Dubia help

[cjcboardingdude]

I have a one year old veiled male and i want another way to fee him than crickets. I want to have a dubia roach colony but know almost nothing about them. I want to know ideally how many adult male and how many adult females would i need to start a colony to feed my cham? also what do i cage them in? how big the cage should be? what they require to breed and live? how long it takes them to grow to feeding size? in other words i need to know everything. also where to get them cheaply. thank you

 

[pssh]

It takes 4 months or so when temps are kept in the high 80s to 90s. They do need heat on one side of the enclosure for optimal reproduction. I keep about 1000 in every 10 gallon tub I have. I prefer slick tubs (cheap, easy to clean, they can't get out so you don't need a top, and they are readily available.). A heat mat under one side should suffice, though a colored 'night time' bulb would work as well.

It depends on how fast you need/want the colony to become 'feed-able.' Generally 50-100 females and 10-30 males will get it going pretty fast.

I have male feeder nymphs for sale in the classifieds section if you would like to test them out. Not all chameleons will eat/ like dubias.

 

[Silkyslim]

I bought a few adult males and females from Pssh less than a month ago and they are doing great.

Pssh: Those painted ladies all cocooned and hatched out (6 total survived shipping) , it was pretty cool to see Samson snag his first butterfly. He loved it!

Anyways here is what my set up is like.

I have an 80G Rubbermaid tub that I cut vent holes into the top and sides of the bin. I laid some screen over it and adhered it with a hot glue gun. I put an under the tank heater and secured it with some tape to keep it against the bin as much as possible. On the portion of the bin where the heater is, I put 5 egg cartons vertically and all the roaches chill out in them. The food goes on the other side of the cage (where it is cooler so reduce spoilage is my guess). It really is very easy to raise them. They are roaches after all! They need heat, water (which comes in the form of citrus and melons from me) and food. Just let them do their thing and before you know it you will notice more and more.

Search around on youtube for Dubia set-ups, that is what I did and it gave me a good idea as to what to expect. I am glad I got this colony going, it will save me lots of money in the end plus I already have 2 buddies who said they will buy any excess roaches I get if they start to get out of control.

 

[pssh]

Let me know when/if you want more. I'll send an extra cup to make up for it. I'm going to package them differently I think.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I started with maybe twenty dubia, mixed sizes and gendres. I dont heat them. The room they are in is around 70Fwinter -80Fsummer daytime, 65ishF at night. I was feeding off extra adult males within 6 months. They are beyond easy to raise. But some of my chameleons dont like them.
Info about keeping Dubia:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/roach-breeding-tip-13348/
http://theroachranch.com/care_sheet.html
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/roach/roach/cageandcare/
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/roach/roach/cageandcare/