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Advice needed on dubia roach bin!

Lexolotl

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Hello all!

I have recently set up a dubia roach bin to start a colony. I have everything set up for proper care, except the heating. I am seeing many different opinions on how people heat their bins, so I figured I would post here and see what the lovely people of Caudata use.

I have an extra reptile heating pad, but it's been mounted previously on another tank. I've heard that it's not suggested to reuse them as the inner heating components may fail and melt my bin.

I have also read about flexwatt strips, and have found many places online to order from, but I'm unsure what the most reputable option would be so I would appreciate any opinions on where to buy this from online.

Thanks in advance!
 

juraj

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I heat my cricket colony with a light bulb and I would heat roaches same way.
cheers
j.
 

manderkeeper

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Reptile basics will precord your flexwatt for free but you need to regulate the heat with either a thermostat or a lamp dimmer. Some lamp dimmers won't work with the tiny amount of power that flexwatt draws, so read reviews and make sure it works with it (if it works with heat matts then it will be fine).
 

codyj

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I've reused heat mats plenty of times with no issues, but never with plastic so not sure how it'll work. I figure if it doesn't melt it, it should work.
 

Niels D

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I've put my bin in a container I made out of styrofoam plates. The heating mat sits under the bin inside of the styrofoam container.

Another nice tip I got from someone: If you have a little plastic container with a lid, you can make a little hole inside of the lid, just big enough for a shoe lace to get through it. Put the shoe lace inside the container en let a little end of it stick out of the lid. Then fill the container with water. The bit of the lace that's sticking out wil remain wet and will serve as a water source for your roaches without drowning them. Make sure they can reach it of course.
 

BabySinclair

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It's not roaches. But I had an issue some years back where the front glass broke on my 8" red tail boas, tank. I had to transfer her to one of those large almost transparent plastic containers with a lid. For obvious reasons, I couldn't use a heat lamp. So I used a towel, a wood cutting board and a 12x17 reptile heating Pad. The towel insulated the pad a little, and the wood cutting board protected the plastic.
The tempature for the reptile pad was variable. You can gets rheostats from eBay for fairly cheap. Like mentioned above, just make sure it can handle the voltage and amperage that the heating pad wants. :happy:
 

Lexolotl

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Hello all! Thanks for your replies!
I ended up purchasing some Flexwatt online with a dimmer. Still on the hunt for some decently priced cardboard egg flats.

I use water storing crystals to provide my roaches with a water source, along with the occasional fresh fruits and vegetables.

I feed my roaches to a single leopard gecko, and although I know my colony will eventually be more food than I need I was incredibly tired of having to buy dubia roaches locally for an absurd amount of money. My axolotls eat whole nightcrawlers and salmon pellets.

Although I do have a, naturally, morphed axolotl that I thought might be able to handle eating small dubia roaches but ultimately I have decided to keep him on worms as well.
 
E

Elise

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I have never kept any dubia roaches but from what I've seen, flex-watt seems to work well, especially with plastic bins. Dimmers and Thermostats are common accessories too, to help regulate temperature.
 

Frizbee

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For egg flats try your local Petco/Petsmart. When they get their cricket deliveries they come with commercial size egg flats which they end up throwing out. Just ask for a couple, I'm sure they would oblige.
 
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