Quality feeder food ?'s

[unkempt1]

What brand of Dog Food Unkept?

The cheapest kind (or what you already feed your dog)! Let me go back to my post: I "dumb down" the protein content with other non-dog food items. I currently use something called "high performance" dog food from HEB in my chow, which is the prominent non-Walmart version of a grocer in San Antonio.

I guess your response begs the question, "Why are you concerned with certain brands of dog food?" What are you worried about your roaches eating? Let me know!

[fish4all]

I'm not, to be honest but most online articles and most people who write recipe using dog food say high quality dog food so I had to ask.

Some use too many fillers, some use a lot of preservatives, some use this, others use that. Does it matter, I don't know.

I am one who will ask a question just to get answers like yours! Knowledge isn't very useful if you take the word of one and stop at that!

Only real things I can think of is a ton of wheat and corn in cheap dog food. Does it matter to the roaches, most likely not. Will it matter to the frogs and the animals we feed the roaches to, I don't know.

I don't plan on using dog food. My plan is something like this:
Egg Layer Mash
Oatmeal baby cereal
Pond pellet fish food, because it's the cheapest I have found
Possible ratios:
4:1:1
6:1:2
8:2:4
Will have to see what they like best and how they react to different ratios. It might be more baby cereal or a more even ratio but that is my best guess as to what I will likely try.

But I will admit I may have to add some breakfast cereal to the mix and I like you Rolled oats idea.

Cheap, quick, easy and full of vitamins, minerals and everything I can think of.

Gut Load: Haven't decided if I will change a thing yet. If I do I was thinking I would add some brewers yeast to that mix and possibly some honey and/or molasses to make a nice sweet crumble to make sure they load up.

If I do decide to use dog food, I won't be feeding my dogs food to them! Not at $1+ a pound when I can get other brands for $15 for 40#.

I guess the biggest reason why I asked is because of what a person might consider a quality dog or cat food. My sister thinks O'l Roy is quality food, my dad, Iams, me, Diamond naturals. If I can have 3 different views from my own family, not to mention the ones from friends, I thought it was a good idea to see what everyone thought of as quality dog/cat food. The best top quality dry dog food I can think of is right around $6.50 a pound. Lowest quality, $0.25 cents a pound. Somewhere in between I hope to get an idea of what is considered "quality". Whether it matters or not, having options and different things to try is never a bad thing.

[badkelpie]

Kirkland signature (costco) dog food is diamond. It's a step above the diamond naturals, almost identical to their chicken soup line. I think $25 for 40 lbs.

My roaches don't eat much pre-made food. I toss in an orange or a couple carrots, or some kale or leaves or leftover spaghetti or chicken bones. Whatever I have that I think they'd eat. Except cantaloupe, they won't eat that. They're huge and healthy, and breed faster than I can keep up with.

[unkempt1]

Only real things I can think of is a ton of wheat and corn in cheap dog food. Does it matter to the roaches, most likely not. Will it matter to the frogs and the animals we feed the roaches to, I don't know.

Ah, now I think I understand. The answer is more than likely yes, whatever contents are in their stomachs will pass on to your animals. I keep two bins. One for feeding and one for breeding. My breeder bin gets the recipe above, with different fruits and veggies I have as table scraps throughout the week. My feeder bin only gets things like collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, and very rarely apple and mango slices. This is to pass on a healthy gut to my frog and bearded dragon.

If I were you I would have a similar system. You want to have full control of what goes into your pets, and its equally important you bother your roaches as little as possible. They will breed more and multiply faster.

[MatthewM1]

I made a batch of chow that the roaches really seem to enjoy they sometimes even go for it over fruit and veggies. I bought a box of individual size bags of trail mix, but took one of those minus the m&M's(leaving rains, almonds, cashews and peanuts) and ground it up with a handfull of cheerios

[unkempt1]

You know, I was rereading this thread and it gave me pause. What dog food has the fewest or no preservatives? Even something in a small amount, since a little dog food really goes a long way when making roach chow. Anyone have any thoughts or experiences?

I ask because even with gut-loading, impurities can still exist in feeders (uric acid being a good example). It would probably be no different with feeders that have been given preservative-heavy diets. A good gut-loading may not be enough.

[fish4all]

There are tons of them that say they use no artificial preservatives. Tocopherol is a natural vitamin-E preservative in my dogs food. I have no clue how long any preservative would stay in a roaches digestive track or body parts.