 6 males, and other smaller nymphs. . I've had the colony for almost 3 months and have not seen and babies. I have a heating pad to keep the temp around 90 and have been feeding oranges. Does it normally take this long to produce babies?

Temps should be fine. What are you feeding besides oranges? Where is your heating pad at on the bin? How is the ventilation?

If the females are mature you should be seeing babies by now. A lot of people buy females and they are not yet fully grown and don't produce for a while till they are. As it only take 28-30ish days for a female to produce nymphs you should have several putting out nymphs every month.

They do take time to grow bigger one they are born which is where the slow start is for most colonies comes in. Again, if your females are mature they should be dropping nymphs.

Post a photo or two of your roach bin and maybe we can see something to help out.

 

[brolloks]

@Tenevanica Here is my colony of O. deusta from a single roach caught in the start of May 2016

 

[WhitenerJ]

Temps should be fine. What are you feeding besides oranges? Where is your heating pad at on the bin? How is the ventilation?

If the females are mature you should be seeing babies by now. A lot of people buy females and they are not yet fully grown and don't produce for a while till they are. As it only take 28-30ish days for a female to produce nymphs you should have several putting out nymphs every month.

They do take time to grow bigger one they are born which is where the slow start is for most colonies comes in. Again, if your females are mature they should be dropping nymphs.

Post a photo or two of your roach bin and maybe we can see something to help out.

Here's a video tour of my colony. The only other thing I feed is roach chow. The heating pad is on the bottom of the bin.

 

[Trenor]

Here's a video tour of my colony. The only other thing I feed is roach chow. The heating pad is on the bottom of the bin.

Your setup looks good. Here is a few things that might help. Good luck.

They need high protein in their diet to grow and produce. I use chicken laying mash (It's already crumbled up in the bag) because it is made with high protein for laying chickens. It is also pretty cheap. I mix some extra calcium and protein in with it and call it good. I make about 10lbs (one small bag of feed) at the time.
The oranges are good for them and they love them. One thing to keep in mind is mold. I try to only put in as many orange wedges/veggies as they can eat in 24 hours. This prevents mold from forming which is very deadly to a colony.

The heat mat on the bottom is good. I use a lamp high amp dimmer from Lowes to adjust the mat to make sure it doesn't get too hot.
Though I don't recommend thermometers/humidity gauges for Ts, I do use them in my breeder bin. I have a temp gauge with the probe end taped to the inside bottom of my box in the center of the heat pad. I've found that 85-95 is good but hotter and my roach output stops. Between 40-60 humidity is good. I don't have to do anything but keep water crystals in the dish to keep it in that range here. Too dry and they do bad. Too wet and they die.

I try to keep my male/female ratio around 5:1 if I can though if it's off some it's not the end of the world.

I have two bins. One is for breeding and one for feeding. I only open the breeding one 2 to 3 times a week to feed and water. I check the temp gauge when I take care of the other bin to make sure it's not out of range.

The feeding bin doesn't have a heat mat it stays room temp.

Here are some photos of my setup. The blue bin is the feeder bin. I keep everything that isn't an adult in there. The gray bin is the breeder bin I sort it one to two times a month and get the little ones out. You can keep them all in the same one till you get bigger. I split them out so I don't have to disturb the breeders as often.

I use a dimmer switch to control the temp on the heat mat. Mine can get pretty hot and if it's too hot it'll kill the roaches or slow down their breeding. I keep mine between 85-95.

I only have the one big vent in the top covered in screen mesh. I want it dark in there so I cut two boxes to cover the vents but still let in plenty of air flow.

With the height of my bins I use half egg flats covered by a full one as seen here. Gives them more dark. The cheap humidity gauge lets me know if it's too dry or if it's moist enough for mold.

This is right after I have sorted my small ones out and put them in the other bin. I use cardboard between the flats to prevent them from closing up. the tape is around the top to prevent the nymphs from climbing out.

I use sorting buckets to quickly separate the adults from the nymphs/smaller ones.

