Dubia Roaches (Blaptica Dubia)

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Nutritional value of common feeder insects

Dubia roaches are more nutritious than many other insects commonly used for feeding reptiles. They are lower in fat than all of the “worms”, and higher in protein & calcium than most other insects used as feeders. They also have a longer intestinal tract than crickets that slows digestion and makes gut loading more effective.

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VS.

Dubia vs Crickets

Dubia roaches have many advantages over crickets, and many of the other insects commonly used to feed reptiles. Initially they are more expensive, but once your colony is established the care they need is much less than with crickets or worms.

This chart compares dubia roaches and crickets and highlights some of the more beneficial advantages of using roaches as feeder insects.

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Starting a dubia roach colony

Setting up and taking care of a colony of dubia roaches (Blaptica dubia) is easy and inexpensive, except for the roaches. You can greatly reduce the expense of the roaches by starting with a small quantity of breeders & mixed roaches, and growing your own colony. If this is the route you chose, we suggest leaving them alone and not feeding out of your colony until it is well established and sufficient to provide your feeder needs. This will allow your colony to grow much quicker, freeing you from crickets. The length of time you will need to leave the colony alone will depend on the number of breeding age roaches you have. Blaptica dubia Roaches are easy and reliable breeders and if your adult dubia roaches are not producing young, then you are keeping the temperature too low. If juvenile & adult roaches are dying during incomplete molts, then the humidity is too low.

This is a list of everything you will need, and each requirement is explained in detail below with various options.

1.    An enclosure.

2.    A second container or enclosure to hold the roaches during cleaning & sorting.

3.    Sorting boxes (optional)

4.    Something for the roaches to hide in or under.

5.    Heat.

6.    Food.

7.    Water source.

8.    Roaches.

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Care of Dubia roaches

Taking care of dubia roaches is easy, inexpensive, and requires less time and effort than you might think. All that is required is a ventilated container, a heat source, food, water, and something for them to hide under. Your colony should include roaches of all sizes in order to create a complete ecosystem.

Unlike crickets or super worms, roach enclosures do not smell and can be kept clean with very little maintenance. Dubia roaches prefer to be left alone and will do best if you don’t mess with them. They should be checked daily to make sure they have food & water, and to remove any leftover food to prevent mold and bacteria growth. The enclosure only needs to be cleaned  2-3 times per year, and the fras (roach droppings & shed exoskeletons) should be allowed to build up. The enclosure should not be cleaned until there is more than 1”-2” of fras in the bottom of the enclosure and it is important not to remove it all because the fras provides a medium for the roaches to burrow into and also provides a food source for the nymphs. The roaches can be sorted, the feeders removed, and they can be moved into a holding container or their second enclosure. The initial enclosure can then be cleaned with dish soap, 10%bleach solution, or a commercial cleaner. The enclosures should be well rinsed and allowed to dry thoroughly before it is used. Some people put dermistid beetles in their colonies to remove any leftover food and dead roaches. These are commonly known as taxidermy beetles, and are used by taxidermists to remove meat from bones. We do not use these beetles as it only makes it more difficult to sort the roaches. If your colony smells “sweet”, smells of ammonia, or you have gnats in your colony, it should be cleaned immediately because mold and bacteria can quickly decimate your colony.

Once your colony is established, you should remove your feeder stock for 1-2 months to avoid repeatedly disturbing your breeding colony. This would also be a good time to clean the enclosure if it is necessary. The feeders should be kept in a separate ventilated container and be provided food & water, but will not require a heat source as long as the temperature is above 65F°. It is also a good idea to remove any extra males at this time and use them as feeders. There should be 1 adult male to every 3-4 females. Any extra adult males left in your colony will only eat the food and provide more competition for the available resources for the females. We tend to err on the side of caution keeping the ratio of 1 male to 3 females and believe it is worth a little extra food & water to insure maximum breeding.

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Dubia Roach Maintenance Schedule

Daily: Heat 1 end of enclosure to 100°F - 110°F, Check food & water crystals. Put food on floor of enclosure and add water crystals if the dish is not dirty. If the dish is dirty use a clean dish and sanitize the other one when you get a chance. Check area around water dish for moisture/mold. If present, then the damp fras and/or egg flats must be removed. Dry & sanitize the damp part of the enclosure and/or replace egg flats.

Weekly: Provide fresh citrus fruit (oranges are one of their favorites). Cut citrus fruit in quarters and place on water crystals. Remove the peel the next day. Sanitize the water crystal dish.

Monthly (4-6 weeks): Sort out feeders when needed after 4-6 weeks.

Occasional: When the fras is 3-4 inches deep place all of the roaches & the egg flats in a plastic tote, remove most of the fras. Keep enough to have ½”-1” deep layer in enclosure after the tote has been cleaned. Throw out the rest, use some to start a second colony, or use it in your garden. Sanitize the enclosure with dish soap or 10% bleach solution and soak for 1 hour. Rinse thoroughly & let dry completely. Return egg flats, roaches, food & water dishes to the enclosure (any bad egg flats should be replaced).

