Dubia Breeding

Chamaeleoeo

New Member
alright so i have a 10 gallon tank all covered with tin foil along with 3/4 of the top screen portion. plenty of paper towel rolls and some egg crate. dry oats, good dog food, and ofcourse nice gut loading veggies and fruits(yams, sweet potato, kale, mustard greens, carrot, grapes, pear, bell pepper, alfalfa sprouts) and a 75 watt infared light on top. will this be hot enough to encourage breeding??? maybe a heat mat also??? any input helpful thanks!!!


and to clarify, im not going to be feeding any of these to my cham on this higher protein diet, just want to let them alone for a few months and explode!! :D
 
Sounds good to me, keep them warm and well fed with protein! When you decide to feed them off start getting another bin that you can put the feeders in and put them back on a gutloading diet only.
 
I have mine in a 10 gallon tank, screen top. Heat mat under one side only. Plenty of coverage (cardboard tubes eggcrate, mcd's soda carriers). I have a bowl with wet paper towels for water and moisture and one with food, fresh fruits and veggies high in protein. I use an oat bedding as they like to bury themselves, especially on the heated side. Mine have bred fine. In fact, I saw the female with the eggsac expelled the other night, very strange. I do not use any light overhead as they prefer darkness. I do mist the sides of the tank and have witnessed roaches licking it. I try to feed off the little ones first as the bigger, older ones will sometimes eat them.
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man those things are disgusting... I really dont see my self being able to raise those >.<

much less talking my roommate or my girlfriend into letting me have them
 
Yea, it took some getting used to. Especially at night, when they are all out scattering around..and they are in my bedroom. We had leo in there but then I had this fear of the roaches eating through the cage and coming after me, so I had to move him into the sunroom. My husband said Im probably the only chick who gets excited that my roaches are breeding instead of dying! The little ones don't bother me, they resemble rolypolys, so I have no issues with picking them up. The larger ones, yea, they creep me out and I have to use the papertowel tube to get them out if I want to feed them. Leo can eat about 2-3 of the large a day, but it takes him a good minute to get them chewed up enough to go down.
 
man those things are disgusting... I really dont see my
self being able to raise those >.<

much less talking my roommate or my girlfriend into letting me have them

I thought it would be a lot worse than it is. But if you think about it a cricket is sooo much worse. They STINK, they die, they chirp, i could keep going. :)
 
I caught the roaches going at it last night... three pairs in fact.. I watched for an hour.. Hope that doesnt make me some kind of sicko? LOL.. They all get stuck together.. It funny but strange. I tried to get it on video, but only one couple was bold enough to be in the open and the female just basically toyed around between 2 roaches.. Reminded me of a bar scene.. I played it out in my head.. She just kept going between two males, teasing them..and then the males got into a scrap.. She had already been mated though so maybe thats what it was. One of them was the one she mated with..then the other male came up and started flexing his wings..and she paid no mind, then her male came back and tried to get bck with her and she just toyed around, moving away when he tried..and then she went over tot he other male who flexed his wings..but notta.. Felt bad for the guys going home alone. LOL

how long after breeding do they give birth?

(I might u/l the videos later on if they arent extremely long)
 
dude! me being an idiot, i pulled the egg sack thingy out of one of my dubia. i saw something coming out, so i pulled it out... that things weird man... its like a hard plastic thingy.
 
I would wait until you have at least a hundred adults, then start with the adult males. Keep a good ration of 3 or 4 females per each male, and you'll be fine.

Each male fed off means more food to the others, and more space too, with zero effect on the population growth.

Each female you feed off means the loss of dozens and dozens, if not more, in the near future.

When you have a heavy culture (thousands of individuals), you can be less picky with the small ones, but I avoid the females. I usually go for the longer little ones, which are immature males.
 
dude! me being an idiot, i pulled the egg sack thingy out of one of my dubia. i saw something coming out, so i pulled it out... that things weird man... its like a hard plastic thingy.

When I first saw it, I thought a superworm had somehow gotten into the tank, which is impossible unless it was on me and I havent had any for weeks... So I rushed online and tried to research any word I could find to describe it.. Well seeing how I was told they give LIVE birth, egg sac NEVER crossed my mind..but someone else had posted the same general question asking what it was.. and from there I found images and realized what I had. I havent seen it since. Not sure how long after they expell it, they give birth. Some were stating that they expel just to make room and then bring it back in.. Dont know which female it was.. do not have all that many small ones running around, but i know that some bigger will eat the newbies.. i marked my female that was in the threesome last night to keep an eye on her..

The vids are 3-4 min each..nothing majorly interesting, just behavior..and the fight.. The males with the eaten wings seem to always win..Maybe thats like a scar or something, makes them tougher! It was fascinating though.. stayed up til past midnight..
 
man those things are disgusting... I really dont see my self being able to raise those >.<

much less talking my roommate or my girlfriend into letting me have them

I thought the same thing and they aren't bad at all! I love how they have no smell to them unlike crickets and they are so easy to keep up and keep them going. I haven't bought crickets in a month or so!
 
I agree Sancho.. You get used to them. I still can't handle the big ones, but the small to med I just carry fromt he bedroom to the sunroom. They move fast and I still shudder when they run up my arm towards my face.. THey are MUCH better than crickets.. and very cool to wathc..Plus, they dont tend to commit suicide via water like crickets.
 
Rocky, just like Ricardo said, PAPAYA BEETLES!!! it sounds so much more appealing...." oh yeah those are papaya beetles.." g.f."oh there cute!!"
"oh those are roaches..." g.f. "eeeeeeewwwwwwww, get them outta here!"

haha:D
 
Rocky, just like Ricardo said, PAPAYA BEETLES!!! it sounds so much more appealing...." oh yeah those are papaya beetles.." g.f."oh there cute!!"
"oh those are roaches..." g.f. "eeeeeeewwwwwwww, get them outta here!"

haha:D

that might be a good idea. when i was reading this thread i was thinking that i should start getting into these but i would have to think of something different to call them and i was like geez mom they are just beetles. now i got papaya beetles and thats good. so now i shall go research taking care of them and look to purchase. anyone got any good advice for any of that?
 
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