dubia flopping

C

chris

Third Instar
anyone have any ideas for dubia flopping over and getting there heads eaten?

im seeing dubia turned over and than getting attacked at one point and having there heads taken off no body being eaten (i have seen shells though)

so i up'd protein intake to three times a week and more citrus but i was thinking and came to the thought citrus might be putting the metabolism so high they are cannibalizing? am i getting somewhere with this thought? i normally split with collards and carrots but my large bag carrots went bad in 2 days and collards are out right now so thats all there liquids at the moment

the bins are spot on temp humidity not overstocked at all understocked if anything i split the one colony down into three put some with my adults to get them moving around more and made another new colony most of the issues are still in that "first" colony

nothing has changed other than diet with those things i mentioned

 
sounds like they r eating shed skins

i just constantly have protein food in there

fish flakes work real well, better than dog food

i have tons of newborns :wub:

 
yeah im not to worried about the breeding as much as the cannibalism i see about 4 sets of nymphs in there im thinking of keeping oatmeal,cheerios in there as a starch with dog food for the extra days

 
yeah ive got 14 out today over 3 bins i removed 50 male adult today came back 6 hours later to find 6 more within 3 bins on there backs including a adult female which really got me ticked off -.-

im not finding any logical reason for why this is happening i dont think diet would do this ...

 
I keep Dubias as well and I have never seen an evidence of this cannibalism which you described. Are you sure that it is a live roach that is being partially consumed. Roaches, of course, commonly eat dead insects and meat. I would be surprised if you find this to be a real case of cannibalism with the nutrition you are providing. It is possible that during a molt, there was an incident, but it would be rather rare and not a regular thing.

 
yeah im seeing them mount the flipped dubia and not during a molt

ive noticed a strong odor today found about 20 black dubia with a horrid smell i aired out two of the bins and probly will try to see if that helps the issue or find the underlying problem i did recently add new roachs last week

 
you could have added something from the new dubia but i have no clue my suggesting is the separate as many of the healthy dubia nymphs into a couple separate container and hope it's didn't spread to every roachs.

 
it has seemed to slow down whatever this is im assuming maybe just a bad batch maybe i mean i got in 2000 and had probly 50 to 60 die only 4 today and the odor has went away bigtime ill keep updating this but im curious to know why the dubia were turning black after they died ...

 
chris said:
it has seemed to slow down whatever this is im assuming maybe just a bad batch maybe i mean i got in 2000 and had probly 50 to 60 die only 4 today and the odor has went away bigtime ill keep updating this but im curious to know why the dubia were turning black after they died ...
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Weird. I have a similar problem with a few of my nymphs. But NEVER an adult found. And never a baby that I can see.

They die upside down on their backs in the middle of my bin where nothing is around. Not sure if they flipped over and got stuck and my heat lamp killed them or what.

But, my heatlamp stays on a thermostat at around 92 degrees. And in my bin it doesn't have to be on that long, long enough I'd think for it to kill an upside down dubia. And just their butts eaten.

Oh and they're only eaten if I don't have fruits/vegs in there. I guess they get bored with the protein cat/fish food mix.

So, again, my scenario for my cannibalism is:

Dead nymph on back (it can sit there for a few days untouched)

No fruit/vegs out

And they usually eat their butts first.

In the middle in plain sight.

 
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