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dwarf dubia?


eddy

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hi i seem to be pulling out these dwarf female and males and its starting to concern me

these guys are about half the size of there fully sized counterpart adults

do the adults grow once they sexually mature? or once they molt into a adult there done growing ? i pulled females out that were probly 1.25 inchs and atleast half the size of a regular large female

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Nope, environment and temperature affect growth. Too high temps make them grow very quick but they are smaller as a result than roaches growing slower. Inbreeding also can affect size and make defects more present. Overcrowding also leads to smaller individuals.

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Wow Keith, I didn't know that using higher temps to mature them faster would make them smaller! I guess that makes perfect sense, although I breed my dubias for me so I'm not too worried about it, but for my other species I will definitely not try to speed growth, I want them as big and awesome as possible!

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If you think, in the wild dubia live in rotted wood and once in a while will find fruit or protein. They hide all day and aren't stressed, temperature is not constant, it's warm but not boiling hot like containers we have heated all the time. They also aren't crowded and mature slower. They search for food at night and males fly, in containers they never have a chance to forage and climb and are piling on eachother with a mass of fecal matter.

Having a large enclosure with lots of room, hiding places, varied diet, clean, and in a warm room not below 65 F but not above 95F is ideal. Offering rotting wood that is baked to kill parasites and then misted with water will allow them to eat wood like in the wild and will match wild diet better.

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What do you think about the effects of dwarfing can it be reversed i.e buy dubia from supplier around 1 inch than feed them well and give them space and thell be good size females or the damage is done by the time i get them

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you would think some people might take advantage of the fact that they could pack the dubia in further if they still reproduce at the same rate

i can say ive noticed the dwarfs are not as healthy when it comes to breeding atleast it seems that way

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you would think some people might take advantage of the fact that they could pack the dubia in further if they still reproduce at the same rate

i can say ive noticed the dwarfs are not as healthy when it comes to breeding atleast it seems that way

You might think packing them is good but if they get sick and weak and you have a mass colony die off it wasn't very helpful than.

As far as dwarf dubia, I had one kept in poor conditions, and then put it in my cage with excellent conditions, it produced more and healthier offspring than normal dubia in a stressed colony.

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I definitely have a "normal" colony where I pulled all my original dubia to and a second colony that is consistently producing extremely small full grown adults. Like yours, they're at least half the size of my normals. Temp, diet, substrate, and numbers are nearly identical for both colonies. It'll take a few generations to be sure, but I do have to wonder if it's something genetic. I don't have any small dubia at all with my originals, only in this new batch and I'm getting a lot of them.

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