Dubia feeding(roach food)

[dclough77]

my question is this- how much do you guys dubia eat?

I have about 100 i ordered to start a colony, had them about a month and they seem to be producing, i havent even had any deaths. my concern is that they dont seem to eat near enough i would think lots of roaches would devour food.

Im putting my egg cartons on one side of the container stacked verticle, and the food on the other side of it. Also is it being a clearish blue container not good? its in a dark room but.

any idea or just quit worring would be ok too. lol

thanks folks

 

[pssh]

They don't eat much if they aren't warm. They also probably don't meet your standard 'infestation' expectancies! roaches don't eat THAT much. About 100 adults of mine kept at 95 degrees will eat an average sized carrot in two days in addition to a dry food.

 

[djfishygillz]

I have heard citrus fruits will make them reproduce like nuts also. Just make sure not to let them mold or get old.

 

[PrettyInInk87]

My little girls and guys have not reprodoced... I think I might just add another heat pad. Mine are little piggies though, they are FAT and when Hugh eats them I can see the good stuff they eat being squeezed out. Lol! Poor little guys.

 

[pssh]

Yours will pop out babies soon! It seems like forever when you only have a few

I've never had this problem but some have. Too much calcium (like from oranges) can kill them.

 

[JohnnyD]

I've never heard that too many oranges can kill them due to too much calcium. Has this happened to yours?

 

[JohnnyD]

Obviously the smaller they are, the less they eat but as they get bigger they will actually run out of their egg flats and attack the fruit you place in their bin. I never leave a piece of fruit more than 48 hours, and you'll see just how much you need to feed them based on whats left. Start a little heavy and then decrease to what they'll eat. They need protein most of all to grow but not to gutload.

 

[Infinite ink]

mine took a good 2 months to start producing but i added about 50 adult females about 3 months in and my colony just exploded!!
i chop and freeze carrots and apples. they seem to eat more that way. at least in my case, maybe cause they take more time to thaw out. they also eat cricket food pretty well.

they definitely take some time to produce but once you have a strong colony its waaaaay worth the wait.. i feed most of my reptiles and ive finally done away with noisy smelly crickets!

Good luck!!

 

[calistar]

roaches

I use one of those tubs from like home depot and let a small heatpad run down inside it , from the side , actually none have ever crawled out and i got about a zillion dubias -reproducing faster than i can handle. Throw oranges in there and they really populate.

 

[pssh]

Again, I've never had that problem but some have. My reproducing colonies that are not fed from do not get as many high calcium foods as the colony that I am feeding from.