Pregnat Dubia Roach?

[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

 

[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 :}

 

[arachyd]

Yes, you witnessed courtship. Good luck with them.

 

[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

 

[TFCherry]

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