Help!!!!!

hi. i just got 31 breeding dubai roaches and i'm getting a leopard gecko in 2 weeks. no nymphs yet plus no heat source. i keep them in my room at 75-80 degrees. should i get a bunch of nymphs? maybe a mealworm colony? should i buy a heat mat now? help me out
 
hi if your starting a dubia roach colony to feed your gecko, it'll take more than just 2 weeks for it to get going. and even a mealworm colony will take some time too. As far as the roaches give them a few months to get going. And when you get your leo, you can use crickets, or locusts or mealworms, even better would be to use a varied diet. Hope this helps
 

majahawt

New member
I've had my dubias set up for breeding for about 3-4 weeks and nothing's happened yet (it takes a while - just brooding the eggs takes 1 month alone) so meanwhile I've just been giving my geckos other feeders - mealworms, silkworms and superworms, as well as dubias I purchase additionally :>
 

majahawt

New member
If i do get more nymphs how often do i have to feed a "teenager" gecko?

A lot of people say to feed them every day for the first year, but it really depends on the individual gecko. I've been feeding my oldest for every day for 4 months (he's about 8-9 months old now) but he recently started leaving a lot of food in his dish, so I've moved on to feeding every other day and it's working a lot better.

It depends on the feeders as well, a lot of people like to leave a dish of mealworms in 24/7 and feed crickets/dubias/superworms/locusts in addition :3 My youngest (6 months) always has a dish of mealworms or silkworms in her tank (which I change every day) and, depending on how much she ate the day before, I'll feed her some roaches as well. If she finished of all her worms, she's not going to be up for any extras but if she's only eaten some, she can have roaches.
 
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Tongue Flicker

New member
I feed everyday as much as they'll eat in one go especially for young ones. I don't recommend this for mealies since they are tougher skinned but you can't go wrong with too much roaches. I'm lucky to have hearty eaters now compared to my sole adult male before. If you are to leave feeders inside, make sure you have an escapeproof dish as you dont want any hiding around the enclosure waiting to make a nip at your leo as in some cases.

As for breeding feeders, 2-8 months is usually needed before you can see any viable results for a running colony and is dependent on what you feed them and warmth.
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
Need a heat source to breed dubia. :)

Click: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...ckets-blaptica-dubia-hornworms-silkworms.html

Blaptica dubia: Care & Breeding

Breeding Blaptica dubia in a 10 gallon tank with 5 vertically positioned egg flats trimmed just a bit shorter than the height of the tank is simple. Alternating the egg flats back-to-back, then front-to-front, allows better hiding opportunities for your Blaptica dubia. Keep ground (or not) (Albers) All Purpose Poultry Feed or Zoo Med's Natural Adult Bearded Dragon Food in a shallow lid to one side of the egg flats. Vitamin A acetate is one important ingredient in the dry diet. Collard greens can be added occasionally. Dandelion flowers and greens are also great sources of calcium. For moisture I dampen a clean medium-size sponge and spray the egg flats. In a room which ranges upwards from 67 F/19.5 C, I keep a 40 watt or 60 watt bulb in a 10 inch diameter reflector dome directly over the screened tank and on 24/7.

Dubia give birth to live nymphs when the temperatures are sufficiently warm. Females have this pointy body part called an ootheca. The babies emerge from the female's ootheca. The males "sprout" wings when they are mature. Mature dubia are way too big for most leopard geckos to eat.

Avoid cross contamination by not returning Blaptica dubia to the dubia tank if they are not eaten. They'll do fine in the leopard geckos' cages for a few days as long as they are contained within a feeding bowl. Place a little cricket food in their bowl.

Do NOT feed them any type of dog, cat, puppy, or kitten food no matter how organic.

Keep the dry diet DRY! Shield or remove the dry food when you spray the egg flats.

Tips
(1) "If you do not want to breed the roaches, keep them around 70 degrees F (21 C) to slow their growth. Eventually, if not fed off, they will grow larger than is safe for a gecko to eat. When you are ready to gut load them, heat them up between 80 and 95 F and they will eat like crazy! That's what I do with my feeders and it works well.

My breeders are kept at about 90-95 F and they seem to grow 2-3 times as fast as the ones I have set aside for feeders." [Thanks to GU's Geckologist.tj in October 2013]

(2) "You can tell when Blaptica dubia are sexually mature simply by looking at them. When they molt past their final instar, they are sexually dimorphic- that is, the males and females have different physical characteristics. The females will develop a more noticeable orange color to their patterns, more obvious than with the nymphs, and will have tiny wing nubs. The males when mature will have full wings upon the final molt.

The males develop their wings immediately during the final molt. Wing size, along with general body size, can sometimes vary, so when you say the males don't seem to have the wings like males should have, they may just be smaller wings than usual. If the wings cover the length of their backs, then they're adult males.

I read that dubia aren't cannibalistic although it's difficult to say for sure unless someone were to test this. I know orange head roaches are cannibalistic and even readily eat live insects." [Thanks to GU's Mogey in May 2014]
 
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hmarie186

New member
Just to give you an idea, my colony is about 8 mos old and just a few weeks ago I was able to pull about 75 3/8" to 1/2" nymphs. Elizabeth is right you definitely need a heat source. I went a few mos without one even in the summer and they didn't breed at all. I have roughly 50 females and 20 males, about 60 large nymphs a few molts away from adulthood and several hundred near newborns.
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
Just to give you an idea, my colony is about 8 mos old and just a few weeks ago I was able to pull about 75 3/8" to 1/2" nymphs. Elizabeth is right you definitely need a heat source. I went a few mos without one even in the summer and they didn't breed at all. I have roughly 50 females and 20 males, about 60 large nymphs a few molts away from adulthood and several hundred near newborns.

Thing is, hmarie, once a dubia colony gets off the ground, more geckos are needed to keep the feeder population under control! :coverlaugh:
 
sounds like i need to look at ebay:coverlaugh:. I have 31 roaches right now(8 males + 23 females). I did have 32, but a female died of weather and shipping. A half inch nymph found its way in to the shipping container. should i add a few pics of their set-up?
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
sounds like i need to look at ebay:coverlaugh:. I have 31 roaches right now(8 males + 23 females). I did have 32, but a female died of weather and shipping. A half inch nymph found its way in to the shipping container. should i add a few pics of their set-up?

Always helps...:)
 

hmarie186

New member
Always looking for well bred feeders... Send as many as you want my way. I think I may have a few big ones to send you back.

In March when the weather warms a bit I will have several hundred for you my dear! If your big ones are males I don't want 'em lol! I have 35 bachelors living in their own tub awaiting a hungry beardie or someone with nothing but like 100 females. I've gotten pretty good at sexing the nymphs and have been feeding only them off to eliminate as many as possible.
 
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