Download Dubia Roach CARE and Maintenance SHEET

Sexing Dubia Roaches

Dubia roaches are sexually dimorphic which means that the males & females look different.  The adult males have full wings the length of their bodies, while the adult females have small stubs. The larger nymphs can also be sexed. Look at the last segment on the bottom of their abdomen. On males the last segment is small and narrow. On females the last segment is large and is the full width of the abdomen. Also the females are also generally wider, and not as long as the males.

Housing;

There are many options available to house your roach colony, and choosing the correct one will depend on the size of the colony that you will need to produce a sufficient amount of feeders. Since dubia roaches can’t climb or fly they can be kept in just about any container that has smooth perpendicular sides. Although dubia roaches can’t fly, the males do have full wings and are able to briefly hover & even glide, but they can’t gain altitude so are also unable to escape from smooth glass or plastic containers. Some people suggest using Vaseline or smooth packing tape around the top of the container on the inside, but we have not found this to be necessary. If any roaches do escape, it is usually due to human error during cleaning or sorting, and they are not able to survive or breed in the North American climate. It may be possible for them to survive in some areas like South Florida, however if there was a cold snap they would all die. You will also need an additional container to hold the colony while you are sorting them or cleaning their enclosure.   

If you are planning a small colony to feed 1-2 reptiles that do not eat many insects then a 10 gallon aquarium would work fine. If you are raising them to feed a bearded dragon or 2, then you will need a much larger enclosure due to the number of insects that bearded dragons eat. You could use a larger aquarium, but they are expensive and hard to manage and move around. If you do chose to use an aquarium, then you will need to paint or cover the sides since roaches do not like light, and will breed better in an opaque enclosure. Be aware that nymphs will be able to climb up the sealant in the corners of the aquarium so you may have to put packing tape or Vaseline around the inside edges and the top of the seams. You would also need a screen top to provide adequate ventilation.

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Another popular option is to use opaque plastic totes or plastic garbage cans. These are available in sizes up to 60 gallons, and are relatively inexpensive. If you chose to use the clear totes you will have to paint or cover the sides, so it is easier just to buy opaque totes. All that you have to do is to cut out 2 sections of the lid and hot glue aluminum or steel screening over the holes. This provides the ventilation and keeps other insects out. To house a colony for 1 or more bearded dragons, or multiple other reptiles, amphibians, arachnids, insectivorous mammals, birds, fish, or other animals your enclosure should be a minimum of 18-20 gallons. This size enclosure is the smallest that allows you to optimize the heating so that the hot side is hot while providing a cool end so there is a sufficient temperature gradient. 18-20 gallons is the smallest size you should use for your roach enclosure, but it is as big as most people will ever need. We have kept up to 250 breeder females, 85 males, and the rest of the colony in the 18 gallon enclosures. If it is smaller it will become an oven and will kill off all of your roaches because there will not be any cool side or temperature gradient so they can regulate their temperatures.

We use 18-45 gallon opaque totes and prefer to have a second enclosure set up so we can just move the roaches from one enclosure to another when we are cleaning & sorting them. This allows us to clean the initial enclosures at our leisure and not have to clean it immediately so we can put them back into it.           

For complete plans to build a roach enclosure see the bottom of the “insect enclosures & supplies” page.  

Build a Roach Enclosure

There are 2 ways to setup your colony;

1.    Using a natural set up:
The roaches can be set up in an enclosure which is made to resemble their natural environment. The enclosure would be the same plastic or glass container with smooth sides and a screened top used for the minimal setup, but it would have dirt, leaf litter, and branches for the roaches to climb on. It would have to be misted daily to keep the substrate moist and to keep the humidity high. The high humidity aids in shedding and reduces dehydration, unfortunately it also encourages mites, mold, and bacteria which can decimate your colony very fast. This makes cleaning more difficult & it must be done more frequently. Another issue with a natural setup is that it makes it difficult to locate the roaches which will burrow into the substrate. This setup is NOT recommended for a feeder colony.

2.    Using a minimal set up:
A ‘minimal’ set up is the easiest most efficient way to house dubia roaches. The enclosure would be the same plastic or glass container used for the natural setup, but it would not have any substrate. Some people recommend substrate to trap the moisture & raise the humidity, but we have found this only increases the growth of mites, mold, and bacteria, thus increasing the frequency of cleanings, and makes finding the roaches more difficult. We do not use any substrate, instead we use cardboard egg crates, but you could also use paper towel rolls or crumpled up newspaper.

