Dubia Colony - Feeding

[Falconeer999]

My roach colony will be arriving tomorrow. Will be used to feed a bearded dragon and leopard gecko.

I've seen talk on here of providing fruits and vegetables, but do you provide any other source of food? I keep seeing people mention cat food (some say to grind it up, others don't) and other combinations of wheat and oats and other stuff.

What do the people here feed their roaches? Do you grind it up (I've read some people use a coffee grinder, and other say grinding it up is bad (but not why-think it might be another one of those rumors that pass along without anything to back it up, like the not feeding in the tank thing with snakes)).

[jarich]

As I put in the other thread, its not a great idea to use dog or cat food for roaches. However, if you use one of them, I would recommend a good quality dog food instead of cat food and only in combination with the fresh fruits/veg. Dog food normally has a lower amount of protein in it, and also some plant matter. Do not grind it up, that makes the problem worse.

Roaches store up excess protein from their diet in the form of uric acid in their blood. They dont get access to protein much in the wild, so this is necessary for them to create the proteins they normally lack. In the wild, this system works quite brilliantly, in captivity not so much. When you feed them dog or cat food with higher amounts of protein than they are used to, they will continue to store up that protein as higher and higher amounts of uric acid. Luckily for us, roaches are smarter than humans, so if you feed in combination with other things like fresh fruit and vegetables, they will only eat the dog food when they need the protein. If you only fed the dog or cat food, they will be forced to continue to eat it until the point that the stored acids actually start to crystalize in their joints and organs, killing them. The reason that people say not to grind it up is that this also keeps the roaches from eating it quickly, thereby keeping the uric acid levels low enough to keep that from happening.

The reason feeding cat or dog food is not so good for your reptile is for that same reason. You are then feeding a roach with high levels of uric acid. Perhaps not a big deal for a healthy animal, but could be a problem for a dehydrated or sick animal (a very common problem in reptile keeping). And in my opinion, not worth the possibility of organ damage over extended periods of time, when you could just as easily feed healthier options.

[Falconeer999]

So if I provide a steady supply of fruits and veggies, they'll feed off that, and just keep a little of the dog food in there as a supplement for protein, or avoid it all together? Keeping fruits and veggies is no problem - I always get way more than I and my dragon can eat.

[jarich]

I throw a handful of high quality dog food in once a month, and the rest of the time just feed a dry mix of oats, alfalfa and cornmeal with fresh vegetables. Some people say that they have problems with wing nibbling if they dont add some protein in once in awhile.

[Falconeer999]

Got my shipment in yesterday.

It seems I underestimated how much these guys eat (or they were especially hungry after spending 2 days in shipping). About 7:00 PM last night I gave them about a half cup of corn meal (need to stop by store tonight and get the oatmeal and other stuff), a 1/2 cup of chopped veggies (collard greens, squash, sweet potatoes and carrots - my "beardie salad") and a 1/4 an orange. This morning at 5am all the veggies were gone and all that was left of the orange was the peel. One of the females and a couple of the sub-adults were chowing down on the corn meal.

I have 110 medium/sub-adults, 16 females, 7 males (1 male died during shipping and I think there may be 2 more dead males also - have to check tonight).

[infernalis]

My colony strips a half banana down to the peel in a day.

I keep a bowl of grain meal in there, but they swarm all over fresh fruits.

[Falconeer999]

Got my colony eating fairly well. Last night for the first time since I got them (week ago) I went through and pulled out the dead ones - was this correct or should I have let them stay as food for the others/babies? There were about 5 dead ones - mid juvi to early adult size. I also noticed about 15-20 babies (half the size of a dime) in the bottom of the tote, so I guess one of my females I received while she was pregnant.

Also, I got my heating supplies in yesterday (I had been aiming a basking lamp at the outside of the tote) and a humidity/temperature probe in. I put a heat mat around the outside end of the tub, hooked up to a thermostat, with the thermostat probe inside the bin next to the wall with the heat mat. I have it set at 94 degrees. My temperature/humidity probe is in the center of the vertical stacks of 5 egg flats. It is reading 73 degrees and 38% humidity. I've noticed the first 2 egg flats (closest to the heat) are where the majority of the roaches are staying.

Should I do something to increase the temperature throughout the rest of the bin? Everywhere I've read says to have "mid range humidity" - is 38% mid range? If not, what's the best way to raise it without getting the egg flats wet - thinking they'll mold pretty easy (and absorb humidity anyway).