Caring for Dubia Roaches

[ArvadaLanee]

I bought some Dubia Roaches a while back, not realizing I accidentally bought the small ones. I have been trying to raise them until they are big enough to give my rose hair.
They seem to be doing alright, and they are growing, but I thought I'd check in here to make sure I'm taking care of them right. I have them in a small critter keeper, bare bottom, with a piece of egg carton. I use a heating lamp on them during the day, to keep them warm. I feed them some wet cat food that I get for my cats that's very high protein. (I don't let it get moldy in there.) I also give them some veggies, like carrot shreds. For water, I have a clump of reptile moss that I wet daily or as needed. Am I missing anything, or is this fine? There are a few that are almost big enough to offer as food now, so I wanted to make sure I'm doing everything I'm supposed to.

 

[kormath]

sounds fine. I'd give them larger carrot slices than shreds, they can get their moisture from those and the shreds dry out fast. I'd go with dry food rather than moist, then you can let it sit until it's eaten.

They shouldn't need a heat source unless you're trying to breed them. My house stays in the upper 70s 75-78 or so year round, and they do fine with those temps. If you're wanting them to breed quickly then use the heat source.

I give mine veggies to eat once or twice a week, depending how quickly they eat them, and some purchased roach chow. For water i use the Fluker's water gel in a mesh type "bowl" thing so it doesn't roll all over and get into the food. Few egg crates so they can hide and i'm now being overrun by roaches lol. Might have to start feeding off the adults faster as by last count i had a dozen or so males and that many or more females dropping egg cases.

 

[ArvadaLanee]

sounds fine. I'd give them larger carrot slices than shreds, they can get their moisture from those and the shreds dry out fast. I'd go with dry food rather than moist, then you can let it sit until it's eaten.

They shouldn't need a heat source unless you're trying to breed them. My house stays in the upper 70s 75-78 or so year round, and they do fine with those temps. If you're wanting them to breed quickly then use the heat source.

I give mine veggies to eat once or twice a week, depending how quickly they eat them, and some purchased roach chow. For water i use the Fluker's water gel in a mesh type "bowl" thing so it doesn't roll all over and get into the food. Few egg crates so they can hide and i'm now being overrun by roaches lol. Might have to start feeding off the adults faster as by last count i had a dozen or so males and that many or more females dropping egg cases.

Thanks. I wasn't sure about the cat food. I thought the dry food might be too hard for them. Maybe I'll look into that roach chow, too. I'll probably stick with the moss for their water. I already have plenty of it for my snakes, and they like to climb on it, and hide in it. It would be nice if I could get them to breed. I'll have to do a little reading up on it. I have a friend who keeps bearded dragons, and he always needs insects for them. I'm headed to Repticon this weekend, (So Exciting!) so maybe I'll pick up a few other types of feeders. Maybe someone will have those red runners, or some goliath worms.

 

[kormath]

use the lamp if you're wanting to breed them and for them to grow faster. They're a tropical species and the heat will help speed that up. Depending on the size you're looking at a few months to a year for them to mature and breed. See if there are any adults at the Repticon, then you can have them breed and let yours grow up. They seem to breed more if there's little ones in the enclosure with them, at least my lateralis do that. I'd get one or 2 egg cases every couple weeks or so with just juvies and adults in the colony. When i added pinheads i started see the egg casings all over. now i have a huge colony might have to see if anyone local has lizards or pets that will eat them and give some away lol.

 

[Kymura]

nearly anything edible, bottom line is they are roaches lol

try any one of / or combination of these
unmedicated chick feed,
any whole grain cereal,
dry dog/cat food (ground up a bit)
oatmeal, the old fashioned kind

and naturally the occasional
fresh fruits (orange quarters etc) and veggies

 

[kormath]

nearly anything edible, bottom line is they are roaches lol

try any one of / or combination of these
unmedicated chick feed,
any whole grain cereal,
dry dog/cat food (ground up a bit)
oatmeal, the old fashioned kind

and naturally the occasional
fresh fruits (orange quarters etc) and veggies

no potatoes (specifically skins) or tomatoes or anything else in the nightshade family.

