Dubia colony

I want to start a dubia colony soon. I have a flukers small uth sitting around and I was going to heat it with that. Can anyone tell me if it is ok to use it on a plastic tub? If not, does anybody have a suggestion on what to heat it with?

for my breeder colonies I use the large Rubbermaid tubs with a 2' section of 11" flexwatt on the outside bottom, and Styrofoam under that sealed up with aluminum duct tape, hook to thermostat. Feeder bins usually do fine at room temps.

I should start a dubia colony lol
So y'all explain everything there is to do it if you want.
I wont stop you

I hang one of those light cones with a heating element in it. I do line the plastic tub with some padding and foil to keep the plastic from getting hot. It really doesn't matter what you heat with as long as you keep the temps around 90 degrees. They will breed like crazy if kept warm and dark.

I've been using a small flukers-style for a while and it was fine directly on a Rubbermaid tub. The only problem was the ambient temps were too broad of a range for that big of a tub, but did work. I'm using a human heat pad now and it bumped it up a bit and offers a larger hot spot (half the tub). So far, they seem to be breeding a little better.

Southern_Comfort_Reptiles wrote:

I should start a dubia colony lol
So y'all explain everything there is to do it if you want.
I wont stop you

I use 11'' Flexwatt on a Rubbermaid tub but as mentioned above, make sure to use thermostat with this method. Human heat pads and lights will do the trick too.

Remember that whatever you feed the dubias is what you feed your dragons and skinks so go for high quality feed. We use premium chick feed and organic carrots, sweet potatoes, and oranges for hydration. Water gel is fine for hydration but is nutrition void.

Maybe I need to bump the heat on mine, I always see little dubs in there but they seem to grow so slow... Im still working on re building up the colony after having them get fed off a bit too much, they just don't seem to be growing as much as before... Any ideas guys

I have mine in a rubbermaid tub with a locking lid. I cut a hole in the top and glued nylon screen to cover it for aeration. I have a heat mat underneath and a heat coil strung throughout. A layer a vaseline keeps any that might be curious enough to venture out from getting too high in the bin. I stack empty cardboard egg cartons standing up for them to climb in. They're easy to pull out when I want access to the bugs.

For food, I grind up Nutro dog food and oat meal to a powder. They also get all the veggie scraps we have from dinner, oranges cut in half or quartered, and pieces of banana. They love any kinds of greens and 'wet' foods, like tomatoes, avacados, and peaches. I use the water gel as well, but I also have a plastic container I put a sponge in that I filled to the top with water for extra humidity. When they are getting ready to molt, they tend to hang out on the sponge too, so I guess it helps with that process.

Keep them warm, dark, and fed, and they will start breeding like crazy. Good luck.

TheRealYoda34 wrote:

Maybe I need to bump the heat on mine, I always see little dubs in there but they seem to grow so slow... Im still working on re building up the colony after having them get fed off a bit too much, they just don't seem to be growing as much as before... Any ideas guys

What's your set up and feeding like? If you fed off everything but adults, two thoughts:

1) Dubias breed best in a full colony environment, adults only will breed a little slower until the colony gets built back up

2) If you just started rebuilding, they could be breeding like crazy and all the nymphs are still small enough to be hidden in the frass. It takes a little time for them to become easily visible.

Thanks for all the help!

Mine are in a rubbermaid tub in my reptile room (basically my bedroom) that I keep at about 80F and they are doing really well with no extra heat or anything. I feed them everything, fruits, veggies, oats, cat food, bread, and they love oranges!