Ghost Mouse

The room is between 70 and 80, I have to keep it warm for my dart frogs. It can sometimes be a bit warmer in the summer. The colony has maybe 40 or 50 individuals? Not too sure.

So, I have a small bin of dubia roaches. I would like them to breed but they don't seem to be doing so. I don't see many babies in there. I have twice now seen ejected oothecas and do not know why. Let me describe how I keep them, and hopefully you will have some advice... The bin is medium sized. It has gray sides and a lock on lid. I put a little mesh panel in the lid and it takes up a little less than half the lid. They seem to like digging so I have given them relatively deep substrate, a mix of the substrate I use in my terrariums plus a wee bit of aspen shavings mixed in. They also have an egg carton divided in two halves, one that I tip up to crawl on vertically and the other that I turned over so they could be under it. There's also a flat piece of cardboard that I keep upright which they really like to climb behind. They have mouse block always available and every other day or so I put veg in there- usually carrots, lettuce, cabbage, and/or celery. I mist the bin regularly and the soil is moist but not wet. Their habitat is right by the space heater I use in the room.

Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. I was keeping them more based on what my invert groups were doing than the reptile ones, so I guess that's the difference. Like yes, I dig around looking for little ones to feed off here and there, but I have one small bin of dubias and a single, four month old crested gecko, and a couple of tiny tarantula slings. So they're basically pets and every once in a while I kidnap a little one or two lol. The adults are far too large for anything I have to tackle, so I feel like it's a pretty decent trade off... I give them the nicest life I can muster and in return a few disappear sometimes- but still less than would in the wild so I mean, still a pretty decent deal I'd say. XD I genuinely like my feeders, the dubias and the little beetles and such. Fascinating little cuties! I just also have other little friends who need to eat.

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?

And here is the very cool tape I found to make the bin with!

This baby was exploring around and is a rather prettily marked little friend.

A friend sent me a small starter colony of dubias! They're really fun to watch, I think I'll let them breed for a while before I start feeding them off... had fun making them a bin with some very psychedelic duct tape to hold the two layers of mesh in place on the lid. They are very shy and did not want to be picked up so I had to kind of shake/shoo them all into their new home but now they seem very happy in there, exploring around, digging, and they seemed to enjoy their welcome gift of grapes.

As personal pets I want some P magnifica but obviously, I won't be feeding those to anything, so I still need to think about what I can keep that would be a sustainable food source for a young crested gecko, a jumping spider, and three tarantulas (who are all currently tiny slings). My little sanctuary here is a room in my parents' house. So it has to be something I can keep in a decently small space, has to be not too terribly smelly if I can help it, and most important, has to be something I can control the population of... I can't let them establish a loose/wild population in the house, it would be an absolute disaster. Are dubias the solution? Are they easy for a beginner? I'm open to suggestions, I am sure y'all with your combined experience would have good tips. I just want something more nutritious and a little bit larger than the buffalo beetle larvae I'm currently using (think small mealworms), but NO WAY for crickets, they're noisy and stinky and I refuse.

Too fun! I'm new here, hallo! It's so nice that the hobby is a family activity for you.

Hi everybody! Thank you for letting me in the forum. I've loved and kept creatures my whole life long and am currently working on a book about DIY enclosures and habitats. I've always loved "buggos" (a term I use deliberately to separate it from the true bugs taxonomical grouping, because I mean the more colloquial, "any small invertebrate" use of the word-- plus I mean, it's kind of cute right?) but until recently have never thought to keep them beyond a few hours to a few days of observation before setting them free again. It was a perfect storm. AntsCanada on YouTube, mantises at a reptile expo... and then one day, I found a newly mated queen ant, and long story short I have a hibernating ant queen in an elaborate formicarium I made, a P audax jumping spider in an even more elaborate jar terrarium, and three tarantula slings. I actually started looking into cockroaches because of food for my tarantulas and also my not-yet-hatched crested gecko that a friend is gifting me. I was leery at first because I didn't want any potential escapees to cause a problem in the house and was hoping they don't reek like crickets do. I have my buffalo beetle colony and they are well contained, quiet, and not stinky. But I don't feel they're enough nutrition without anything else on offer so I began to look at dubias... And then I saw them. You guys. Guys there are cockroaches that are brightly colored and iridescent jewel beetle lookin friends. GUYS THIS IS NOT A DRILL JEWEL. ROACHES. I must one day own some P magnifica. They are SO COOL. I mean I was looking for golden tortoise beetles but nevermind those, JEWEL. COCKROACHES. I'm in love. So anyway now I just kind of want to learn more about roach keeping in general and am happy to be here! Enjoy a photo of my fave terrarium as a payment for reading all that nonsense lol. No critters yet but is about to be home to a pair of dart frogs. Ignore the carrot and cabbage bits, those are for the isopods. I hekkin' love isopods.