Substrate;

Should you use any substrate? Since the roaches breed just as well without substrate and it makes the maintenance much easier we chose not to use any. Instead we use cardboard egg crates to provide surface area and give the roaches something to hide in. Some people prefer to use substrate and that may work best for them. The only time we would even consider using a substrate is if we were unable get the humidity high enough in your roach colony for them to breed, or if the roaches were dying during incomplete molts. We have never had this problem. Before adding substrate you could try misting the sides of the enclosure, being careful not to get the food or egg crates wet which could promote the growth of mold & bacteria. Dubia roaches like to burrow, especially the nymphs, and if you do not have any substrate you will frequently find them under the feeding dishes. Over time, the fras will build up and provide something for the roaches to burrow in. Using substrate is a topic that has many answers but the final decision is yours.

These are some of the things commonly used as substrate for dubia roaches;

1. Cardboard egg crates; this is what we use in all of our enclosures. The egg crates give the roaches more surface area to climb on and hide in. Never mist the egg crates as it will promote mold & bacteria growth.
   
   While some people recommend stacking the egg flats horizontally, I don’t recommend it. We like to hot glue two 12” x12” egg flats together and stack them vertically in the enclosure to create a much better environment for the roaches. They should be stacked from the heated side to within 6”-8” of the cool end. This provides consistent spacing between the flats for the roaches to move around and to maximize air & heat circulation within the enclosure and also provides an area for the food & water crystals.
   
   The first reason we don’t recommend stacking the flats horizontally is the chance of mold. Since their poo is wet and it will collect in all of the egg crates, if they are stacked horizontally there is a greater chance of mold because of the decreased circulation and the trapping of the poo. Additionally as the crates get wet they will sag from the weight above them deceasing the amount of room you have for roaches and further restricting the circulation and slowing the drying of the poo. The air circulates better if they are stacked vertically because heat rises. The increased circulation also quickly dries the poo. If they are horizontal the hot air can’t circulate (decreased ventilation) and the heating of the enclosure will also be uneven.  If the egg crates are vertical the poo falls to the bottom avoiding prolonged wetting of the crates and also contributing to the fras.
   
   The second reason we stack our egg flats vertically is the fras. Basically fras is a combination of roach poo, shed exoskeletons, & leftover food. The roaches, particularly the smallest nymphs, like to hide in the fras and also use it as a food source to reclaim the nutrients. If the egg flats are stacked horizontally eventually there will be fras in each egg compartment of the flats but there will be virtually none on the bottom of the enclosure. This presents with a couple of issues. If there is no fras on the bottom then the babies don’t have anywhere to hide or a supplemental food source. The second issue is that when you go to take some roaches out of the colony every egg crate will have fras in it. If you hot glue them in sections of 2 crates and stack them vertically most of the poo falls to the bottom and when you take them out it is easy to shake off most of the fras, without shaking off the roaches too. This will make your sorting a lot easier. If you stack them horizontally then you will have to sort out the fras every time you take out any roaches. 

Newspaper; Newspaper is the cheapest alternative and can be crumpled up or laid on the bottom of the enclosure. If it is laid on the bottom, there should be space between the edges of the sheets for the roaches to crawl into and hide. If you are misting your enclosure the newspaper will absorb the excess water and it dries pretty quickly.

Paper towel rolls; these may also be used as a substrate, but you would need a lot of them to provide the surface area necessary for a larger colony.

Bran Bedding, Laying Mash Pellets, Rabbit Pellets, Landscape Pine Bark Nuggets, Straw, Pine Straw, Leaf Litter, Aspen Shavings, Coconut Fiber, Peat Moss, Sphagnum Moss; All of these can be used as substrate and the one thing they have in common is that they all will promote mold & bacteria growth when it gets wet. If they are used they should be sterilized before use. They can be baked in an oven @ 200° for 1 hour, or it can be wet and micro-waved until it steams. We do not recommend any of these for use as a substrate, but some people do.  

How Many Roaches should I get and when can i get rid of all the crickets?

This is a question that we get asked a lot, and the simple answer is to get as many female breeders as you can afford. Unfortunately roaches, especially the female breeders are still relatively expensive since it takes 5-6 months of care before they start breeding. Most places wont even sell you breeders unless you also buy a colony. There are several things to consider. To start out you need to figure out how many roaches you will need. This will depend on what kind of animal are you feeding the roaches to, what size roaches can they eat, and if you intend to feed only roaches for the insect portion of the diet (in addition to their greens), or if you are going to suppliment the roaches with other insects. 

This is how we estimate the amount of roaches you would need to feed (1) adult bearded dragon only roaches for the insect (protein) portion of their diet.
There are roughly 30 days in a month. Each adult dragon should eat 20-30 crickets each day which comes out to 600-900 crickets/month for each adult dragon. Since roaches have a higher meat to shell ratio and are 5-6 times more nutritious you would only need to feed 1/5 or 1/6 as many roaches of a comparable size. This comes out to 4-6 roaches each day and 120-180 roaches each month. I like to use 6-10 roaches as an estimation to provide a cushion and because they really like them. This come out to 180-300 roaches each month. You also want to have enough breeders to replenish your colony.