 

[MassExodus]

use the lamp if you're wanting to breed them and for them to grow faster. They're a tropical species and the heat will help speed that up. Depending on the size you're looking at a few months to a year for them to mature and breed. See if there are any adults at the Repticon, then you can have them breed and let yours grow up. They seem to breed more if there's little ones in the enclosure with them, at least my lateralis do that. I'd get one or 2 egg cases every couple weeks or so with just juvies and adults in the colony. When i added pinheads i started see the egg casings all over. now i have a huge colony might have to see if anyone local has lizards or pets that will eat them and give some away lol.

I started despising my lateralis, until I got used to using them, and figured out how to feed them without maiming them trying to collect them.. A slick plastic cup grants all the control necessary for the fast little farts. Tap a carton against it, and you have 60 variety sized lats ready for feeding. And the hundreds of nymphs have been a godsend for all the baby inverts I have now. I have yet to see a roach that breeds faster..even after I took the heat off them. There are always ooths everywhere...always.

 

[kormath]

I started despising my lateralis, until I got used to using them, and figured out how to feed them without maiming them trying to collect them.. A slick plastic cup grants all the control necessary for the fast little farts. Tap a carton against it, and you have 60 variety sized lats ready for feeding. And the hundreds of nymphs have been a godsend for all the baby inverts I have now. I have yet to see a roach that breeds faster..even after I took the heat off them. There are always ooths everywhere...always.

Exactly! I separate some of the ooths so it's easy to get the pinhead for my little guys to eat. I leave some in the main colony to promote breeding. I use a 2 oz deli cup to tap the pinhead into then a makeup brush to sweep the ones I don't want to feed out of it back into the container.

Same with the juvie and adults but I use a 16 oz cup to drop them into, then sweep one into the 2 oz cup. Makes it easy to feed that way. Savage (my genic) likes to play catch with the roach falling from the cup. I swear I've seen him snag one from the air before it hit the ground.

 

[MatthewM1]

I bought some Dubia Roaches a while back, not realizing I accidentally bought the small ones. I have been trying to raise them until they are big enough to give my rose hair.
They seem to be doing alright, and they are growing, but I thought I'd check in here to make sure I'm taking care of them right. I have them in a small critter keeper, bare bottom, with a piece of egg carton. I use a heating lamp on them during the day, to keep them warm. I feed them some wet cat food that I get for my cats that's very high protein. (I don't let it get moldy in there.) I also give them some veggies, like carrot shreds. For water, I have a clump of reptile moss that I wet daily or as needed. Am I missing anything, or is this fine? There are a few that are almost big enough to offer as food now, so I wanted to make sure I'm doing everything I'm supposed to.

Ditch the cat food, they by no means need a lot of protein in their diet. Other than that it sounds good. Wetting the moss isn't needed but shouldn't hurt anything.

 

[kormath]

Ditch the cat food, they by no means need a lot of protein in their diet. Other than that it sounds good. Wetting the moss isn't needed but shouldn't hurt anything.

All animals need protein, all. There's a debate on how much, some say lots some say hardly any. Problem is digesting proteins creates uric acid, and that can be toxic if there's too much in the body.

However with lots of roaches, dubia included, they store this uric acid in their fat body to use as energy, a lot like us and our livers store reserve energy, and is then converted back into protein if our diets, or their diets, are lacking.

But our roaches aren't in the wild where their diet may lack protein now and then that would need higher protein to keep in reserves, so i agree with @MatthewM1 Get rid of the high protein cat food, it could kill your roaches. If i recall correctly there was a study done that feeding the German roaches a 70% protein diet killed them in about 2 weeks. Dubia may react differently but i don't think it's worth the risk.

 

[firehawk0285]

Conventional wisdom is to stay away from high protein pet food. Plenty or alternative roach chows. You can even create your own mix. If you need more roaches going forward, check out discountdubias.com/home. I get mine there.

 

[MassExodus]

Conventional wisdom is to stay away from high protein pet food. Plenty or alternative roach chows. You can even create your own mix. If you need more roaches going forward, check out discountdubias.com/home. I get mine there.

I've heard a few people say that, I'm not sure where ya'll are getting this from but it perplexes me. The very roaches themselves are extremely high protein... High protein dog food is used by many roach breeders, and has been for years. My colonies are thriving on blue buffalo dog food and carrots, mostly. Some apples occasionally, too. I've had zero issues with mine..That's dubia, lats, ivory heads, little kenyans, surinam roaches,and three species of hisser..and red goblins otw..my inverts for the most part don't have any issues at all. Deaths in my collection are rather rare, and my spiders and scorps are thriving. High protein food is fine, in my experience. You can feed them scraps from the dinner table if you want, it just makes for a stinky enclosure, so I only rarely treat mine to pizza or a leftover sandwich anymore. I'd like to hear someone else's thoughts on this though @Hisserdude.

