Orange head diet

[cloverthechameleon]

Just wondering what other members feed their orange head roaches? Mine seem kinda picky they love shredded carrots but wont eat whole carrots, they also love bananas and oranges but those go so bad so fast. Everything else they just seem to pick at or only eat if i havnt fed them in afew days. Im using a high quality koi food for there protein source which they seem to enjoy.

 

[NickTide]

I feed a lot of carrots. I am not sure what is in koi food but it is designed for an omnivorous creature. I feed a little rabbit food for protein. It's alfalfa based. I also feed oranges, bananas, apple core, sweet potato and veggie scraps. Dandelion greens in the summer are a great addition.

 

[Syreptyon]

I mostly feed mine cricket crack and bee pollen. They only seem interested in the cricket crack when it's mixed with water into a paste, though

 

[cloverthechameleon]

interesting so carrots seem to be their favourite. I will have to try sweet potatoe and bee pollen.

 

[Andee]

I feed mine my homemade gutload, and various veggies, they definitely prefer root veggies and squashes both summer and winter. But they crave high protein and high moisture content items. Wing chewing happens because of low protein and low humidity and moisture levels. I can tell you koi food is usually bad for feeder insects cause almost all fish food contains fish meal which is protein based on animal and mostly aquatic based animals, which is easily converted into uric acid crystals for the majority of tropical roaches. Causing a uric acid build up in chameleons which can lead to gout. High vegetarian protein is what is highly recommended, for all feeder insects ESPECIALLY tropical feeder roaches like OH's. It is really easy to make a completely vegetarian diet with all 9 amino acids that an animal protein chain would have making it up to 16-22% protein levels. For OH's I suggest doing minimum 20% they are protein seekers of some of the highest for roaches. Just don't put too much of the complete protein chain stuff in. My gutload ends up leaning heavily on alfalfa and then has amaranth and quinoa for the amino acid chain.

 

[cloverthechameleon]

Cant remember the the brand name off the top of my head but i know the first ingrediant is Whole anchovies i looked for one specifically without fish meal. Im not concerend about gout as i have not started feeding off this colony yet, needs to double in size. When i do start feeding them off i will switch to a veggy based protein. Im more looking for fruits veggies and other things to feed not so much the proteins. I will try alfalfa and some squash. Forgot to mention earlier that they also really enjoyed pumpkin but thats kind of a seasonal thing so ill try to grab some squash. Thank you!

 

[cloverthechameleon]

Im basically looking for food they will devour and hopefully speed up breeding abit, as shredded carrots are the only thing ive found so far that they will consume almost instantly. Even tho this isnt a "gut load' yet im still looking for variety.

 

[nick barta]

Apple slices.

 

[Andee]

Im basically looking for food they will devour and hopefully speed up breeding abit, as shredded carrots are the only thing ive found so far that they will consume almost instantly. Even tho this isnt a "gut load' yet im still looking for variety.

To speeding up breeding with orange heads and all roaches its a careful balance of protein, hydration, and heat. Do not feed off adults from this batch. Within 3-6 months with how much my orange head colony has grown as long as you are keeping them right you should be able to feed them off. Are you keeping them like a eublaberus sp.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

Mine eats my gutload, fresh carrots, fresh apples and oranges/tangerines.

 

[cloverthechameleon]

Ive never kept ivorys before, im keeping them with a very simialr basic care as my dubias except with a protein source varied into their diet. Much prefer this spieces over the dubias as they are far more meaty and active and do not freeze up when in a feeder bowl.

 

[Andee]

Do you mean ivories or orange heads? I am assuming orange heads. Orange heads thrive better in naturalistic enclosures with substrate, regular light mistings once a night, moss, places to hide etc.

Eublaberus are very than blaptica (which is what dubia are). Orange heads will survive in a dubia enclosure but they will not reproduce in as large amounts as they possibly can.

 

[cloverthechameleon]

You asked me if i was keeping them like i would keep Eublaberus Sp which to my knowledge i thought was an ivory head roach?

 

[Andee]

Orange heads are also a species of eublaberus

 

[cloverthechameleon]

These things got a pretty basic set up man. Medium sized rubbermade bin, heat pad on one side of the enclosure, bunch of egg crates, no substrate. Warm side gets to about 90 cool side stays around 80. Humidity is 70-80%. I give a light mist every few days if humidty sinks below 70. Colony is at about 250 right now. Most of those being 1 or 2 motls away from being adults. Thats it. Started out with only 15 roaches 3 months ago. Is 250 a solid amount of growth in that time?

 

[Andee]

Its about medium in my opinion. Especially with how slow they seem to be eating ans molting. Cause i never have a problem with my colony eating ANYTHING i give them. I give them mustard green, celery tops, strawberry greens, carrot tops and carrots, sweet potatos, squash, oranges, apples etc etc. Everything that goes in gets eaten in a day.

 

[cloverthechameleon]

Havnt tried strawberries, do they really enjoy them?

 

[Andee]

Its hard to say, my guys like everything, next to the surinam colony i have they are my least picky roaches and will consume anything within a couple hours. I feed veggies and fruit every night, dry food every other day, and usually its all gone by next feeding except for maybe a scrap of a peel or leaf