 

[WhitenerJ]

Awesome setup. I too have an breeder and feeder bin.

I have a question about the temp. With my probe it reads 100 on the floor and 80 on the egg crates. I'm not seeing a high temp upwards in the bin only on the bottom which a little too high. Suggestions?

 

[Trenor]

Awesome setup. I too have an breeder and feeder bin.

I have a question about the temp. With my probe it reads 100 on the floor and 80 on the egg crates. I'm not seeing a high temp upwards in the bin only on the bottom which a little too high. Suggestions?

I set my temp according to the bottom temp reading. Remember the nymphs will be crawling on the bottom and in the frass which you don't want too hot. I aim for 90ish there and let the rest be a temperature gradient. If they are hot(with the lid on it will slowly build in temp) they can move away from the pad. If they get cool they can move down towards the pad. if the bottom of the bin is too hot (100 is IMO) they will have a harder time. They will need more water etc. I'd dim that bottom temp down to 90-92 and up the protein and see if they go into production. Remember even once you get the conditions right it takes almost a month to see babies.

 

[brolloks]

Wow, nice setups. I don't separate my roaches. Space is a bit of a problem for me and I don't have that many mouths to feed yet, so I don't really want my colony to explode to much.
I do regular maintenance on the roach enclosures though and they have been building their colony steadily so far.

 

[EulersK]

I use chicken laying mash (It's already crumbled up in the bag) because it is made with high protein for laying chickens. It is also pretty cheap.

Sorry for bringing back an old thread, but I've got a question for you. I've been using chick feed for quite some time because of higher protein and fat. Is chicken laying mash higher in protein and fat than chick feed?

 

[Trenor]

Sorry for bringing back an old thread, but I've got a question for you. I've been using chick feed for quite some time because of higher protein and fat. Is chicken laying mash higher in protein and fat than chick feed?

I've not compared the two directly but I'd guess they were pretty close to the same. Both chicks and hens need high protein to grow/lay. I also bought a gallon of cheap protein powder off Amazon to add into the mix. I honestly don't think it was necessary but they do eat it up so I guess it is helping.

 

[Trenor]

I've not compared the two directly but I'd guess they were pretty close to the same. Both chicks and hens need high protein to grow/lay. I also bought a gallon of cheap protein powder off Amazon to add into the mix. I honestly don't think it was necessary but they do eat it up so I guess it is helping.

I was able to get 3 five gallon bucket out of the mash and powder. I usually have to make this every 9 months of so with my two bins. If I were more diligent in removing the adults from the main bin then the food consumption would likely drop down a lot. Lately other than to feed or use I only separate them once a month which leaves a lot of adult males time to eat up more of my feed.

 

[aphono]

Sorry for bringing back an old thread, but I've got a question for you. I've been using chick feed for quite some time because of higher protein and fat. Is chicken laying mash higher in protein and fat than chick feed?

Very informative thread, and thanks for the pictures.

As for the chicken feed question- the percentages varies by brand and also often with couple options. Generally, layer has lower protein and higher calcium than chick starter. Averages run around 16% protein for layer, 19-20% for chick starter. Some sources will offer options with varying percentages. Usually the variations are for things like broiler raiser(for the meat chickens that grow so fast you butcher them at 8 weeks).

The other option are the gamebird/turkey feed. They usually are higher in protein than chicken feed. I've seen gamebird starter at 30% protein. These usually come in crumble form, I'm sure the feeders will be able to handle this no problem.

However I have a question- chick starter usually are medicated with Amprolium as a coccidiosis preventative. I have no idea if this would have an effect on the feeders or tarantulas... any one know? There are chick starters that come in non-medicated but the problem is you may have to hunt around for it- do not rely on the staff knowing if the feed truly is medicated or not.

One last thing, poultry feed has been switching over to being all vegetarian.. no more animal source protein. I'm not sure if the feeders need some animal source protein or not- the chickens do, I remedy that by adding cat food as the source of animal protein..