Proper gutload?

[MatthewM1]

On a side note I just recently bought a thing of flukers orange cube cricket diet to try with them and my roaches don't seem to really care for it

[unkempt1]

Yea mine treat those just like green veggies. They only go after them when that's all that's in there. Now I just use them for crickets when I will be at work all day.

[GrifTheGreat]

Just don't feed them dog or cat food. The additives can be bad for the frog.

Offer them oats too. They will eat those as well.

[unkempt1]

Grif, I'm glad you brought that up. I want to explain what I do and get your perspective on it.

First off, my feeder tub only gets veggies, and on occasion I'll put a piece of fruit in there. 95% of the time it's collard, turnip, or mustard greens. Fruits are mangos or apples, but in small quantities and rarely. I feel 100% confident on this tub and have zero questions.

What I feed my breeders is different. When it comes to fruits/veggies, it's almost the opposite. About 80% fruits and 20% veggies. There is also more variation: carrots, oranges, potatoes, bananas, (along with the stuff i put in the feeder tub); really almost anything except stuff they won't eat like onions, garlic, or lemons/limes. Fruits and veggies make up about 60% of their diet. It used to be 100%, but I noticed males fighting like crazy and killing each other. So I did two things: I changed the male/female ratio from 1:1 to 1:7 and began making my own roach chow to increase their protein intake.

My own secret recipe (haha ) is as follows: 2-3 parts dog food, 1-2 parts Cheerios, 1 part soy flour, a few flakes of raisin bran, and a sliver of Nilla wafer. I grind them up together and they eat it like crazy! So tell me, if I only feed this stuff in my breeder bin and when i move babies to the feeder bin, gut load them with the healthy stuff for 24-72 hours like I do now, am I hurting my pacman? I take care to make sure the different types of protein are spread out (and fruits/veg are a bigger part of their diet) so they aren't getting overloaded with protein in the breeder bin, but at the same time aren't having gladiator matches anymore either.

If you think this is still risky using dog food at all, do you have any advice on a replacement?

[GrifTheGreat]

Grif, I'm glad you brought that up. I want to explain what I do and get your perspective on it.

First off, my feeder tub only gets veggies, and on occasion I'll put a piece of fruit in there. 95% of the time it's collard, turnip, or mustard greens. Fruits are mangos or apples, but in small quantities and rarely. I feel 100% confident on this tub and have zero questions.

What I feed my breeders is different. When it comes to fruits/veggies, it's almost the opposite. About 80% fruits and 20% veggies. There is also more variation: carrots, oranges, potatoes, bananas, (along with the stuff i put in the feeder tub); really almost anything except stuff they won't eat like onions, garlic, or lemons/limes. Fruits and veggies make up about 60% of their diet. It used to be 100%, but I noticed males fighting like crazy and killing each other. So I did two things: I changed the male/female ratio from 1:1 to 1:7 and began making my own roach chow to increase their protein intake.

My own secret recipe (haha ) is as follows: 2-3 parts dog food, 1-2 parts Cheerios, 1 part soy flour, a few flakes of raisin bran, and a sliver of Nilla wafer. I grind them up together and they eat it like crazy! So tell me, if I only feed this stuff in my breeder bin and when i move babies to the feeder bin, gut load them with the healthy stuff for 24-72 hours like I do now, am I hurting my pacman? I take care to make sure the different types of protein are spread out (and fruits/veg are a bigger part of their diet) so they aren't getting overloaded with protein in the breeder bin, but at the same time aren't having gladiator matches anymore either.

If you think this is still risky using dog food at all, do you have any advice on a replacement?

That's one of the worst things about offering cat food and dog food. The protein content is much too high. You can use the high calcium cricket food and cricket quencher for added calcium loading. I would offer the feeder bin just fruits and vegetables. This way they don't overload the frog with protein and preservatives that can harm the frog.

[unkempt1]

Cool. Yah, my feeder bin sees ZERO dog food, or any grains at all for that matter. Only veggies with the rare piece of fruit.

You had mentioned giving the breeder colony cricket food instead of dog food... what type of protein is in that stuff? Is it something I can pick up and incorporate into my homemade chow? I prefer to make my own since it's cheaper (and hey, to be honest I get a real kick out of it ).

[GrifTheGreat]

Cool. Yah, my feeder bin sees ZERO dog food, or any grains at all for that matter. Only veggies with the rare piece of fruit.

You had mentioned giving the breeder colony cricket food instead of dog food... what type of protein is in that stuff? Is it something I can pick up and incorporate into my homemade chow? I prefer to make my own since it's cheaper (and hey, to be honest I get a real kick out of it ).

You're probably doing fine. I mentioned the cricket food for calcium. Horn Frogs need a lot of calcium. Much more than most other species aside from Pyxi Frogs. The feeders themselves contain protein. Roaches actually have a decent amount as do Night Crawlers.