Cage Maintainence questions

[Ihaggerty1313]

Alright I've heard about 10 different things about maintaining my Dubia colony and I'm rather confused. Although I'm guessing that there's not only one right way..

Here we go.

How often should I clean my tubs? (I've heard anywhere from every couple weeks to 3 times a year.)

How often should I change my Egg Crates?

I'm using 35 gallon tubs to hold my adults and 22 gallon Tubs for my nymphs.

Is there a way to figure out how many adults I should be keeping in 35 gallon tubs w/o overcrowding?

As for my nymphs I started w/ 500 in each of my 22 gallon tubs w/ no problems so far.

Thanks for any light you guys can shed on this subject for me.

-Ian

 

[Matt K]

Alright I've heard about 10 different things about maintaining my Dubia colony and I'm rather confused. Although I'm guessing that there's not only one right way..Here we go.

How often should I clean my tubs? (I've heard anywhere from every couple weeks to 3 times a year.)

How often should I change my Egg Crates?

I'm using 35 gallon tubs to hold my adults and 22 gallon Tubs for my nymphs.

Is there a way to figure out how many adults I should be keeping in 35 gallon tubs w/o overcrowding?

As for my nymphs I started w/ 500 in each of my 22 gallon tubs w/ no problems so far.

Thanks for any light you guys can shed on this subject for me.

-Ian

You are right- more than one way to keep roaches depending on what may work best for you.

Here I go with what works for me:

I clean my tubs anywhere from every 6 months to every couple of years, depending on the species. If it is something that eats alot more volume (like lateralis or lobsters) I clean more often. If it is something like B. craniifer or L. subcincta then alot less often.

I only add egg crates periodically and never change them...the roaches nibble them away or flat out eat them after a while.

I use the same size tub for anything. Roaches are difficult to overcrowd. However if you begin to notice frequent malformed individuals from a bad molt, chewed up wings on adults, or the adult size seems to be a little bit smaller, these can all be caused by overcrowding (which varies from species to species).

Hope this helps.

 

[Ihaggerty1313]

Actually that helps a lot Matt. I was under the impression that the frass is good for Dubia because they like to burrow and the nymphs sometimes eat it. As for the cleaning issue I was going to sort of wing it and do exactly like you said. See how much waste they make and how fast it adds up. Figured I'd learn on the fly. And I never understood why you'd change the egg crates? I didn't know that they'd actually eat them. But than again, why wouldn't they? They recycle their surroundings in the wild... Why not in the tub?

Thanks again,

-Ian

 

[Zephyr]

I clean my roaches every week. At least, my larger colonies *dubia, discoid, lobs, hissers, orangeheads.*

But then again, they make a lot more frass per week since I keep them at higher temperatures. *Increased metabolism, etc.*