Since each adult female produces 30-40 roaches each month you would need 6-10 adult females (6x30-40 = 180-240) & (10x30-40= 300-400) to provide enough insects for a single adult dragon. Six females does not provide any leeway if your dragon eats more, and it does not provide enough extras to replenish your colony so we would recommend 10 adult females. This would provide enough insects for an adult, and additional roaches to build and replenish your colony.  

If you have a juvenile dragon they should be eating 20-30 smaller crickets twice each day. This does not mean that you need twice as many breeders to provide twice the amount of roaches. Twice as many breeders would soon produce more roaches than you could ever use with a single dragon. Since dubias are easily digestible they are exempt from the rule about "not feeding anyhing bigger than the space between their eyes". This means that you could easily feed your juvenile dragons 1/2" - 1" (2-3 month old) roaches. Since you are feeding larger roaches they are getting more protein so would not have to eat as many which will allow your colony to grow and become self sufficient. 

If you have more than 1 dragon you don't necessarily need to buy a colony that has 10 females for each dragon.  You can buy a smaller colony and in 2-3 months you will have plenty of breeders if you let the largest ones mature. If you want to reduce the length of time you would have to wait to feed multiple dragons you could buy a smaller colony and additional mixed size roaches or additional breeders. We would not really recommend buying the additional breeders unless you have a lot of reptiles because they are more expensive and the large roaches from the mixed lots will soon mature and you will end up with more breeders than you will need.


 Do I have to wait 5-6 months to start feeding my dragon from my colony?
Even though it takes a nymph 5-6 months before it is able to breed, you do not have to wait 5-6 months to start feeding your colony. An adult female (6 months old) will produce nymphs for 1-1 ½ years, males can breed for about 1 year after reaching maturity. To start feeding  a single adult bearded dragon only roaches as their protein immediately you would need to start with 10 breeding females and 3-5 adult males. This is sufficient to provide the quantity of roaches necessary. 

You will also need a sufficient quantity of feeders for your dragon to eat while your colony becomes established and self sufficient. From the above estimation we calculated that an adult dragon will eat 180-300 3-4 month old (1"- 1 1/2") roaches each month. If you only had the adult roaches the longest you would have to wait would be 3-4 months before the roaches they produced were big enough for you to feed out of your colony. If you have a juvenile dragon it would be the same since they require more protein (more or larger roaches). This is where the mixed size feeders comes in. Having a quantity of mixed size roaches when you start your colony can shorten the 3-4 months considerably. The actual amount of time it will be shortened will depend on how often and which size roaches you are feeding, and how many your dragon eats. 

If you feed off all of the mixed sizes that come with your colony then you would need to provide another protein source for 3-4 months and start all over again.  If you left the colony alone for 1-2 months and did not feed from it, the smaller roaches would grow larger, and the larger roaches would grow into breeders and start producing more small roaches. Most people however cant resist feeding out of their colony, and if you only do it once in a while it would not extend the 1-2 month time frame. If however you frequently feed out of then it may extend the 1-2 months to 2-3 months.  

When you feed out of your colony DO NOT feed the largest roaches. They are almost breeders and it will take 4-5 months to replace them. Allow them to grow and become breeders so they can produce more small roaches. Instead feed some of the small and mid sized roaches (1/4"-3/4"). Once they start breeding you will be producing a lot more roaches than you will need. This will allow you to stop buying crickets sooner by feeding a larger quantity of smaller roaches to provide the protein your dragon needs. It dosent matter if you feed them 1 roach that is 1/2" or 2 roaches that are 1/4". It is roughly the same amount of protein. The difference is that it only takes 1 month to replace the 1/4" roaches and 4-5 months to replace the larger roaches.  

Never feed off all of the roaches from any 1 size. Always leave a sufficient quantity of each size to grow into larger roaches, so you will be feeding less quantity, and to allow some to mature into breeders to replace the ones that get old and die, or for a second dragon or other animal.

What do I do when my colony grows too big?

I have read "complaints" on the internet that some people do not believe that dubia roaches are the perfect feeder because they breed so well and live a long time. This sounds like a silly complaint and like someone who dosent use common sense. It is impossible for the colony to grow too large and this is why. If you notice that you have too many roaches the easiest thing to do would be to get another dragon, no I'm kidding but you can if you want since it will eliminate one of the major expenses of having a bearded dragon. It is very easy to regulate the size of you colony. If you find that you have more roaches than you could ever use then the first thing you do is feed off a couple of the breeding females. Remember they are easily digestible so adult dragons can eat full grown adult roaches that are up to 2 1/2" long. Do not feed off too many because it may take 1-2 months for your larger roaches to mature into breeders to replace them. This will immediately stop your colony from growing any faster. Then start to feed off a lot of the smaller roaches (1/4" -1/2"). If you dragon is eating 10 @ 1" roaches a day, he will probably eat  30-40 1/4"-1/2"  roaches each day. You can reduce you colony by 200-300, or more, roaches each week. Once you get it down to a manageable size feed off some of the large & sub adult roaches so they dont mature into breeders and grow your colony out of controll in 2-3 months. By selecting the sizes of the roaches you feed,  you can maintain your colony at an appropriate level for the animlas you are feeding. 

