Care & Guide
Complete care & guide
to keep your Dubia Roaches healthy.
ENCLOSURE
Dubia Roaches need to housed in a container with a smooth side, so they aren’t able to climb out of their enclosure. Although they are not known to climb, they will be able to use slightly rough-surfaced walls as hold and possible to reach the top of the enclosure.
Plastic Storage Box with 1.5feet height and size around 45L would be a great starter. It’s best to cover up the enclosure as you don’t want any strange bugs, pests, or house pets from getting into the colony.
Storage box ventilation can be made by hole or mosquito net/wire mesh.
Hole 3:2 or 4:3 drilled by 5mm drill bit, mosquito net/wire mesh best with 6×6 or larger.
Dubia Roaches require a standing ground and dark hiding spot. Cardboard egg crate flats provide the most surface & rising ground. You may able to get egg crate flats from us.
We recommend you to stack the egg-crate vertically so the Dubia Roaches dropping fall to the bottom of the enclosure plus it may help with the air circulation in the colony.
Leave at least 3inch gapped between the bin & lids to prevent the roach from getting out of the container.
Wire Mesh Setup (Advance)
5mm Hole Setup (Basic)
Cut the egg crate in the middle to divide it into half, arrange it nice & neat looking.
(refer photo on Food Section)
There is no need to use any substrate or bedding at the bottom of the enclosure. Adding a substrate will only make it more difficult to keep the enclosure clean.
Tips: To avoid any frass getting into the crystal gel, place it on top of the egg crate.
TEMPERATURE
Here in Malaysia, our temperature didn’t drop below 26°. However, room temperature would be excellent and do best with around 60% humidity. No heating source required!
During the hot season, add crystal gel leads to appropriate humidity and keep the roach hydrated always.
If you’re staying on the higher ground level, keep an eye on the temperature.
On higher ground level temperature may drop, Dubia roach wouldn’t breed below 23°.
FOOD AND WATER
Proper nutrition and hydration result in healthy Dubia roaches. Healthy Dubia roaches provide equally proper nutrition to the animals that feed on them.
Roaches can eat a variety of dry fruit, grain, or you can get our Roach Chow. Low moisture vegetables could be added to their diet.
Here’s an example of food you can feed to Dubia Roaches :
– BDRM Premium Roach Chow
– Orange
– Apple
– Banana
– Papaya
– Corn
– Carrot
– Pumpkin
– Mustard Green (sawi)
– Chinese Turnip (Sengkuang)
Besides, we do sell Crystal Gel as a water source for your Dubia Roaches, Crystal Gel provides water always and would avoid dehydration in the colony. Plus, you don’t need to worry about your nymph from drowning again, plus Crystal Gel lasts up 3 to 12 days per serving (depend on serving size).
Food arrangement inside the colony
You may also need microwave Tupperware or a shallow bowl to put the foods. Refer to the photo on how we place the food in our colony.
Be sure to remove any leftover vegetables or fruit every 24 hours before they get moldy. Mold is a colony’s biggest enemy. Avoid high protein foods such as dog or cat food & fish pellet since Dubia roaches convert excess protein into uric acid, which may harm the reptiles in long term.
CLEANING
Dubia Roaches produce dry droppings called “frass.” Their enclosures will need to be cleaned every 1-2 weeks to reduce the buildup of frass and shed exoskeletons. It’s useful to have an extra enclosure when cleaning.
Temporarily remove the egg crate with the Dubia Roaches and the food and water dishes (which may contain roaches as well) to the spare enclosure.
Scoop up what remains at the bottom of the enclosure and sift out the frass. The roaches that reside can then be transferred to the other enclosure as well or put back into the original enclosure with the other materials.
Add Buffalo Beetles (known as lesser mealworms) as a natural method to keep your dubia roach colony cleans; they will eat away any decaying organic material. They prevent the colony from getting mold, fungi, mites, flies, and remain minimal odors. Buffalo Beetle won’t fight for other food resource. However, frass scooping still required manually.
BREEDING
The difference between the male and female seen in the photo attached.
Since a single male can mate to multiple females, the breeding Dubia roach colony should have more females than males.
Adult Female
Adult Male
Adult females reached adulthood and ready to breed within several months (3-5 months) They will produce 20 – 40 nymphs every four to six weeks or so during their active breeding life. Nymphs have soft bodies and shed reasonably often as they grow to adult size and develop the hard, or chitinous shells of adulthood.
For best management of your breeding roach colony, maintain a ratio of approximately one male to every 3-5 females, keep temperatures at 28 °C – 32°C, and keep track of the rate of hatching. If the rate decreases significantly and husbandry remains correct, most of the females may be older and producing fewer young. In this case, be sure to allow more females to mature and reproduce.
Summary of Materials for Roach Care
- Plastic storage box (atleast 45L)
- Enclosure cover (wire mesh and hot glue gun needed if converting a plastic tub cover)
- Egg crate flats
- Cleaner Crew (not necessary but recommended)
- Water crystals
- Roach food
- Shallow bowls/tupperware lids.
- Extra enclosure to use when cleaning.
Ready to start a colony? Contact us for a free consultation.
Instructions
Step By Step on how to prepare Roach Chow and Crystal Gel before serving to your roach.
BDRM Premium Roach Chow
- Cut the seal of the plastic then prepare a flat plate or Tupperware lids.
- Serve 3 tablespoon of BDRM Premium Roach Chow on top of the Flat plate or Tupperware lids.
- Keep remaining & additional Roach Chow in the fridge (nonfrozen).
BDRM Crystal Gel
- Prepare 600ml of water, then take 1 pack of 5gm Crystal Gel.
- Put 1 pack of Crystal Gel into 600ml of water.
- Stir it & Leave it for 30min.
- Take a flat plate or Tupperware lids serve 3 tablespoons of Crystal Gel.
- Replace any discolor or shrinking Crystal Gel.