The hunt for the perfect roach food!

[MichaelJ]

I love my Dubia and have been hunting and reading around for the best all around feeder for them and found that there really isn't one! Or at least the ones that supposedly are cost an arm and a leg!

I've read everything from people throwing in items not fit for human consumption to totally organic fruits and veggies..

Knowing that they need high protein diet (different from many species of roach) I started my search.

Ferret food was mentioned a lot so I looked around and found, Pretty Pets ,"Natural Gold" - it's 50% crude protein, then I went through dog and cat foods from soup to nuts and found, All natural - Good Life Recipe Cat Food at 34% crude protein, and finally add Cody's ProGutload; I've used it for over a year for my mealies and crix as gut load. It's great and has 20% crude protein and a ton of everything else they need; plus they already love it by itself...

Each of these are loaded with vitamins and minerals but I add a bit of Vionate and blend the whole mix for ease in scooping and even distribution of each ingredient.

Of course I still throw in some romaine, orange slices, or bananas once or twice a week. But this seems to be great mix and costs around 30 bucks and yields enough for at least 6 months or more.

Tell me what you guys think ?

:main_thumbsup:

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

I honestly fed mine the left overs from mine and my childrens dinner plates, so that varied from day to day of what we eat, chicken, fries, carrots, steak, mac n cheese, corn, salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, green bean etc.

They also got our left over breakfast, lunch and snacks, so I guess if we ate a rounded diet they did too.

When I did feed a Roach "food" it cost a ton more and I had a ton more roaches die a lot faster.

Roaches tend to live in a damper "nastier" left over food region, they don't love here its all nive and clean so to speak. They thrive on the damp and left over.

Heat was also an issue, they liked it warm and wet. Which also meant I had to take out any uneaten food within a few hours, maybe not for for them but for me til I learned how much they would eat each day within a few hours.

 

[MichaelJ]

Roaches tend to live in a damper "nastier" left over food region, they don't love here its all nive and clean so to speak. They thrive on the damp and left over.

Heat was also an issue, they liked it warm and wet. Which also meant I had to take out any uneaten food within a few hours, maybe not for for them but for me til I learned how much they would eat each day within a few hours.

You have to consider the type of roaches a person is dealing with. Dubias actually come from a very dry environment in guyana and are not quite like what we deal with here and the household nasty cockroach.

Dubias - at least from my research are more of the types found in woodland and rocky areas and forage for higher protein sources like other bugs and decaying animal carcases.

I agree on buying the "professional' food on cost and life span etc.. thats why I made my own and love it..

i thought about the leftovers and what not and have thrown in some leftover chicken or steak from dinners.. but what I always come back to is that I don't want my feeders and inevitably my leos eating something that I wouldn't... Not that i'd eat my new roach mix.. but I think you know what i mean..

Oh yeah.. you mentioned Salisbury steak.. OMG.. I love that and haven't had it in years.. i'm salivating now..

 

[Marc10edora]

I feed my dubias a mix of carrots, collard greens, apples, romaine lettuce, potatoes, and dandelion flowers. Then occasionally I throw in a little bit of hard boiled egg in order to add more protein. This keeps them constantly gut loaded so I can feed them to my chameleon.

 

[98bcobra]

I feed my dubia's a mix of cat food and oats ground fine along with greens and carrots from time to time. They love just about anything I throw in there.

 

[MichaelJ]

they love romaine.. I'll throw two full sized leaves and they will be gone within an hour..