Heating;

Dubia roaches are tropical insects and they breed best if the warm side of the enclosure is kept at 100F°-110F°. The cool end should be kept around 75F°-85F°. There should also be a temperature gradient for the roaches to cool down when they want. The egg crates should be placed towards the hot side of the enclosure and the food & water crystals should be placed at the cool end. A thermostat is usually not necessary, because you can tell from their behavior if the temp is correct. If they are all clustered away from the heat source then the enclosure is probably too hot, and if your adults are not breeding then it is probably too cold. There are many ways to heat the enclosures. Some of the most common are locating the enclosure in a hot dark location like near the furnace, dryer, or hot water heater.  They can also be heated by using a reptile heat mat, human heating pad, Heat tape, ceramic heat emitter, or incandescent light bulb. Roaches breed the best if they are kept at 100F-110F. They will breed at a lower temps but they will not produce as many young.

For heat you can use heat tape, under tank heaters, heat mats, black or red light bulb. To produce the most nymphs dubia roaches like it hot, dark, and to be left alone. For this reason any kind of light bulb is not optimal. If they produce any light it can reduce your production. Additionally it is impossible to heat the entire depth of the enclosure evenly. If a heat lamp is placed on top of the enclosure then the top of the crates will be hot, but the bottom will not receive any heat. If you use a higher wattage bulb so the bottom of the enclosure is heated then it will cook the roaches at the top levels.  The heat mats and under tank heaters are typically designed for snakes and are not designed to get hot enough. Typically they only get to 90-95 F which is less than your body temp. Dubia roaches breed the best if it gets to about 100F-110F. Since the mats & pads don’t get as hot as you need it, you won’t need a thermostat because it will always be on anyhow. They do sell some high temp heat mats that you could use with a thermostat, but there have been some issues with them on the internet so I don’t know if they are any good.  The heat tape is designed to get to 100-110F (a little more than body temp) so you also don’t need a thermostat for them. I just tape them to the enclosure and leave them on all the time.

If you have a separate container for your feeder roaches, they will not need a heat source as long as they are kept above 65F° so they can be kept in a dark closet or under the sink

Heating with incandescent lighting - inexpensive but will not produce optimal production

Heating with heat tape - initially a little more expensive but will produce optimal production and you will not have to replace any bulbs

Food;

Food & water crystals should be provided daily. Food can be dumped on the bottom of the enclosure in one of the corners on the cool end of the enclosure. The water crystals should be provided in low dishes that they can climb in & out of. Small dishes or Lids from food containers work very well. We use plastic coffee can lids because they are deep enough to keep the water crystals in place, but not too deep for the roaches to climb in and out. The water crystal dishes should be cleaned routinely, with dish soap and water. They should be well rinsed and allowed to dry thoroughly. We reccomend having 2 dishes for the water crystals.  

What do roaches eat? Well, roaches are scavengers so they will eat pretty much anything they find available, just remember that what goes into the roach eventually goes into your reptile or other animal. This is especially important for dubia roaches who have a long intestinal tract and food can take up to 72 hours to digest which makes gut loading much more effective. They should be provided a dry food source that can be left in the enclosure some of the options that people suggest include roach chow, dog or cat food, baby food, fish food, egg laying chicken feed, rabbit pellets, cereal, bread, etc. Some roach breeders recommend a high protein dry food, but others suggest a low protein dry food may be better and closer to their natural diet in the wild. We use a feed that is 100% grain and does not contain any animal protein which is bad for your roaches and may be harmful or fatal to the animals you are feeding them too. Other ingredients are then added to increase the nutritional value and maintain the amount of protein at 10%-15%. Whatever you decide to feed to your roaches it should not contain any animal protein or bybroducts and should not excede 15% crude protein. Dubia roaches store the extra protein as urates (just like people do) that can lead to an early death after they become adults. As the urates build up it can lead to gout and then progress into organ failure killing off your breeder roaches prematurely. I have seen roach foods for sale that have added bee polen, fish food, or semolina which are just ways to increase the protien content and may be detrimental to your colony. I have also seen roach food with powdered milk added, proportedly to increase the protein, calcium, & vitamin D3, unfortunately insects and reptiles are lactose intollerant and can not metabolize the powdered milk. They can metabolize powdered soy milk but the additional protein is not good for the insects or animals. Some people suggest that with proper gut loading of roaches can eliminate the need to dust the insects with supplements. We do not subscribe to this view, and believe that routine calcium & vitamin supplements are necessary for your reptile’s health.  

