# My Dubia Setup! [Pic Heavy]



## Reptilover (Jan 15, 2007)

Recently i bought a small coloney of Dubai Roaches from a forum member :2thumb: and they have settled in brilliantly and was well worth the money.

Origionally they were going to be put in a RUB but then decided later it was just too big for the ammount i had and i will wait untill i have more numbers.

This is what there housed in, some may say its small but aprarently they like small spaces, its very humid in there and gets its heat from the top of the vivarium underneath (heat tranfer from beardy viv  ).



















Inside there's one egg box, from first glance it doesnt look like theres many in there...










Untill you lift it up...











and turn it over..










The'yve already actually gave birth, to prove how handleable they are heres a pic of one up my arm...










Im going to show you how they change..
They start like this, somewhat like a woodlouce.










Then they go into a roundish shape..










then start forming a narrow shape and getting colour..










Then we have adults...

adult pregnant female..










Adult male..










This is what i've filled the floor with which is mixed hamster food which i use with my rodents .. 











:no1:


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## kevin cross (Mar 25, 2008)

very useful thread, i was thinking of starting up a colony soon very useful advice


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## alphakenny1 (Sep 16, 2008)

im looking at starting my own colony this year, my beardies are fed up with crix, locusts are well expensive so im gonna go with these bad boys, whats the ideal starter set for a colony?, how many do you get weekly, would it be better to have 2 colonies running with 3 very greedy mouths to feed?


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## Pythonman14 (Jan 7, 2009)

nice setup what are you using as a water source?



and to alphakenny1 it is a good thing to have two colonys going so you can feed out of one while the other one has a chance to sorta rebuild thier numbers


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

I was always told on BN to never feed them hard stuff as their jaws arent strong enough. I feed mine on veggy scraps and fish food. I spray the veg before i put it in so they have water. Mine are flourishing.


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

selina20 said:


> I was always told on BN to never feed them hard stuff as their jaws arent strong enough. I feed mine on veggy scraps and fish food. I spray the veg before i put it in so they have water. Mine are flourishing.


They are generally fine but should be offered a variety of veggies anyway, and if that is the food I am thinking of it will have different nuts/seeds/flaked veggies so they should be fine and he said he feeds veg aswell.


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## loogielv (Dec 7, 2008)

i dont think you'd need 2 colonies, just one big enough to support your feedings. I would order a few hundred juveniles and another 100 adults (75 females, 25 males). With that setup, you'd have too many to deal with in under 2 months I'd imagine


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## RoyalPython89 (Jul 15, 2008)

the hamster food his useing is fine roaches like these can eat meat and bone so this wont do any damage to them at all i use the same food and its bettre than veg cause it dont mold lol


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

loogielv said:


> i dont think you'd need 2 colonies, just one big enough to support your feedings. I would order a few hundred juveniles and another 100 adults (75 females, 25 males). With that setup, you'd have too many to deal with in under 2 months I'd imagine


Exactly what I think. Instead of having 2 small tubs have one big one, it means easier cleaning, feeding, watering and general maintanence and if you keep the excess males in an extra tub there should be no problems with dominance and breeding.


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## DannyLeigh (Aug 4, 2008)

selina20 said:


> I was always told on BN to never feed them hard stuff as their jaws arent strong enough. I feed mine on veggy scraps and fish food. I spray the veg before i put it in so they have water. Mine are flourishing.


I am 100% sure they can eat solid foods, cockroaches have very adaptable and strong mouth parts.


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## alphakenny1 (Sep 16, 2008)

loogielv said:


> I would order a few hundred juveniles and another 100 adults (75 females, 25 males). With that setup, you'd have too many to deal with in under 2 months I'd imagine


my beardies are so greedy they would eat anything, there is never enough for them, my woody once went through 105 small roaches in one session


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## Ben.M (Mar 2, 2008)

alphakenny1 said:


> my beardies are so greedy they would eat anything, there is never enough for them, *my woody once went through 105 small roaches in one session*


 
Bloody hell lol:2thumb:


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## alphakenny1 (Sep 16, 2008)

Ben.M said:


> Bloody hell lol:2thumb:


i bought them off ebay, they were tiny, i tried him on them and he just kept eating and eating, although irresponsible i felt i was underfeeding him cos he kept eating, my cwd just stops when hes had enough, he just never stopped


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## Ben.M (Mar 2, 2008)

alphakenny1 said:


> i bought them off ebay, they were tiny, i tried him on them and he just kept eating and eating, although irresponsible i felt i was underfeeding him cos he kept eating, my cwd just stops when hes had enough, he just never stopped


Well as long as him enjoys himself that all that matters: victory:


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## alphakenny1 (Sep 16, 2008)

theres no way i can afford to keep that up, thats why i need to breed the blighters, how long do they take to grow into the size of a medium cricket


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## georgieabc123 (Jul 17, 2008)

i feed mine apple and crushed up dog biscuits and weatabix mixed: victory:


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## LoveForLizards (Apr 20, 2008)

alphakenny1 said:


> my beardies are so greedy they would eat anything, there is never enough for them, my woody once went through 105 small roaches in one session


In that case I would get 2 50-60 litre tubs both with 150 roaches (100 females-50 males or 125 females-25 males) and leave it until you have had at least 2 fully grown generations in it then pick out all excess males (ideally you want 1 male per 2-3 females, some choose 1 male per 5 females though) and then start using it from them, unfortuneatly this means until you have had 2 generations you need to buy them, if you dont want to do that then buy 200-250 roaches to start with. Stack the tubs ontop of eachother, feed, keep warm, keep humid(ish) and you should do well out of them. : victory:
Also you may find your beardy just liked the roaches and will slow down with eating them once they are part of the diet on a regular basis.


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