Dubia Roaches - Baby question?

[Wabbit]

Hiya,
I recently started buying a few adult roaches here and there with a view to starting a colony. At the moment I have 22 adults and have been waiting to see them breed.
A few days ago I found an expelled egg case (reddish brown shell like thing) which was "open" one end, but as I saw no babies I assumed it was simply a dud due to stress or something and threw it away.
Tonight however I have found just ONE baby in with them? (Sooooo cute )
I'm just wondering if it's likely to have come out at the same time as the egg case or if this has been born on it's own more recently?
I check the tub every day to see if there are any babies and haven't noticed this little one but he is hard to find even now I know he's in there so.... I'm puzzled! I've checked every nook and cranny and it's definitely just the one baby, bit weird when they usually have loads at a time
Anyone else ever just have one baby by itself??

[Carol]

Hi

Where do you keep them and in what also is there any heat? how many males to females?

The best way to keep them are in the dark with heat and I would not keep looking at them (this might be why they are not breeding) also you should have say 5 females to one male, I just feed them and then let them get on with it.

If I can be of any help just PM.

[Wabbit]

Hi Carol,

Thanks for the reply. At the moment they are being kept in a medium sized faunarium with temperatures of about 85-90 in the warm end. I put fresh food in daily and at that point check to see if there's any babies yet but other than that I leave them alone. I only bought my first 6 adults a month ago so I'm not bothered that there's no breeding yet as I assume the latest ones are still settling in (bought about a week ago).
At the moment I have 14 females and 8 males. I know the ratios are off but the shop I've been getting them from usually doesn't have enough females in to give me all females. As I can't find anywhere just selling adult females I'll have to just try and even numbers out over a longer period of time. I'm not in any hurry to establish the colony and planned on buying them a few at a time rather than one large outlay of money all in one go.
I have 250 smalls on order and when these arrive they will all be moved into an 80L black dustbin (with added ventilation and a heat lamp with a night bulb so as not to disturb them) I already have the bin set up and maintaining good temperatures.
As I say, it wasn't the lack of breeding that's confused me, it's the fact that one of the females just had the ONE baby instead of the 20+ you're told to expect per "birth".
If you can think of any potential problems from my setup/future planned setup please feel free to say

Thanks again for the reply

[Carol]

Are they in the dark? I find that they love the dark and they also love fish food.

If you are buying a few at a time don't put them in with your colony right away because if they have something wrong with them they could kill your colony (I keep the for a few weeks before mixing)

You can also tell if your females are pregnent by looking at there abdomen it will be nice and round.

They do cost a bit, and most sellers will sell you alot of males when you need females

If you would like to talk more it's best if you PM, I will then know you need to talk to me.

[Carol]

Where do you live?