Dubias

[Stickemdeep]

I have found that if you trim the feet off of them before you feed them they 1. Can't borrow 2. Can't kick and claw your frog.

[Gnag the nameless]

Thanks for the info, Herpguy.

Mmm... feeding the young roaches to my frogs could work. Breeding with the adults would not put their lives to waste.

Where do you think I'd find 'em? I don't mind doing something illegal if it's for the frogs... there's plenty of dumb laws in the world. And as for pinkies or adult mice, they are not are option. I'd never forgive myself if I fed my frogs a mouse.

Anyone know of a good cricket breeding sheet? I would go search for one, but it's better to hear from experts such as those on this forum.

[Herpguy]

No problem.

I would just get connected with other keepers at shows and such, I'm sure they could hook you up.

You don't want to breed crickets, trust me, it's horrible. I did it for years, and I would never do it again... They smell horrible, they never eat all their food and it gets so moldy. So much mold! My memories of breeding crickets still give me nightmares to this day.

[Gnag the nameless]

I'll start looking around my community for other frog enthusiasts, then I'm positive I'm not the only one.

I've had more than one run-in with mold and crickets oh, the smell.
From what I'm hearing about breeding crickets, now, I think I'll stick to buying them. They're cheap where I get them, anyways. I ask for 30 but usually they give me 60 or more!

[DeeDub]

Lol....I'm going to cut off some dubia heads right now!

I started with a small colony of 40 or so adults and a bunch of nymphs. I was feeding 4 juvie pyxies. Needless to say, the colony couldn't keep up. So I got another 300 adults over a period of a few months. I don't have to buy any other feeders, but I still do for variety. All my frogs are stapled on nightcrawlers and dubia.

With small frogs you HAVE to feed the freshly molted (white and very soft) nymphs. You can usually find several per day if you keep your roaches humid and warm.

I would start with a large colony of no less than 100 adults. Very easy to keep, very good for the frogs/other herps.

I have adult females that are about three inches. O erall I estimate about 2000 roaches in my multiple colonies at this point. They are a lot of fun to keep and breed.

One other thing. I only tong feed roaches. They can't burrow that way. Also for tong training they are better. They don't fall apart when you rub them on the frogs mouth.....my 2 ¢

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Thanks
DW

[unkempt1]

My frog is weird with dubia. When I tong feed them to him, he pretty much instantly gulps them down. But then he spits half of them out, waits with them halfway in his mouth, and gulps them down again. Maybe he's debating on eating them but then can't resist the urge?

Its pretty comical. I can't think of a time where he didn't do that. Oh, and he doesn't do it with crickets.

[JeffreH]

I looked into the legality of cockroaches in Canada a couple of years ago and at the time, virtually all tropical ("exotic") cockroaches and similar arthropods were coined illegal unless kept in an approved research or educational facility. There are a couple of conversations floating around with Douglas Parker of the CFIA.
Acts and Regulations - About the CFIA - Canadian Food Inspection Agency

You should be able to use local fauna... if you felt comfortable rearing the notorious german roach (Blatella germanica) you could isolate F1 generations and cull the founding population to eliminate issues associated with wild caught insects. Particularly important for this pest species that is notorious for finding its way into rather unsanitary locations.

[Theeblueking]

My frog is weird with dubia. When I tong feed them to him, he pretty much instantly gulps them down. But then he spits half of them out, waits with them halfway in his mouth, and gulps them down again. Maybe he's debating on eating them but then can't resist the urge?

Its pretty comical. I can't think of a time where he didn't do that. Oh, and he doesn't do it with crickets.

Oh yeah lol mine do this too! I'm pretty sure they are just readjusting the roach to go down in a particular direction (easier to swallow). My big Bertha also likes to chomp on it before she swallows so u get to hear that awesome crunch sound every time she eats one nomnomnom.

[yoshimi]

My frogs never eat the dusted crickets, it's quite frustrating at time.

have you tried switching brands? the 1st calcium powder i bought was T-Rec Calcium No Phosphorus with D3, because it was cheap and had other vitamins in it. opened it, smelled it (gross), and was sure he wouldn't eat anything that had touched it. he did tho, and takes to the reptivite too. then again, little man is a toad, but when he 1st moved in, he WAS picky. it was annoying cuz i'd spent gobs of money on silkworms and phoenix worms and he ate 1 silkworm out of the hundred, ignored the rest, and 2 phoenix worms. he'd get scared and pee when placed with phoenix worms. (that should have been a clue for me.) so i went out and bought crickets cuz it was getting too cold for bug catching outside. he loved them, but i didn't, so i bought dubia and he loves those too (breeding them). went back to phoenix worms and he decided he liked them a lot, but was pooping them out whole, and sometimes still alive. it was awful.