To supplement the dry food they many people believe that they should be provided fresh foods 2-3 times per week. The fresh foods provide an additional source of water and also additional vitamins & minerals. They can be given fresh foods every day but it is not necessary and will just create more work since it has to be removed as daily and soon as it starts to mold. Mold will kill an entire colony of roaches very fast, so any fresh food that is not eaten should be removed and discarded every day. The “fresh” food can include fruits, vegetables, leftover dragon greens, any leftovers you have from preparing or eating meals, oranges, potatoes, grapes, carrots, bananas, apples, lettuce, and almost anything we can eat except meat. All fruits & vegetables should be washed to remove any pesticides or preservatives which may be toxic to the roaches or to your reptile. We only provide our roaches citrus fruits (oranges, grapefruits, etc.) 1 day each week. They are quartered and placed on top of the water crystals. This prevents them from chewing off pieces and dragging them into the egg flats where they may cause mold threatening your entire colony.  

Always remember that what you feed your roaches will be fed to your reptile so you will want to be careful with which fresh foods, and what quantities you are feeding the roaches. Foods like bananas are high in potassium which binds with the calcium and prevents your reptile from absorbing it. Foods like spinach & kale are high in oxalates which also interfere with the absorption of calcium. Foods like carrots are high in beta carrotene which is converted into vitamin A which can actually be toxic to bearded dragons in high doses. Don’t feed them any rotten foods, spoiled foods, meat, or dairy products.

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Water;

While they will obtain a significant amount of moisture from the “fresh food” portion of their diet, a clean water source is as important as a good food source and there are many options. Dubia roaches are somewhat tolerant to low humidity, but they prefer a higher humidity and will breed much better with adequate moisture & humidity. If the humidity is too low you may notice roaches dying during incomplete molts.

Water can be provided with a shallow dish of water with a sponge in it, with commercial insect waterers, or with water crystals. If you use a dish of water and a piece of sponge, make sure the sponge doesn’t touch the cardboard, as it will soak up all the moisture and promote mold & bacteria. Additionally the sponge will have to be boiled to kill any bacterial that is present when the dish is cleaned. You can also mist the sides of the enclosure to provide water and increase the humidity, but make sure you do not wet the substrate or cardboard to avoid mold, bacteria, mites, & fruit flies. Water may not need to be added if you provide regular fruit and vegetables as long as the humidity is adequate.  

We supply fresh water with polymer water crystals because we believe that standing water promotes mold & bacteria growth and increases the chance of accidental drowning. Water crystals also help to increase the humidity in the enclosure and decrease the need for misting. Water crystals are relatively inexpensive and can be easily purchased online, and 1 oz of crystals makes 1 gallon of water.

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Sorting your roaches;

You can manually sort your roaches by hand, selecting the appropriate size insects to feed your reptile. Or you can make some sorting boxes. To make sorting boxes get 3-4 shoe box size plastic boxes, about $1.00 each. You will also need a dish pan sized plastic container to catch the roaches. On one end of the 1st box drill a lot of 1/8” holes. In the second box drill a bunch of 1/4" or 3/8” holes, and in the 3rd box drill a bunch of 1/2"” holes. You can change the sizes of the holes, or use extra sorting boxes with different size holes, to adjust the sizes of roaches that are sorted. Remember not to remove all of the roaches of a particular size, some must be returned to the colony to avoid decimating a generation. If you do you will eventually run out of a particular size or find yourself without enough breeders.

1. Pour some roaches & fras into the box with the 1/8” holes and shake the box over the dish pan. This should allow the fras to fall through, but not too many roaches. If any roach nymphs pass through you can remove them and put them back into the sorting box. Dispose of the fras.
2. Next pour the roaches in the 1/8” sorting box into the 1/4" or 3/8” sorting box and shake it over the dishpan. This should sort out the nymph & small roaches. If this is the size you use as feeders you can move them to your feeder box. If not then they can be put in the colony enclosure.
3. Pour the roaches left in the 1/4" or 3/8” sorting box into the 1/2” sorting box and shake over the dishpan. This should sort out the mid-sized roaches. If these are your feeders then they would go into your feeder box, if not then return them to the colony.
4. The adult roaches are all that is left. Periodically it is a good idea to separate/count them to assure there is a sufficient number of females, and that the ratio is 1 adult male to 3-4 adult females. 

These are the sizes we currently use
1/8" to separate the fras from the roaches
1/4" to separate the small roaches from the colony
3/8" to separate the medium roaches from the colony
1/2" to separate the large roaches from the adults and sub adults

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Building & Managing your Roach Colony

These are basic instructions to grow and manage your dubia roach colony. They can be modified for your particular needs including the number, type, size/age, and diet of your particular animals. Dubia roaches are excellent feeder insects for a wide range of animals including reptiles, arachnids, amphibians, fish, birds, and insectivorous mammals. Dubia roaches are easily digestible, and they are edible at all stages of their lifecycles. Adult bearded dragons are able to eat all sizes of dubia roaches up to and including the 2 ½” adults, and they are 5-6 times more nutritious than the same sized crickets. The first thing you need to do is estimate the number and size of the insects you will need each month. One way to do this is to take the number of crickets you are currently feeding your animals and divide it by 5. This will give you an approximation of how many roaches you will need. This is usually not a very accurate estimation. Because crickets are loud, smelly, expensive, and require a lot of maintenance, most people tend to underfeed their animals. It is much more accurate to calculate their animals insect (protein) requirements based on the recommended guidelines, and by the specific appetites of their specific animals. These are our
guidelines for feeding a bearded dragon

