Dubia Roaches

[glorywillow143]

What are other people feeding their dubias? I rotate what I blend up in my mixture, but I try to keep a basic guideline - some form of baby rice cereal (either the puffs ground up or the powdered cereal), some form of fish pellets, pelleted bearded dragon food (as that is what I am feeding them to), and cat or dog treats of some kind. I also occationally rotate in freezed dried veggies or fruits into the mix, as well as offering fresh foods (fruit/veggie peelings, carrots, etc). They seem to thrive on this. Does anyone else think they have a better recipe to use?

 

[Niels D]

I feed mine dry cat pellets and now and then some fruit. There's always a little container with a lid filled with water in their enclosure. Inside there's a shoe lace which is sticking out of a tiny hole in the lid which is moist all the time due to the capillary action.

 

[newtlady]

great idea or shoe lace i use the soil moist in a shallow cup and re wet it as needed for the water so they do not drown. i see the babies liking the edges so ill be adding a show lace too thanks for idea. i feed my bearded dragons how about you?

 

[Starcraft]

I feed my dubia all kinds of stuff. I like to use cheap fish foods or dog foods for protein content which is always served in a separate fish from the other foods, this way the dubia only consume high protein feed if they want or need it.

In a separate container I'll add kitchen scraps such as veggie and fruit scraps, pieces of bread, cereal, cut up oranges, cucumbers, bananas, virtually anything.

The only thing you have to be careful about is adding foods that will rot and smell before they're consumed. My colony is large enough now where nothing I add lasts more than 2 days due to the number of roaches.

I also don't give them water at all times since I want them to eat the veggies and fruits before they rot and use them as a source of water. If I'm out of watery fruits and veggies I will use a small ceramic bowl with some orange juice and bread for them to drink from. The cheap orange juices from concentrate will have some preservatives in it that will keep it from going bad quickly.

I will also let them completely run out of high protein feeds for two to three months straight a couple of times a year. This really doesn't hurt their reproduction all that much since roaches are capable of storing excess protein during times of plenty in the form of uric acid in their bodies which can later be converted to the amino acids they need should the diet not contain suitable protein.

This has the added benefit of ensuring that any roach that dies in the colony is quickly consumed by the rest for protein and also ensures that the roaches I'm feeding my animals have a low uric acid content in their bodies which can possibly be harmful to our animals.

If I see a lot of males with bitten wing tips I know they need a little more protein in their diet.

This is just some stuff I do to keep my colony low maintenance.