Dubia Roach Colony Problem

[Cloudk]

Well, contrary to most other people's problem of too many males. I have mostly females and no new males! As of today, there's probably 3 or 4 adult males and 40ish adult females. Been feeding the animals females only for 2 months or so. Lots of baby roaches are running around, so those few males must be working overtime. But, as they grow up, everyone turns out to be females! Any suggestions on how to get more males? A little info: their diet is a staple of a dog food they like, water bites, and fruit and veggies put in a few days a week. Do the females need certain vitamins to produce males, or am I just unlucky? They're kept at a steady 75 Thanks.

 

[andyjs]

I just started up a colony myself. Places I've been reading up on them say to keep them a little warmer than that. I don't know if temperature has much of an effect on sex, but I guess it's a possibility

 

[Vicious_Fish]

My colony fluctuates but I usually have a ratio of 1:3 male/females roaches. I agree on bumping the temps up. They will breed much faster if you keep the warm area of the tank close to 90 F. I haven't heard that diet effects the sex of the offspring put hey, who knows. Mine are fed a diet of tropical fish flakes, crushed dog food, veggies, cereal and mango, peach or banana baby food (which they absolutely love).

 

[Cloudk]

My colony loves mangos too! Swarm all over it. They also love watermelon, but never liked the fish flakes I tried, and the only dog food they'll eat is some really cheap stuff. Tried blue buffalo, wouldn't touch the stuff. My guess is cause in cheap dog food, corn and other grains are the main ingredient, mine also like cereal, but not breads. Tried some other grain free dog food, and again, wouldn't touch the stuff. I freakin buy spicific dog food just for my roaches! They pretty much get any left over fruits and veggies(washed first). Spoiled little beasts idk if I WANT them breeding faster, but I'll try raising the temp and see if that affects gender.

 

[paul112]

I can't say I've heard of diet or temps affecting sex, but you might want to use another food source until your colony gets bigger. Feeding females off is sort of shooting yourself in the foot, maybe buy in some crickets/locusts for the next couple of months until you have a good supply?

Best,
Paul

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I found that most dry dog food is too hard for them to chew up with their weak jaws. You have to crush it into smaller pieces with a hammer or something.

 

[Wretched5705]

I think you might just be getting some bad odds, just keep trying or just buy some extra males.

 

[Cloudk]

Yea I heard that too. But I tried both and never made a differance in the speed it was gone. All I noticed is they didn't eat the small crumbs(idk y). The food I get is airy, and they eat it pretty fast. 1 handfull lasts 3 or so days. But I also feed them veggies and fruit. Oh, I forgot to say in my first post, I've had my colony since oct of last yr. Idk if that's considered established or not. But, there sure is a lot of them!

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I've found that they get bored with certain foods if you constantly feed them the same thing over and over. Try mixing things up and feed different types of food each time. They're much more likely to come out and eat whatever you drop in. The funny thing is I have 2 colonies and the one loves fish flakes and the other not so much. It just goes to show you that they have favorites.

 

[Cloudk]

I've found that they get bored with certain foods if you constantly feed them the same thing over and over. Try mixing things up and feed different types of food each time. They're much more likely to come out and eat whatever you drop in. The funny thing is I have 2 colonies and the one loves fish flakes and the other not so much. It just goes to show you that they have favorites.

I heard that every colony is different. Wonder y? They dash in whenever I put fruit in. They like veggies, but they just pick at them. Its fun to put in different stuff and see if they like it. Mine so far have yet to refuse any kind of fruit. They like fruit loops but not corn flakes, they won't touch white bread, but love potato bread. They basically get whatever we humans don't eat. Unless its moldy of course. They like dried bearded dragon diet too.