i also bought mealworms and feed him the newly molted ones. today i found 2 little shrimp-like things in mealworm cup, didn't know what it was, and put them in his dish with the others. then i looked it up and saw it was a pupa so i went back to retrieve them and he'd already eaten one. they don't move, but one was probably snuggling it and he snapped them both up. i just hope he doesn't poop out a beetle. i'm considering trying to breed them rather than taking them in and out of refrigerator.

i'm sorry Canada doesn't allow dubia. once i started feeding with them, that's when he did most of his growing. just a little guy in Sept, now almost full grown. cannot wait for my roaches to give birth, hoping it happens next week but it could be another 2 weeks cuz they're new adults. i know at least 2 are preggo tho. i'd send you some, but don't know what customs is like, and i couldn't put a "live insects handle with care" sticker one it. altho that sticker is mostly ignored. :/

[demon amphibians]

I'll start looking around my community for other frog enthusiasts, then I'm positive I'm not the only one.

I've had more than one run-in with mold and crickets oh, the smell.
From what I'm hearing about breeding crickets, now, I think I'll stick to buying them. They're cheap where I get them, anyways. I ask for 30 but usually they give me 60 or more!

Sorry i know this thread is a week old but none the less i still wanted to comment on this quote. I am a dubia roach expert. I started breeding them for my frogs about a year ago and now i know more about them then i do my frogs if you have any questions concerning these and other species of roaches i can help.

[yoshimi]

Sorry i know this thread is a week old but none the less i still wanted to comment on this quote. I am a dubia roach expert. I started breeding them for my frogs about a year ago and now i know more about them then i do my frogs if you have any questions concerning these and other species of roaches i can help.

I do, I do! Is it true that 1st time pregnant dubia can take 6 weeks to give birth? The 18th was 28 days after I saw the 1st ootheca and still no babies. They're noticeably fat, or at least fatter than the newly molted females. I'm so freaking impatient. Temp and humidity are fine. Any way to speed it up, or do I just have to wait another week or so? Also I'm worried my checking may be stressing them out and may be delaying it.

[badkelpie]

Crickets and earthworms aren't your only options if you can't get roaches. You can use isopods too. Roly-polies, pill bugs, sow bugs, woodlice. They're easier than roaches to culture (don't need heat), and have lots of calcium.

[demon amphibians]

[QUOTE=yoshimi;164196]I do, I do! Is it true that 1st time pregnant dubia can take 6 weeks to give birth? The 18th was 28 days after I saw the 1st ootheca and still no babies. They're noticeably fat, or at least fatter than the newly molted females. I'm so freaking impatient. Temp and humidity are fine. Any way to speed it up, or do I just have to wait another week or so? Also I'm worried my checking may be stressing them out and may be delaying it.[/QUOTE

i wanna say 4 weeks roughly from the time they mate to berth. But they wont be able to breed for another 4 weeks so each female will have an ootheca once every two months. Now they are susceptible to stress. with that said if you stress them out they will drop there ootheca before they can give berth. I am not totally sure if this happens before they mate or after. more then likely if it has been six weeks since it mated and it still hasn't given berth then i would assume the eggs were dropped due to stress. I check mine once a day and they drop the eggs often. but i have no choice because my bins don't hold moisture well with my lamps and they eat a lot and my colonies are huge. If you have less then 5000 it would be ok to check them every 3 days to once a week. the more privacy they have the better they will do.

[yoshimi]

i wanna say 4 weeks roughly from the time they mate to berth. But they wont be able to breed for another 4 weeks so each female will have an ootheca once every two months. Now they are susceptible to stress. with that said if you stress them out they will drop there ootheca before they can give berth. I am not totally sure if this happens before they mate or after. more then likely if it has been six weeks since it mated and it still hasn't given berth then i would assume the eggs were dropped due to stress. I check mine once a day and they drop the eggs often. but i have no choice because my bins don't hold moisture well with my lamps and they eat a lot and my colonies are huge. If you have less then 5000 it would be ok to check them every 3 days to once a week. the more privacy they have the better they will do.

A girl who got her starter colony the same time I did said she read it can take 2 extra weeks for 1st time mothers. But don't know where she got that info and if it applies to pregnancy or to time needed to mature after final adult molt. She doesn't have baby roaches yet either. All of mine, boys and girls, were large nymphs when I got them in late dec 2012. The 1st winged male appeared jan 6th or 7th (females matured faster, hey like with people, hah). Takes another week or 2 for them to mature enough to mate. I'm going to give it another week, because I haven't seen any abandoned oothecae or casings. It hasn't been 6 weeks yet, since I saw the 1st one, just 5. As soon as I saw her with it hanging out, I closed lid and let her be, came back and she and it were hidden again. I've seen other fat ladies with them partially out, too. I'll try to check on them less, it's just hard when I'm expecting at least a few litters any day now. but better to be patient and let them have their privacy, than to lose the babies and wait MORE time. thanks.

