# Is this dubia roach enclosure okay?



## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

Right bit of a read, but I wanted to include every detail as I wasn't very successful in breeding another roach sp in the past (humidity too high I discovered).

Apologies for an area of each image being sharp and the rest blurred out, I just grabbed the camera as is, which means a 60mm macro lens, shaky hands so no upping the f stop high if I wanted a clear image.

I've just set these guys up, 1kg of roaches so as you can imagine, quite a lot of them, hundreds of them.. 

I have a mat underneath (unstatted), it's reaching 96f(35c) on the bottom, the temperature obviously drops off quite quickly with it being a mat, most of the enclosure is mid twenties (25.5c for the majority of the egg crate surface area). The mat isn't always on though as I'm having to swap it to plug something else in, but soon it'll be on 24/7 when I have an extension lead.

I'm feeding them a mixture of what ever fruit and veg we have going, generally a few segments of orange, sliced potato, salad leaves, carrot, sweet potato, apple etc. I place this onto the top of a livefood lid so any moist matter doesn't stay on the bottom of the enclosure. Though with salad leaves I've placed them on the egg crate in small amounts. Then I've crushed up some basic dog biscuits and poured them into the egg crate on the top (as seen in the photo), I've also broken up some weetabix and just sprinkled it about the enclosure. 

I've punched a lot of air holes down three sides of the enclosure. When I put my hand in it's slightly more humid then ambient house humidity, but not that much. 

I've had about 10 or so dead, thus I wanted to be sure I was getting this right, this was about 4 adults and some small ones. Though I think I'm mistaking sloughed exoskeleton for a fatality in a couple of cases. Obviously out of so many roaches I poured in, some death is expected, but I don't want to be getting this wrong...

photos...


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## violentchopper (Jun 20, 2008)

Looks good. Maybe the eggs crates could do with separating slightly just to give the roaches a bit of extra space. I stack mine with a piece of scrap cardboard in between each crate to keep them apart. Be careful with that unstatted mat, is a potential hazard. I keep mine in the airing/boiler cupboard and that's warm enough.


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## cbarnes1987 (Feb 2, 2010)

i had a transparent tub... an no babies
cudnt be arsed buying a new tub so prayed it black and put the dubs back in... within a few months i was giving 100s to mates


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

violentchopper said:


> I keep mine in the airing/boiler cupboard and that's warm enough.


What sort of temp is your airing cupboard? I wouldn't be able to do that unfortunately, although in the summer my room often gets to near 30c in the day as it is (south facing, basking bulbs and such adding to temperature). 

I don't really mind if their reproduction is slowed a little by lower temps, since actually right now all I'm feeding them too is 6 tarantulas, then the odd smaller nymph for my anoles (but generally they have mini-mealies and locusts). Without the mat the room temp is probably 20-23c at the moment.


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

cbarnes1987 said:


> i had a transparent tub... an no babies
> cudnt be arsed buying a new tub so prayed it black and put the dubs back in... within a few months i was giving 100s to mates


oh right cheers for that. Hmm.. I could just put them underneath my computer desk...dark down there and probably a little warmer. I have seen a few females taking the egg case out and pulling it back inside themselves, so that's at least a sign they should theoretically have nymphs soon.


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## violentchopper (Jun 20, 2008)

joeyboy said:


> What sort of temp is your airing cupboard? I wouldn't be able to do that unfortunately, although in the summer my room often gets to near 30c in the day as it is (south facing, basking bulbs and such adding to temperature).
> 
> I don't really mind if their reproduction is slowed a little by lower temps, since actually right now all I'm feeding them too is 6 tarantulas, then the odd smaller nymph for my anoles (but generally they have mini-mealies and locusts). Without the mat the room temp is probably 20-23c at the moment.


I don't know what the temps are, I'm going to check soon. It's probably not that hot but certainly a bit warmer then the rest of my house. I only feed 2 geckos from it and give quite a few away sometimes. If your going to feed a lot of reptiles then I would recommend using proper heat to get the most out of them.
Also I use a clear rub but it's in a dark room, I open the door slightly to give them a light cycle during the day.


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## popitgoes (Oct 24, 2010)

i use a clear rub and i have no problems at all but when i had blacked out rub thats when i had problems i guess it depends on the roaches tbh

i would also open up your egg crates more to make more room for the roaches and also fill the rub with egg crates making more space for them and put the food on top of the egg crates

also i use a heat mat for my rubs but its wrapped around the rub and i heat mine to 28c which they seem to thrive from

i hope this helps


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

popitgoes said:


> i use a clear rub and i have no problems at all but when i had blacked out rub thats when i had problems i guess it depends on the roaches tbh
> 
> i would also open up your egg crates more to make more room for the roaches and also fill the rub with egg crates making more space for them and put the food on top of the egg crates
> 
> ...


Yeah I was thinking on doubling up with the egg crates. Only thing is what do you do about feeding vegetable matter like carrots and potato? Are you just careful to add in what they'll consume in a day or two? Because obviously with a load of vertically stacked crate some food will end up falling down once they've eaten the pieces into small chunks and I find roaches don't seem to like potato once it's over a day old, suppose you'd just have to lift the crate out and search fairly often.

As a side note, say you have a pretty large colony, how often do you clean it all out and how many deaths is acceptable? I mean clearly out of 1000's of roaches a few will probably just die, whether old age because you've not fed them or just weak genetics.


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## popitgoes (Oct 24, 2010)

joeyboy said:


> Yeah I was thinking on doubling up with the egg crates. Only thing is what do you do about feeding vegetable matter like carrots and potato? Are you just careful to add in what they'll consume in a day or two? Because obviously with a load of vertically stacked crate some food will end up falling down once they've eaten the pieces into small chunks and I find roaches don't seem to like potato once it's over a day old, suppose you'd just have to lift the crate out and search fairly often.
> 
> As a side note, say you have a pretty large colony, how often do you clean it all out and how many deaths is acceptable? I mean clearly out of 1000's of roaches a few will probably just die, whether old age because you've not fed them or just weak genetics.


well i use plastic containers sanded on the inside and outside for grip to climb for my food and water crystal to be put in so i have no problems with food falling out 

with the food i leave mine in for 1 night and 1 day then remove what isnt ate this gives them 24 hours then not feed them veg again for 3 days then do the same again 

also i clean mine out every month same date just to count them and in the last 6 months i have had no deaths luckily


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## daniel-james (Jan 10, 2012)

Definitely seperate the egg crates a little, put them back to back and cable tie or just tie together in pairs at top and bottom to secure a solid block heat mat inside the tub with Cable Going through the side (silicone the hole after) put an orange in there once a week cut into quarters and tape up the botom half of the tub on te outside to give them a nice dark area to go Into incase the see-through tub puts them off from getting busy.. these things should help get them going...


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