A bearded dragon will eat approximately20-40 appropriately sized crickets at a time because there is very little meat and a lot of shell. This is the equivalent of 6-12 roaches per meal.
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All Ages - Provide Fresh Greens
0-4 months – Provide appropriate sized insects (1/4” – ½”), all they can eat in 15-20 minutes, 2-3 x daily
4-12 months – Provide appropriate sized insects (1/2” – Adult), all they can eat in 15-20 minutes, 1-2 x daily
1-2 years – Provide appropriate sized insects (adult), all they can eat in 15-20 minutes, 1 x daily
2 years + – Provide appropriate sized insects (adult), all they can eat in 15-20 minutes, every other day


How old/big is your dragon or other animal(s)? When they are young they need a lot of protein to grow and their diet should be 80& insects and 20% greens. When they hit a year, they are still growing but not as fast so their diet should be around 50% insects & 50% greens. Once he’s 2-3 his diet should be 20% insects and about 80% greens. If they don't get the protein they need when they are young and growing fast they will be small and underdeveloped and can lead to health issues when they are older. You should give your dragon as many crickets (or other insects) as he can eat in 15-20 minutes at each feeding. Find out your needs. Feed your animal a specific number of appropriately sized insects. If they eat them all in less than 20 minutes, give them more. If they don’t eat them all, give them less at the next feeding. After a week or so you should have a good idea of how many insects they are eating at each meal. Use this number to calculate your insect needs. Also remember that their diet will fluctuate day to day and will decrease a certain times of the year or during brumination, breeding, etc. If you are using crickets to determine your insect needs remember to divide it by 5 to get the number of roaches they will need. When you receive your colony it comes with a specific quantity of mixed size roaches depending on the size of the colony you purchased. Your specific insect needs, and the size of the colony you purchased will determine the length of time you will need for your colony to be self sufficient. A small starter colony is typically able to provide all of the insect needs for a bearded dragon in 2-3 months or less. When you receive your colony it comes with mixed roaches some of them will be small and it would take a lot more quantity of them to feed your animals. We recommend leaving the colony alone as much as
possible for at least 6 weeks to let it grows, and to continue to use another source for your insect needs. We understand it is difficult not to feed the roaches to your animals but by try to keep it to a minimum so you Building & Managing your Roach Colony don’t extend the time it takes to get your colony established. Occasional feeding from the colony will not increase the time very much. After 4-6 weeks you will need to go through your colony. Dump them all in another plastic tote. Take out all of the adults and put them back in your colony. Then from the mixed roaches that come with the colony you would remove 20-30 of the largest (non-adult) roaches and put them in the colony to become breeders and produce a lot of babies.
Determine the size of roaches your animal will eat. Feed them different sized roaches so you can see their preferred size and which size they can eat easily. Remove 75% of the largest roaches they can eat, and 75% of the roaches that are 1-2 sizes smaller. Most animals don't care a whole lot how big the roaches are, within reason, and a 1 1/2" roach is basically the same as six 1/4" (or three 1/2") roaches and this would allow your colony to produce a lot of babies so you can feed a larger quantity of smaller roaches. Put these in your feeder box. This can be any kind of plastic box, cricket keeper, etc. All it needs is egg crates, paper towel rolls, etc, a food dish and a water dish. It does not need heat if kept at room temperature. The
remaining 25% go back into your colony. Unless you are feeding a baby dragon or other small animal you would not want to remove the smallest roaches for feeders because they would eat more quantity and it would be better to let them grow bigger so they eat less. Put the smallest ones back into the colony unless you are feeding a small animal. Feed from your feeder box. You want to reach a point where you can separate about 6 weeks of feeders. That allows time for the breeders produce more babies, the largest “feeders” mature into breeders, and the smaller roaches get bigger. If they last a month to 6 weeks, then you should do the same thing again only this time take out 1/2 of the feeder sized roaches and smaller. Continue removing 1/2 of you feeders from the colony until they last 6 weeks and you can see that you are leaving a more roaches in the colony than you are taking out. At this point you will have more 1 month worth of each size. If they don't last at least a month, let the colony grow and use something else for their protein (by buying roaches or crickets). In a couple of months you will see that you have more than 1 month’s worth of each size of roach. This is what you are trying to achieve. You can then remove a month or more of their preferred feeding size and larger, knowing that when they are done, the next smaller size has grown to replace them.

