breeding dubia enclosure?

smpliprfct

New Member
Few questions about getting a self-replenishing dubia colony going.

How big of an enclosure is needed?

How many dubias are needed?

Where can I buy a start up colony?
 
What and how many animals do you want to feed with these?

Dubias are great and produce well with the proper conditions.

I would use a medium sized tupperware tub with a large square cut in the lid, fill the hole with a glued in piece of screen mesh.

No substrate needed, they will create this with their feces (often termed frass). This frass will play a role in keeping your colony healthy, apparently the young feed off of it. Do not clean out the tub unless absolutely needed.

Keep them dry and warm (84-88 F).

Use egg crates stacked on their sides. Fill about half the tub with these.

Feed crushed dog food, and supplement with just about any fruit or vegetable. I prefer to use high starch foods such as potatoes or carrots, these will last the longest and not mold.

Mold and moisture will be your only problems. Keep those factors under control and you should do well.

I also like to always have water crystals available. You can buy these in bulk for very decent prices through ebay.

Depending on what you want to feed and how soon, I would suggest starting with anywhere from 100 to 400/500 mixed age animals. Plan on letting them build for a few months before doing much with them.

Did I miss anything else?
 
I have read that dog food is bad because it is so high in protien. Roaches love it but not good when your cham eats the roaches.
 
The dog and cat food is not good for chameleons, but roaches love it. When breeding roaches they need a high protein diet to colonize, along w/ the water crystals, starch and heat. So before they get fed off to the chams you need to gut load properly so they can pass the stuff as waste. Feed them a starch diet as mentioned like carrots. Once they grow to the size you like, take a hundred or so and put them in a tall deli cup you buy for insects, put cut up egg crates and sticks of carrots inside along with them. Let the roaches eat on this for a while before you feed them to any chameleons.
 
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