Quality feeder food ?'s

[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.

[unkempt1]

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.

Exactly! I have no clue either, but like the uric acid thing, I don't want to take chances. I guess I'll just look around at the store today and see what I find.

[fish4all]

All I know about the dog food I would use, If I decide to use it, is it will likely cost less than $1 a pound and more $0.25 a pound. Somewhere in there should be something that will work well enough for the roaches and not have so many contaminants in it that you can't get the roaches cleaned out enough while gut loading to make them "safer".

[demon amphibians]

If you guys are debating using dog food and cat food for protein and are worried it will harm the roaches and your frogs. you must consider this. Vegetables have protein. Raw veggies that are high in protein are broccoli, asparagus, potato, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, cauliflower, various types of squash, avocados tomatoes, carrots and lettuce. Don't forget beans, and whole grans. Your roaches will accept all of these very ambitiously. However i do feed my breeders a mixture of dog and cat food blended, wet and with veggies mixed in along with fish flakes. I have just seen so many testimonials of gut loading your feeders with it i decided to gut load my feeders with everything i have listed except dog and cat food. however I will gut load my feeders with cat and dog food that i feed to my toads. Because my toads will eat dog food. Dog food is even used to bate cane toads in Australia. I have thousands upon thousands of dubia roaches and have been feeding them these products for months and my fatality rate is very very low. I lose maybe 1-2 breeders a months. But i totally believe that those deaths are contributed with age and humidity at times. although I do clean my bins twice a week because of the number of babies produced. But i do have a method of preventing the babies from eating the dog food blend. I use a dish only the adults can access and the babies cant. It is a plastic dish that is just high enough that the babies cant climb over but the adults can. I am producing 1500+ babies every two weeks. So something i am doing is definitely right.

Don't over think this. Just use organic dog food. If you are worried. My roaches do get a large amount of protein but just alternate what you feed them daily one day give them dog food. The next offer lettuce and carrots. problem solved. Roaches can actually eat more types of plants then humans can. You can feed them leaves and grass. I have found few things harmful to them however. Don't feed raw meats. And don't feed any rotten food of any sort to them. Mold WILL kill them so avoid fungi. I haven't tried mushrooms and yeast and i wont chance it, seeing is that molds that are harmless to us are deadly to them. Also with veggies of any sort give them organic. regular store bought veggies have pesticides that aren't noticeably harmful to us but will be to them. I have had no problems with pesticides but I wouldn't chance it.

There are so many foods out there to offer and it is very in expensive. Roaches are some of the most successful insects on the planet and not to mention some of the easiest insects to breed and care for. Your primary focus is to give your feeders something that wont harm your frogs as far as gut loading is concerned. Keep the bin clean and you wont ever have to worry about toxins building up in there environment no matter how much protein you offer.

Also keep in mind the babies eat the adults experiments so high protein diets is also important to the young.These guys are the ultimate recycling bugs i have ever attempted to culture. They will also eat there own molts for protein.

Oranges make them breed like crazy i have witnessed this first hand. i don't know how but it works. They are not crazy about lemons and limes. I tried and very little was disturbed. Apples and banana's are also there first choice. No matter what i put in, those items are the first to disappear. I have much reason to believe these items also help with reproduction.

[fish4all]

Okay, here is a question, how much dry food can I expect to go through to feed 250 adults a months? Might seems irrelevant to some but I don't plan to breed roaches because it will be fun. I am doing it to save money. If they only eat 1-5 pounds of a food a month then I can buy "quality" anything for them without breaking the bank. They will still get veggies and fruit scraps from the local market, probably going to dehydrate a 5 gallon bucket full of whatever I can get.

I am glad I got the information from everyone though. If my roaches don't do well on my planned diet at least I know what dog food to look for.