feeders

[Gedy]

I started breeding feeders for my Tegu about half a year before I got him.
Now, almost a year later I have several colonys. I have two large colonys of dubia's, a small colony of sow bugs and a lot of rose beetles ( im not sure about the grammar, but the beautifull black and yellow ones). Most of them are doing great, espacially the rose beetles.
I have them in a large tank with cocosoil and feed them fresh fruits and some times catfood. Im not always around to feed them, so i put in some sow-bugs to prevent the tank from getting stuffed with mold. I haven't fed from them a lot, because I made the tank a little to pretty and my boyfried put it in the living room to watch it.
The Dubia's should supply plenty, but one of my roaches collony has been not so productive lately and I can't figure out why.
For the lest two months the hardly produced any baby's.
I didn't changed the heat or dieet.
Are there some people that breed Dubia's and have some tips how I can make them breed fast again ?

 

[reptastic]

Give them some citrus fruit, its like viagra for them

 

[JohnMatthew]

What Reptastic said, whenever I need a population explosion I just keep a steady supply of oranges/tangerines in with my discoids.

 

[Gedy]

ah ok thanks i will try that. I was also wondering if there are any species that can be put together with the roaches or if they will eat the other feeders. I like making big enclosures with diffrent feeders living together.

 

[JohnMatthew]

If you want to maximize your feeder production I'd stay away from keeping multiple species together. The community tank sounds like a fun project in itself though. Have you considered gastropods? Much depends on your setup when trying to find a good fit.. Do you have living plants in the enclosure? If so, they'd probably strip them down pretty fast unless a more appealing food source were provided 24/7. You might also consider dermestid beetles, they eat dead flesh and will help your isopods in keeping things nice and clean.

 

[Gedy]

Gastrods would be fun ! I have real plants in this enclosure, but I don't mind at all building them a new one. I fed Spunky gastropods from my garden once, but I read they could carry all kind of parasites.He realy liked them .
Do you know witch gastropods make good feeders ?