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Atlas / Library / Blaberidae / Dubia roach (feeder staple)
BeginnerNocturnal · sleeping now
Blaberidae

Dubia roach (feeder staple)

Blaptica dubia

Narrower than the page we cite. The source we cite, read on 10 Aug 2026, gives a wider range than the one above. The narrowing is ours and nobody here has written down why. roachforum.com

Photograph: Lucas Rubio · CC BY

Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. Dubia roach (feeder staple) is nocturnal, so what it is doing changes with the light.

National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Check your setup against this sheet I keep one 123 plants usable with this species
Back to the globe My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/blaptica-dubia

‹ All husbandry guides
Temperature28–32 °C
Humidity40–60 %
Diet2–4 days

The numbers

Temperature

152025303540 °C
28–32°Ambient

One ambient band, 28–32°C. This sheet states no warm side, no cool side and no night figure, so none are shown. Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet states28-32C (warm to breed fast)

Humidity

40–60%Target RH

The sheet states40-60%

Enclosure
10-30L smooth-sided bin - CANNOT climb smooth walls or fly well (excellent containment); good ventilation

Identity

Adult size

1.75 m3.5–4.5 cm
1520100400 cm
3.5–4.5 cmNose to tail, adult

The size the sheet states for a grown animal.

Why

Two drawings, because they answer two questions. The silhouette is at true scale against a 1.75 m person: it says how big this animal actually is, which no number does for someone who has never seen one. The bar under it is logarithmic and shared by every sheet here, so a 2 cm isopod and a 4 m python both stay readable on the same axis and two species can be compared at a glance.

Order / Family
Blattodea
Origin
IUCN / CITES
Not evaluated; CITES not yet in our data
Difficulty
Beginner
Commonality
The most popular feeder roach; also kept as easy pet
Adult size
Body 35-45mm; males winged, females broader/wingless
Lifespan
1-2 yrs
Growth rate
Moderate (feeder colony scales well)
Activity & niche
Nocturnal detritivore; hides in egg-crates
Temperament
Docile, slow; harmless
Venom / defense
Harmless - no bite/venom

Enclosure and conditions

Temperature
28-32C (warm to breed fast)
Humidity
40-60%
Min. enclosure
10-30L smooth-sided bin - CANNOT climb smooth walls or fly well (excellent containment); good ventilation
Substrate
Bare or thin frass; stacked egg-crates for surface area
Hides / decor / water
Egg flats; water crystals/gel or moist veg

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 2.3–3.5 dAs the sheet states
12Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesVeg/fruit + grain-based dry feed (chick crumb, oats) for protein · 2-3x/week; keep dry feed available

Staple food
Veg/fruit + grain-based dry feed (chick crumb, oats) for protein
Feeding frequency
2-3x/week; keep dry feed available
Supplements
Gut-load (greens/carrot) before feeding to reptiles

Behaviour and handling

HandlingHandleable; mostly kept as feeders
CommunalColonial - keep in numbers; no cannibalism if fed
Defense / stress signsScattering to hides, playing dead

Reproduction

Life course

Day 0Hatch
1–2 yrLifespan in care
1 yrMinimum commitment
Sexual maturityNot in our data

Read from the lifespan and maturity the sheet states, for animals in care and not in the wild.

Why

The minimum commitment is the low end of that lifespan, and the reproductive window is what is left after maturity: both are subtractions on stated figures, not figures of their own.

Reproduction
Ovoviviparous (live-bearing); ~20-35 nymphs per brood; prolific at warmth

Common health problems

Common health issues
SignsMites/mould if damp; slow breeding if cool
Red flags / quarantine
SignsBest-contained roach (no climb/flight) but still quarantine for mites; never release

Good to know

  • Its inability to climb glass or fly makes it the go-to escape-proof feeder colony

What it needs

A thermometerbecause temp — 28-32C (warm to breed fast)
A hygrometerbecause humidity — 40-60%
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « 10-30L smooth-sided bin - CANNOT climb smooth walls or fly well (excellent conta »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Sources

dubiaroachdepot.comroachforum.com

Others in this group

Madagascar hissing cockroachGromphadorhina portentosaRed runner / Turkestan roach (feeder)Shelfordella lateralisDeath's head cockroachBlaberus craniiferGiant cave cockroachBlaberus giganteusGreen banana roachPanchlora niveaDomino roach (seven-spot)Therea petiverianaHalloween hisserElliptorhina javanicaOrange-head roach (feeder)Eublaberus posticus

What this sheet states

100%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

Every field this product runs on is stated here. That is not a claim that the values are right: it says what the sheet states, not whether it is true. Whether a human has read it is the badge at the top of this page.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.