Breeding Blaptica dubia roaches

Breeding Blaptica dubia roaches

over the past few weeks i have quite a few emails and pms asking about breeding roaches so though i would pop a caresheets up for anyone is is intrested.

Blaptica dubia are a roach species located in Central and South America. Babies are around 3/16” inch and adults can reach 1 ½” to 2 inches. After adulthood they can live up to 12 months. Blaptica dubia have the great advantage of being extremely easy to sex as the adult males have full wings while the adult females have only tiny wing stubs. Even though they may have wings, they are unable to fly. Dubia cockroaches have become popular for feeding reptiles and amphibians because they are a high quality food source that is easier to raise than crickets. Dubia are a meaty roach with a soft body which contain a much higher ration of protein to indigestible chitin compared to crickets. They breed in drier conditions than many other roaches and produce little odor. They are calm and easy to handle for feeding. They do not make any noise which is another reason they are becoming much more popular than crickets

The basic set up required is simple for an enclosure, use a glass aquarium, plastic critter keeper, Rub type plastic tub. Dubia Roaches can not climb so choosing enclosure is simple. Place cardboard egg flats in the bin or tank for hiding places. Stacking vertically works best as it allows all the debris to fall to the bottom of the enclosure. I wouldn’t recommended that you use substrate, it is not necessary and only makes cleaning more difficult. Some however do use a substrate such as bran for bedding but this only makes it harder to keep the enclosure clean. Besides that, it’s always especially difficult to get the baby roaches out of the bedding that they hide in
Temperature, Humidity, and Lighting
The dubia roach like hot temperatures. A hot zone and cooler zone should be provided by keeping the heat source heat lamp or heat mat on one side of the cage only. The hot side of the cage should be 85-90F. The cooler end can be in the lower 80s. If temperatures are lower, their growth and reproduction will be slower. The higher the temperature, the more your dubia will breed. Humidity isn’t to much of a threat to these roaches as it is for crickets, however to much will and can encourage mould, growth fungus and bad smells. Adequate humidity would be above 40%. You may need to mist the enclosure occasionally to maintain these levels.

Diet

A diet consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables supplemented with dry dog food, grain cereal, baby cereal, and fish flakes will provide a suitable diet. Just make sure you remove any old fruits or vegetables,These items can be rotated through, or mixed together. There are also roach diets that can be purchased online. These are prefabricated mixtures that just need to be served to the roaches. Watering water crystals are a good source of water, and not messy. Provide a shallow water dish for your colony. They also provide a surface area that the roaches can walk on so no more drowned insects in the water dish!