Ghost Mouse
First Instar
Hi everyone! Been a hot minute but I trust your opinions a lot more than the roach facebook groups.
I made a new bin for my dubia colony. They are both feeders and pets btw.
The first one I did was too ventilated, it dried out so fast I feel like they were not thriving. I also heard they like it darker so I got a bin that was a solid opaque color instead of clear, put less venting on it, and made the substrate deeper. I use a blend of soil mix, eco earth, finely ground dried sphagnum moss, and a bit of aspen chips. This bin is kept on a shelf directly near the small space heater I use to keep the critter room warm so I do not use additional heating. I put some springtails in there too, figuring if nothing else it couldn't hurt. They seem active and happy to me (though I noticed an ooth that a female ejected, oh no!) but I got told by someone online (not that kindly) that my setup was crap and I "had to" have egg crates.
Is substrate that bad? I mean, I imagine that there are no egg crates in whatever wild habitat they're from. They've got a bit of cardboard pieces in there to climb around on, should I be providing more climbing things? They seem to be happy with digging and pull all their carrot pieces and such underground. Apparently I'm introducing water to frass and they're all going to diiiiie... idk seems sorta suspicious to me, they've been here about a year and haven't all diiiiied yet even when they didn't have enough moisture... what say you?
I made a new bin for my dubia colony. They are both feeders and pets btw.
The first one I did was too ventilated, it dried out so fast I feel like they were not thriving. I also heard they like it darker so I got a bin that was a solid opaque color instead of clear, put less venting on it, and made the substrate deeper. I use a blend of soil mix, eco earth, finely ground dried sphagnum moss, and a bit of aspen chips. This bin is kept on a shelf directly near the small space heater I use to keep the critter room warm so I do not use additional heating. I put some springtails in there too, figuring if nothing else it couldn't hurt. They seem active and happy to me (though I noticed an ooth that a female ejected, oh no!) but I got told by someone online (not that kindly) that my setup was crap and I "had to" have egg crates.
Is substrate that bad? I mean, I imagine that there are no egg crates in whatever wild habitat they're from. They've got a bit of cardboard pieces in there to climb around on, should I be providing more climbing things? They seem to be happy with digging and pull all their carrot pieces and such underground. Apparently I'm introducing water to frass and they're all going to diiiiie... idk seems sorta suspicious to me, they've been here about a year and haven't all diiiiied yet even when they didn't have enough moisture... what say you?