 

[Hisserdude]

I've heard a few people say that, I'm not sure where ya'll are getting this from but it perplexes me. The very roaches themselves are extremely high protein... High protein dog food is used by many roach breeders, and has been for years. My colonies are thriving on blue buffalo dog food and carrots, mostly. Some apples occasionally, too. I've had zero issues with mine..That's dubia, lats, ivory heads, little kenyans, surinam roaches,and three species of hisser..and red goblins otw..my inverts for the most part don't have any issues at all. Deaths in my collection are rather rare, and my spiders and scorps are thriving. High protein food is fine, in my experience. You can feed them scraps from the dinner table if you want, it just makes for a stinky enclosure, so I only rarely treat mine to pizza or a leftover sandwich anymore. I'd like to hear someone else's thoughts on this though @Hisserdude.

Yeah, the whole no protein thing seems to be a load of bull. Pretty much the only thing I feed many of my roaches is dog food, supplemented with carrots and apple. I've had no problems with feeding them a high protein diet, and I got a LOT of roaches. Additionally, like @MassExodus said, many other roach keepers have been using dog food for the staples of their roaches' diets for many years, including Orin McMonigle, and he's been breeding roaches for decades. Just saying. High protein diets are not a problem for roaches, at least not for the species currently kept in captivity.

 

[ArvadaLanee]

I actually ended up feeding Blanche all the roaches I had, as her appetite had picked up, and once she was used to them, she devoured them. I had only bought a few, and they were tiny babies when I got them, so it probably would have taken a while to get them breeding. It was hard for me to keep them warm, because we started running the air conditioner, and all my heat mats are in use for the snakes. If my friend had gotten the new bearded Dragon he wanted, (sadly, his male was really old, and recently died,) I might have been more serious about it, but I just have a lot going on right now, and I figure I can buy more, and next time get adults if I want them to breed. Things have been a little stressed at our house recently, as we have had a lot of hard news. My mom has skin cancer, my Grandpa had a heart attack and is not doing well, my step-grandpa had a seizure, and injured his back very badly. My boyfriend has a friend who lost a son that drown in lake Michigan, and his other friend has been sick with pancreatitis. We've just been a little distracted. I still might end up buying some turkistan roaches, just as feeders for now, or maybe even other fun feeders, like hornworms, but I won't worry about breeding anything for a bit.

 

[Kymura]

Sorry so much is going on in your world. I can honestly relate. Just pick up what you need for her for now. Is Blanche the only thing eating roaches?. If so pick something interesting to keep at least so you can enjoy watching them too. ^.~

 

[ArvadaLanee]

Sorry so much is going on in your world. I can honestly relate. Just pick up what you need for her for now. Is Blanche the only thing eating roaches?. If so pick something interesting to keep at least so you can enjoy watching them too. ^.~

Yes, Blanche is the only one who will eat the roaches. I suppose we could try them as fishing bait, though.

 

[Hisserdude]

I actually ended up feeding Blanche all the roaches I had, as her appetite had picked up, and once she was used to them, she devoured them. I had only bought a few, and they were tiny babies when I got them, so it probably would have taken a while to get them breeding. It was hard for me to keep them warm, because we started running the air conditioner, and all my heat mats are in use for the snakes. If my friend had gotten the new bearded Dragon he wanted, (sadly, his male was really old, and recently died,) I might have been more serious about it, but I just have a lot going on right now, and I figure I can buy more, and next time get adults if I want them to breed. Things have been a little stressed at our house recently, as we have had a lot of hard news. My mom has skin cancer, my Grandpa had a heart attack and is not doing well, my step-grandpa had a seizure, and injured his back very badly. My boyfriend has a friend who lost a son that drown in lake Michigan, and his other friend has been sick with pancreatitis. We've just been a little distracted. I still might end up buying some turkistan roaches, just as feeders for now, or maybe even other fun feeders, like hornworms, but I won't worry about breeding anything for a bit.

Sorry to hear all that, sounds really stressful. I have type one diabetes, and have had pancreatitis three times, it sucks. Hope your family and friends get better soon.