I just ordered dubia roaches need help quick
- Thread starter pedro92
- Start date
Cherron
New Member
Are the roaches that you ordered going to be used as feeders?
If so, I wouldn't recommend using dog or cat food as a food source.. even just to feed the ones that aren't yet going to be fed to your cham. Here is a post from a previous thread that I wrote about dog food:
Dog food is pretty high in fat and low quality dog food uses quite a bit of corn as a filler. Corn has no nutritional value.
It is true that the roaches will eat pretty much anything. I feed my roaches the same as I do my crickets. Dried infant cereal works well as bedding (if you chose to have a substrate) and the roaches will eat it was well. I grind up alfalfa pellets and mix with the infant cereal and that is the main ingredients in my dry mix. The normal greens and veggies that you would feed crickets can also be fed to the roaches (eg. collards, turnips, mustards, dandelion, squash, sweet potato, zucchini, endive). For protein you can add an egg occasionally(hard boiled or raw.. whichever you prefer). I haven't had a problem with roach cannibalism unless they were not getting enough moisture. I use water crystals with mine with no problems.
Here is a quote from Frye, FL. Reptile Diseases: An Atlas of Care and Treatment. 1991. TFH Publishing, Inc., Neptune City NJ.
"The meat by-products in these feeds are not pasteurized and can become rancid in the GI systems of the crickets. This poses no problem for the insect, but the chronic ingestion of these crix by the reptiles can have damaging results.
Also, the corn used in dry commercial dog/cat food is from a low-grade of grain that did not pass the UDSA's approval for human consumption. Most of this corn has been exposed to blight, (a fungus), and when the chow is allowed to become wet (even in an insect's gut), can produce an Aflatoxin, (usually Aspergillus flavus) which is a poisonous toxin that can can kill your reptile."
It takes a little while to clear the gut of an insect.. so unless you plan on pulling the roaches that you feed several days in advance to give them time to get the pet food out of their system, i wouldn't use dog or cat food at all.
For convience, I keep my crickets and roaches both gutloaded. I have a lot of mouths to feed so trying to pull what i may need for the next day and gutloading them seperately just isn't' practical. If this is what you intend to do though, any fruit, vegetable, bread, egg product will keep the roaches alive and traces of these in their bodies won't harm your cham if not completely cleared before feeding.
Good luck!
If so, I wouldn't recommend using dog or cat food as a food source.. even just to feed the ones that aren't yet going to be fed to your cham. Here is a post from a previous thread that I wrote about dog food:
Dog food is pretty high in fat and low quality dog food uses quite a bit of corn as a filler. Corn has no nutritional value.
It is true that the roaches will eat pretty much anything. I feed my roaches the same as I do my crickets. Dried infant cereal works well as bedding (if you chose to have a substrate) and the roaches will eat it was well. I grind up alfalfa pellets and mix with the infant cereal and that is the main ingredients in my dry mix. The normal greens and veggies that you would feed crickets can also be fed to the roaches (eg. collards, turnips, mustards, dandelion, squash, sweet potato, zucchini, endive). For protein you can add an egg occasionally(hard boiled or raw.. whichever you prefer). I haven't had a problem with roach cannibalism unless they were not getting enough moisture. I use water crystals with mine with no problems.
Here is a quote from Frye, FL. Reptile Diseases: An Atlas of Care and Treatment. 1991. TFH Publishing, Inc., Neptune City NJ.
"The meat by-products in these feeds are not pasteurized and can become rancid in the GI systems of the crickets. This poses no problem for the insect, but the chronic ingestion of these crix by the reptiles can have damaging results.
Also, the corn used in dry commercial dog/cat food is from a low-grade of grain that did not pass the UDSA's approval for human consumption. Most of this corn has been exposed to blight, (a fungus), and when the chow is allowed to become wet (even in an insect's gut), can produce an Aflatoxin, (usually Aspergillus flavus) which is a poisonous toxin that can can kill your reptile."
It takes a little while to clear the gut of an insect.. so unless you plan on pulling the roaches that you feed several days in advance to give them time to get the pet food out of their system, i wouldn't use dog or cat food at all.
For convience, I keep my crickets and roaches both gutloaded. I have a lot of mouths to feed so trying to pull what i may need for the next day and gutloading them seperately just isn't' practical. If this is what you intend to do though, any fruit, vegetable, bread, egg product will keep the roaches alive and traces of these in their bodies won't harm your cham if not completely cleared before feeding.
Good luck!