At this time you want to stabilize the size of your colony. You can feed off your extra female breeders, keeping however many you need to produce the quantity of feeders and a few extras just in case. At any time you can also feed off the extra adult males, as long as your animal is large enough to eat them since they are just taking up space and eating food. Don't feed off too many female breeders, they need to be 6 months old to produce young, and always leave some of each size when you separate them so if you do need to produce breeders you will always have some that will produce young in a month. You would also need to feed off a lot of the largest non-breeder roaches so they don’t just replace the breeders you fed off. Then
feed off a lot of the smallest roaches making sure to keep more than 1 month worth, this will prevent your colony from growing out of control. If you just want to slow down their breeding but are not comfortable with feeding off your breeders, then turn off the heat. This will slow down their breeding and they won’t produce as many young, but this is harder to regulate. You could also allow the colony to grow if you are considering another dragon or other animal that eats insects.At any time you can adjust the size of your colony by selectively feeding off various sizes of roaches and by decreasing the temperature to reduce production. If you want to diminish the size of your colony feed off lots of the smaller roaches so they don’t continue to grow and then feed off the breeders and next biggest ones. To let your colony grow bigger, feed off the 1”-1 ¼” roaches. This allows the largest ones to become breeders and allows the smaller ones to grow so they don’t eat as many.

Download Dubia Roach CARE and Maintenance SHEET

How building a colony works

Our small colony is designed  for 1 bearded dragon, a couple of geckos, or anything else that eats the equivalent amount of insects, and will be able to supply all the insects you need in about 2 months if you leave it alone. If you take any roaches out of it then it will take longer depending on how many you take. The medium colony is designed for 2 dragons and the large for 3, but you can feed an infinite amount of dragons, or other animals that eat insects using the same plan but you will have to let it grow longer before feeding out of it.  

This is how it works. The small colony comes with 10 female breeders which are capable of producing 30-40 nymphs/month. This is the protein equivalent to about 1500-2000 crickets and is more than enough for 1 bearded dragon. The problem is that the new roaches are about 1/8” long. If you tried to feed your dragon the tiny roaches they would eat them all so your colony would always be running out of roaches and would never grow.  

The small colony also comes with 200 mixed size roaches. These are not food. This is what will grow your colony and provide the food for your dragon while it becomes established and self-sustaining, which takes approximately 2 months. The 200 mixed roaches break down into approximately 70 large, 70 medium, and 70 small. Each of those 70 is theoretically ½ male and ½ female. We do not sex them, but you can if you want.

After 1 month the large roaches have matured into breeders and started producing young. The medium roaches have become larges & the small roaches have become mediums. Your original 10 female breeders have also produced 300-400 new small roaches. This means you now have around 35 new female breeders. After the second month you will have approximately 35 more new female breeders. At this point you have around 80 female breeders which are 8 times more than you will ultimately need to feed 1 dragon. This is perfect.

At this time you will sort out all of the feed able size roaches from ¼” to around 1”. Then put 25% of them back into the colony to grow larger.  You are going to feed your dragon a large quantity of smaller roaches while the roaches you put back have time to grow. You are in effect feeding the roaches produced by all the extra breeders to buy time for you primary feeders to grow. This is comparable to eating sliders or a burger, they are the same thing just one is a lot smaller so you need to eat more. The high quantity does not bother you because you are always putting back more (25%) roaches than are produced by the original 10 females so your colony will grow.

Feed off all of the ones you took out. If they last you 4-6 weeks do it again but narrow the sizes that you are selecting. Take out everything from ½” -1 ½”, but don’t forget to put 25% of them back. Each time you do this you will be building your colony and feeding a smaller quantity of larger roaches. If they don’t last 4-6 weeks, feed your dragon something else for 2 weeks then try it again. After a few sorting’s you will be taking out all large roaches 1”+ but not the breeders. Once you have 4-6 weeks of large roaches you can feed off the extra female breeders, and a lot of the smaller roaches to set the size of your colony. At this point you can also stop putting back 25% of the roaches. You should be able to take 99% of the larges roaches only leaving a couple for replacement breeders. When they last you 4-6 weeks the smaller roaches have grown to replace them and the breeders have produced more small ones.   Your colony is now self-sustaining. At any time you can increase the size of your colony by allowing more of the large roaches to mature into breeders, and you can reduce the size of your colony by feeding off extra female breeders. Reduce the quantity of females slowly because it takes a lot longer to replace them if you feed off too many

It seems as if each U.S. state has an abundance of wildlife laws, and we do our best to adhere to each and every one. Currently we cannot ship to Florida, Hawaii, or Canada and we do not ship internationally. We will never knowingly ship reptiles or insects in violation of any federal, state, or local law. Please do your research before placing an order to make sure you are allowed to possess what you are trying to purchase. Thanks, South Texas Dragons

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Click the buttons to download our dubia roach care and information sheets

Dubia Detailed Care Sheet

Dubia Brief Care Sheet

Prefabricated Insect Enclosures

Prefabricated Insect Enclosures are available for pick-up only due to the high cost of shipping. They may also be purchased at any of the reptile expos we attend. All of the necessary supplies, except for the actual bin which is available anywhere, to construct your own enclosure are available on our “supplies for sale” page. For more information and plans to build your own enclosure please visit our “insect enclosure” page.

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