Giant Reptile Feeding

[Andee]

Panda's actually don't process bamboo well XD they haven't evolved far enough to be purely herbivorous. Their gut still shows all the signs of being carnivorous. It's why they process so little of the bamboo and have to eat so much of it.

Anyway back to the usual insect talk.... I don't believe one thing is the answer for orange heads, but then again I give more room too all my roaches (included most over crowded species like dubias) and they are always fed water sources every 24 hours and it lasts the entire day. In my opinion happy roaches won't chew each other's wings, it means there is something either wrong with the ratio or space or etc etc. And I never said the all insects have the same nutrition etc. It's why I am looking for all sorts of sub species, of the family groups like roaches, I already feed two different species of roaches regularly, and plan to do more far often to my own animals.

I agree they live "fine" without their wings, but it doesn't mean the current way of keeping them is it's optimum possibilities. I want my roaches to be thriving, I don't want them to chew on each other. I don't want them to have bad molts if I can help it. It's why I focus on insects so much. It's why I will never breed reptiles. Because I care too much, and selling them would be a pain. I would be over run too quickly. Insects don't take up as much space, I can easily fit more enclosures for certain ones, and then I can sell off excess.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

I won't argue with you there! My roaches are overcrowded. Parsonii simply don't eat them fast enough. I usually ship out a few dozen from the crowded bins to friends, when I have the luxury of time.
My analogy with the panda may have been a poor one, and yes, they do eat a lot of the bamboo, but so do caterpillars eat a lot of foliage or monkeys that are leaf eaters. My point is that, animals evolve to process nutrition in different ways. It wasn't a point of dispute, I was just trying to point out that feeding Dubia and feeding orange heads is essentially offering different prey. A lot of people think a roach is a roach. Blatta lateralis actually contain quite a bit of protein, compared to other feeder insects and other roaches. So, I'm just trying to shed light on the fact that any variety is good variety, as no 2 feeders are the same, if they are not the same species.

 

[Andee]

Ah ok XD, I might have felt defensive for my own reasons, been having an off week lately. Sadly I don't think anything eats roaches enough... Though I am actually not selling any roaches at all right now, except some nymphs to a couple regular customers, because my colony is now a bit off kilter and weirdly out of ratio (too many females to males.... like badly so). So right now I am letting them breed, letting them grow, feeding a lot and providing heat. Making sure they are happy etc etc. I don't have a ton of hungry reptiles, just about 5 that eat insects. So the roaches are doing well and slowly coming back. I mean I have tons of nymphs, just need to make sure they grow.

 

[jamest0o0]

Not to cut in here on this conversation, I just really enjoy reading what you both offer to this site. I read about hisser being high in fat content. I even saw on other forums, people flipping over the idea of even bothering to feed them... I can't imagine it'd hurt to feed one once and awhile, but are they really that bad? Any roach nutrition charts out there? I've only seen them for dubia.

 

[Andee]

I don't see any reason not feed hissers, they are slow growers so they are easy to feed off a couple times a week. There is nothing wrong with feeding fattier feeders especially gutloadable ones like roaches etc. I as long as they have a healthy diet it should be fine.