Dubias and Hissers are here!!!

[ToadPaparazzi]

So, my b. dubia and hisser cultures are in! Looking forward to getting these guys breeding...

I wonder if using magazines as substrate will expedite the process

[Lacibeth]

Probably depends on what their preferred reading material is. Cosmo, Time, Car & Driver, Nat'l Geographic, Journal of Insect Behavior...?

[ToadPaparazzi]

Lol... Not quite what I had in mind

[Heatheranne]

Lol!!!!

[meganmcnerney]

Probably depends on what their preferred reading material is. Cosmo, Time, Car & Driver, Nat'l Geographic, Journal of Insect Behavior...?

how about Playboy, Maxim...I could send you some of my fitness magazines too if they need some excercise!

[ToadPaparazzi]

My hissers have already produced approx. 25 babies!

My dubias on the other hand are crashing...

Going to meet up with someone tomorrow who is very successful with his dubias... Hope I can learn something useful...

[MonsterPyxie]

My hissers have already produced approx. 25 babies!

My dubias on the other hand are crashing...

Going to meet up with someone tomorrow who is very successful with his dubias... Hope I can learn something useful...

you get any good tips share them here.

My dubia colony is not producing what I expected so far

[BG]

I could use some tips my colony had a humidity issue and had a lot of those flies.

[ToadPaparazzi]

Ok... This guy's colony was amazing! Hundreds and hundreds of thriving dubia... He kept them in a plastic tub with coco fiber for substrate and corkbark to hide under. There were all stages of them and they were awesome! Carrots, apples and oranges for food. If you have too much humidity, make a larger breathing hole and screen it. As long as the coco fiber is a little damp, humidity shouldn't be a problem.

I hope this helps... Seeing this setup surely helped me rethink mine!

[BG]

What do you guys think about crystal gel or water gel. do you really need it or just apples,carrots,and orange will do.

[ToadPaparazzi]

What do you guys think about crystal gel or water gel. do you really need it or just apples,carrots,and orange will do.

Everything I've read states that all water can be derived from the foods... You can also soak the substrate when it dries out by pouring enough water to not drown the roaches.

[Sublime]

The water gel crystals will help with the humidity being brought up, don't use coco fiber substrate. That's way too messy for roaches and definitely not needed. You will have spoiled food, hard time keeping the environment clean, etc. If you can't get them to breed fast enough it's a couple of reasons, the temps are still too low, dubias are a very social roach so crammed for them is a good thing and will enhance breeding interaction. What are your guys male to female ratios? If you have too many males you'll end up having fighting between females, eating more food, etc. Leave the males on the low end with a lot more females. 1:3 ratios or even 1:10. They prefer dark enclosures and no light. What kind of food are you guys offering? You need vegetables and fruit offered once a week with some high protein roach chow. If you have a good supply of vegetables and fruit in there then you probably won't need a water source, but to play it on the safe side I would still buy some water gel crystals to raise the humidity, offer extra water if they need it, and because they're inexpensive. Chicken feed grinded up with a few other high protein ingredients works really well along with carrots, oranges, apples.

Roach chow ingredients (A few you can use):

Dog food, cat food (Kitten food higher protein), kelp tablets, chicken feed, baby rice cereal, whole grain oats, fish flakes, milk powder, soy protein, dried alfalfa, ferret food

Worst case scenario just buy a humidifier for the room if you cannot keep the humidity high enough.

[Sublime]

Yeah. Obviously you want some ventilation on the top of the breeding bin, but not too much. Hold the humidity in longer, and they don't require too much ventilation.

[SiNi5T3R]

IIv found hisser's r way easy to take care of. They take quite a while to grow fully but they r easy to maintain.

[Sublime]

A lot of people prefer dubias in the pet trade because of the relative size for feeding, easy and fast breeders, can't climb, virtually no smell as long as their enclosure is cleaned monthly. Hissers get a lot bigger, climb, smell, escape artists, and take a lot longer to grow.

[FrogsRMe]

You are having troubles breeding dubia rather than hissers? Sheesh that's odd.
Breeding dubias is so easy, all you do is put them in a tubb with egg flatts, fresh fruit and or cat food along with some water gel or crystals. Keep the heat up real good and have a lid and small hole with a screen and the humidity does fine. Right now I have close to 600 and have only had them a few months. NO SUBSTRATE. too messy and not needed at all!

[Sublime]

Yes... I do not understand why people use substrate for breeding crickets or roaches.

[FrogsRMe]

Me either Mark, I've had some good success breeding my dubia and lobsters, without any messy substrate.

[Sublime]

Good, now we just need to pass the word on haha.

[BG]

The people that started the dubia craze don't use anything. Its harder to clean. I'm good now . I solved the humidity issue. so i still have 5000 dubias.