Good amount of roaches to start with?
- Thread starter Shijadi
- Start date
Elizabeth Freer
Well-known member
Hi ~
Every gecko is different on how much they'll eat.
Here's exactly what I do:
Click: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...ckets-blaptica-dubia-hornworms-silkworms.html
Click that link for formatting and all.
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, Purina Layena Sunfresh Crumbles, 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. In a separate lid add chopped collard greens or dandelion flowers/greens. Both are excellent calcium and moisture sources. For additional moisture I dampen a clean medium-size sponge and occasionally spray the egg flats. In a room which ranges upwards from 67 F/19.5 C, I use either a 25 watt, 40 watt, or 60 watt incandescent bulb inside a 10 inch diameter reflector dome 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 Blaptica dubia any type of dog, cat, puppy, or kitten food no matter how organic. I stay away from fish flakes/food as well.
Keep the dry diet DRY! Shield or remove the dry food when you spray the egg flats.
Tips
"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.
At 70 degrees F, a dubia's metabolism is running on reserves and they won't eat or drink very much. Somewhere between 75 and 85 degrees F, they turn into eating machines. For the health of your lizard, you want them to eat good, nutritious foods that are high in moisture for 48 hours before feeding them off.
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 & January 2015]
"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]
Click this excellent link: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/commu...-breeding.html
Every gecko is different on how much they'll eat.
Here's exactly what I do:
Click: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/comm...ckets-blaptica-dubia-hornworms-silkworms.html
Click that link for formatting and all.
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, Purina Layena Sunfresh Crumbles, 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. In a separate lid add chopped collard greens or dandelion flowers/greens. Both are excellent calcium and moisture sources. For additional moisture I dampen a clean medium-size sponge and occasionally spray the egg flats. In a room which ranges upwards from 67 F/19.5 C, I use either a 25 watt, 40 watt, or 60 watt incandescent bulb inside a 10 inch diameter reflector dome 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 Blaptica dubia any type of dog, cat, puppy, or kitten food no matter how organic. I stay away from fish flakes/food as well.
Keep the dry diet DRY! Shield or remove the dry food when you spray the egg flats.
Tips
"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.
At 70 degrees F, a dubia's metabolism is running on reserves and they won't eat or drink very much. Somewhere between 75 and 85 degrees F, they turn into eating machines. For the health of your lizard, you want them to eat good, nutritious foods that are high in moisture for 48 hours before feeding them off.
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 & January 2015]
"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]
Click this excellent link: http://www.geckosunlimited.com/commu...-breeding.html
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Cymmie
New member
As adult sizes I feed about half an inch to 3/4 of an inch depending on the size of the leo and their head, I would originally start out with 50-100 of whatever size you think is best. The problem with chameleons is not often the problem that leos have, thank goodness. I have noticed with certain chameleons they won't even look at a dubia or worse they are afraid of it lol... weird critters, anyway leos tend to take to them pretty well almost every time. If you find out they like them and dive into breeding them, I would buy some pairs with some extra females... if you can often people do not sell lone females for some odd reason but will sell lone males. Why I say this is because you need a ratio of three females to a male, to keep wing chewing down. I suggest using a 40qt rubbermaid bin at least for breeding, preferably opaque because roaches breed better in darkness.
I can go into my set up and gutload if you want.
I can go into my set up and gutload if you want.
LEOPARD1
New member
I bought 250 small/medium nymphs and placed heat cable all along the bottom of the ten gallon and between roach chow and fresh veggies and fruits they just multiply. My Leos love them and with high temps you get high growth and the freshly molted Dubias are loved by my Leos. I have had so much success with them. I will place a dish of MealWorms in the enclosure and buy HornWorms to mix it up. 200-250 is a good start.
You can drop the temps to slow growth and breeding and if not you can just cull your supply.
At $15.00 for 250 small nymphs or $20.00 for 250 medium you can't beat it
You can drop the temps to slow growth and breeding and if not you can just cull your supply.
At $15.00 for 250 small nymphs or $20.00 for 250 medium you can't beat it
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