How To: Dubia Roach Breeding
This guide will be going over the basics of how to successfully breed dubia roaches for your own feeders. This guide will not be going over the basics of keeping them alive. That guide can be found here.
DUBIA MALE / FEMALE RATIO:
When breeding dubias and other species, you want to make sure your male to female ratios are correct. If you have too many males, you can over stress females by the male’s constant want to breed. Having to many males can also cause fights between other males which can be seen by distraught wings. But having to little males can possibly cause some of the females to not be bred. We do a ratio of 1:5 (Males:Females) which has worked best for us. However others find 1:3 (Males:Females) work for them. Both ratios will work depending on what your end goal is of breeding. We suggest trying out different ratios to see what best works for you.
HEATING / HUMIDITY:
Keeping your colony heated properly will help your breeding and baby population. We suggest keeping your colony between 85-90F as a hot side, and on the cool side having around 75F. You can accomplish this by using Heat Tape, by using a under tank heating pad, or by heating the whole space you are keeping your colony. Humidity is important when breeding dubias, due to when males and females molt into the last stage of life, many males will have distraught wings from molt due to humidity issues. We recommend a minimum of 40% humidity which may be your normal humidity depending on where you live.
OFF SPRING:
Pregnant female dubias will often have babies varying from 10-30 occasionally higher or lower depending on age. Each Pregnant female generally gives birth every 30-40 days again depending on age and how fast the impregnation happened.
CLEANING:
When breeding dubias we suggest disturbing them as little as possible. This reduces stress and increases overall health and “confidence” of the colony. If the colony is constantly disturbed, this may reduce breeding and overall lifespan of your colony. We suggest cleaning colonies every 1-3 months depending on size of the colony.