[demon amphibians]

A girl who got her starter colony the same time I did said she read it can take 2 extra weeks for 1st time mothers. But don't know where she got that info and if it applies to pregnancy or to time needed to mature after final adult molt. She doesn't have baby roaches yet either. All of mine, boys and girls, were large nymphs when I got them in late dec 2012. The 1st winged male appeared jan 6th or 7th (females matured faster, hey like with people, hah). Takes another week or 2 for them to mature enough to mate. I'm going to give it another week, because I haven't seen any abandoned oothecae or casings. It hasn't been 6 weeks yet, since I saw the 1st one, just 5. As soon as I saw her with it hanging out, I closed lid and let her be, came back and she and it were hidden again. I've seen other fat ladies with them partially out, too. I'll try to check on them less, it's just hard when I'm expecting at least a few litters any day now. but better to be patient and let them have their privacy, than to lose the babies and wait MORE time. thanks.

It does take the females 2-3 weeks to be able to start breeding after it has had its last molt that part you read is true but it may take longer. But from the time it takes from the time they breed till they give berth may vary as well we are just speaking of averages. my younger ones seem to hold the babies for less time then the older females but the older females will give berth to larger nymphs. The older females will give berth to nymphs almost twice as large as the new breeders but they also berth less of them. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't see any babies for another 2 weeks. Ok these roaches can be sensitive at times and some my drop there eggs and just like there molts the other roaches will eat them so you may not even know it if they had been dropped but there percent that they do drop is very low compared to what they successfully berth. Which is good. Also a stress factor which i have explained in a previous thread which can cause more stress then you checking them to much is to many males in with them. the males are very competitive and they will fight in the enclosure. I go with 5 to 1 for smaller colonies 3 to 1 is just fine. Think of it like a bunch of men in a bar beating each other up over 1 chick. If there were 3 chicks to one guy there would be nothing to fight over. he he. Also moving the nymphs in another bin will lower there stress levels too. But with a small colony the nymphs wont cause to much of a problem for you.

[yoshimi]

It does take the females 2-3 weeks to be able to start breeding after it has had its last molt that part you read is true but it may take longer. But from the time it takes from the time they breed till they give berth may vary as well we are just speaking of averages. my younger ones seem to hold the babies for less time then the older females but the older females will give berth to larger nymphs. The older females will give berth to nymphs almost twice as large as the new breeders but they also berth less of them. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't see any babies for another 2 weeks. Ok these roaches can be sensitive at times and some my drop there eggs and just like there molts the other roaches will eat them so you may not even know it if they had been dropped but there percent that they do drop is very low compared to what they successfully berth. Which is good. Also a stress factor which i have explained in a previous thread which can cause more stress then you checking them to much is to many males in with them. the males are very competitive and they will fight in the enclosure. I go with 5 to 1 for smaller colonies 3 to 1 is just fine. Think of it like a bunch of men in a bar beating each other up over 1 chick. If there were 3 chicks to one guy there would be nothing to fight over. he he. Also moving the nymphs in another bin will lower there stress levels too. But with a small colony the nymphs wont cause to much of a problem for you.

I have 24 gals and 10 boys. Should have been 25 but one lady died within the 1st week, don't know why. They've all had their final molt (or maybe there's one girl left who hasn't). I notice a big difference between the younger, newly molted ones and the older ones, in size/fatness. A few ladies are looking full to bursting. I was thinking that too, about other roaches coming along and eating the dropped egg sack. Or washing their roach hair with it like a placenta shampoo. Sure hoping for roach babies soon, and I will be moving them to another bin only because my toad eats the little ones. Not sure how long I'll go on trying to breed them. If I get 2nd toad, probably a lot longer than I originally planned. Which would mean having to hold some back, or getting some from you, eventually.

[demon amphibians]

Crickets and earthworms aren't your only options if you can't get roaches. You can use isopods too. Roly-polies, pill bugs, sow bugs, woodlice. They're easier than roaches to culture (don't need heat), and have lots of calcium.

This is a very good point diversity is always best and these listed are very nutritional. But there is one problem with this If you have frogs such as pac-mans American bullfrogs African bullfrogs and other large species this is not probable even if you breed them by the tens of thousands. besides none of my frogs except for my fire belly would even waste there time with them because they are so small. However this would be good for dart frogs, fire bellies and other such species. My colony of dubias is quite large i have well over 10,000 and growing 3000-4000 each month. And my frogs can do a lot of damage to even that size of colony if i didnt regulate it so closely. i have 4 large species of frogs that can eat 30-40 adult dubia's a peace a day. I think that right now dubia's are even to small. i would trade 50 adult females for 1 adult female hisser if i had that option.