Are you considering buying a dubia roach starter colony this year? There are many reasons to keep your own breeding colony of dubia roaches. In this blog, we highlight our top 5 reasons for getting your own dubia roach starter colony up and running.
#1: Roach Shortages
In the past few years, dubia roach shortages and supply chain disruptions have made sourcing dubia roaches difficult for many. Setting up your very own dubia roach starter colony will ensure that you can always provide dubia roaches to your reptiles, even if you can’t find them for sale online.
#2: Expense
Buying feeder insects can get expensive, quick! We do our best to keep our prices fair because we believe everybody should have access to healthy food for their reptiles. However, keeping your own dubia roaches can be a great option if you’re looking to cut down your reptile food bill.
A dubia roach breeder colony is definitely more work compared to ordering your dubia roaches online, so it’s not for everyone. But don’t let that discourage you if you have a bit of time to spare! Keeping dubia roaches is simple and could save you hundreds each year.
#3: Food Security for Your Reptiles
With everything that’s going on in the world right now, many people are beginning to think seriously about food security. But food security isn’t just for people—don’t forget your pets need to eat too!
Don’t wait for an emergency situation to start a dubia colony, though. Remember that it can take several months for dubias to grow from initial breeding to feeding off. Getting your dubia roach starter colony going now will ensure that your reptiles will be well prepared to thrive through any personal, regional, or global crisis.

#4: Dubia Roaches are Easy to Keep
Many people are hesitant to keep bugs in their own home. You may be worried about smell, time and energy commitment, or dubias escaping your colony. Well, good news! Dubias are one of the easiest bugs to keep. They have minimal odor, can’t fly or climb smooth surfaces, and only take minutes each day to keep happy and healthy.
#5: Take Charge of Your Reptile’s Nutrition
Diet is super important for the health and wellbeing of your reptiles. It’s not just about what they eat, it also matters what their food eats. We never feed our dubias anything that wouldn’t also be safe for bearded dragons, but we’ve seen enough pictures and videos of dubia roaches fed orange slices to know not everyone shares our philosophy.
We always recommend gut loading your dubia roaches no matter where you get them, but raising your own allows you to control even more of your reptile’s nutritional needs.
Dubia Roach Starter Colony Resources
Saying “get a dubia roach starter colony” is all well and good, but what’s the best way to do so? It’s easy!
- First, make a breeder bin for your dubias. You can find easy, step-by-step instructions including what size bin you’ll need and what to put in it here.
- Next, order your breeders! We sell dubia roach starter colonies here. Just 15 females and 5 males (and a few extra just in case) should be plenty to start a small breeding colony for one or two reptiles.
Once your breeder bin is all set up and you’ve got your roaches, your dubia roach starter colony will be on its way to producing lots of tasty, nutritious meals for your reptiles any time you need them!
I am contemplating starting a roach colony. Once the breeders are in their “colony bin”, and they’ve had their babies, at what point do you move the “newest” ones out and do you leave the females and males in the same bin? I have one large bin as of right now that all my roaches are housed in. I always like to gather info BEFORE jumping into something and ensure I’m properly prepared ahead of time. Thanks.
Hi Constance! Good for you to do your due diligence ahead of time!
We suggest moving the babies out before they reach 1/2″. We’ve noticed that when they reach 1/2″ long, they hit a growth spurt and must get super hungry, because they often will start eating the smaller roaches at that point. Removing the older babies will help ensure that any new ones that are born will not get eaten.
As for the males and females, you can certainly just leave them together. Males are shorter lived than females, so you may want to let a few of the older nymphs grow up to replace the males every few months.
Hope this helps!