The "taste" of your roach colony

[Salzy]

I'm curious to know what foods your dubia roaches take to the best. Over the past couple of years raising them, I've noticed quite a few different fruits and such that they won't touch, as well as some things that they can't seem to get enough of.

They really seem to love the juicy sweet fruits like pears, apples, bananas, watermelon, strawberries, etc. I really think they love the moisture more than anything. They can really make a mess with watermelon though, and their tub gets very moist afterwards even with just a little melon. They won't eat strawberry stems/leaves at all. I find that to be interesting. They also really like brocoli stems but not the tops, and carrots are one of their favorites. Their poo turns orange when they eat carrots though, so that's another one of those interesting findings we've had.

They don't like tomatoes at all. I thought for sure that they would, but it must be the acidity that drives them away. They rarely touch dry dog or cat food, but they will eat it fine when it is moist. Celery is a no-go for the most part. They nibble, but won't eat it all. Potatoes are eaten pretty readily when they are hungry, but don't really touch them much when they are fed well.

edit:::forgot to mention that the LOVE the CGD. Anything dried up after a couple of days with the geckos goes in with the roaches. I've also given them my expired/old Nematode and Entamoeba fix too and they gobble that up like crazy.

So...what have you all noticed? I'm curious.

[PaulZ]

My dubias love to clean out the leftover gecko food from my feeding dishes. They really clean 'em well which makes my job a lot easier. And, what could be more nutritious for gut loading than CGD?

Other than that I mostly feed them the leftovers from our kitchen. Apple cores, potato skin, moldy bread, basically any veggie based scraps. They'll eat almost anything but really like the moist fruits the best. I also put a 'bedding' of ground dog food in the cage. That way they always have something they can eat that doesn't ever get stinky.

So, I think they mostly like the wetter fruitier things, but with me they don't get the chance to be particularly picky.

[sciteacher]

Pretty much the same experience. Tomatoes a big NO. Everything else goes pretty quickly. I make a "custom dry mix" that I grind in a blender which contains dry dog food, alfalfa pellets, chicken laying mash, and a little baby formula. They go through a lot of that.

Gary

[Debbie]

Ours love the CGD too! We also give the lettuce, which they love. They eat the dry cat and dog food over here, but not with very much enthusiasm. We also feed them chicken food, but never see them eating it.

[Matt M]

Pretty much the same...they love carrots,lettuce,different squashs,oranges,bananas,strawberries and they LOVE mango.I also have found they really like cgd.I keep a very high quality dog food(Wellness)in their enclosures all the time but they only nibble at it.No water or water crystals,they get enough from the fruits and veggies.They are doin' very well and breeding like crazy!

Almost forgot,mine don't like tomatoes either!

[Salzy]

Oh, I've also tried fish flakes and pellets as well. They really love the goldfish flakes and eat cichlid pellets pretty good. The pellets are dry like dog food though, and they don't eat them nearly as fast.

I've tried baked items like breads, stale cookies and cakes and such, but they don't touch it. No matter how moist it is, they don't eat it unless I smear on a bunch of CGD or something. I figured they would do good eating bread at least, but they seem to want more flavor. Maybe we just have bad bread.

[saint]

I tried giving mine a left-over cooked hotdog, they wouldn't touch it (it was give it to them or throw it out, so I thought I'd try it on them first).

I used to use baby beardy chow (mainly for the really high protein content) as a staple for mine, but once my colony got large it became uneconomical. I've been using purina dry dog food, I mist it decently then let it sit for 10 minutes to absorb the water, and they love it, almost as much as cgd (and yes they help make cleaning food dishes alot easier).

a few other things I've found they like are:
tropical fish flakes
newt food
total cricket bites (I think they like these better than cgd)

**also be careful about what you feed your dubias, I like to give them something higher in calcium 1-2 days before I feed them to my geckos, but a high calcium diet isn't good for roaches. so only use high calcium foods as a gutload, not part of a staple diet.**

oh and kyle, careful about feeding them broccoli close to feeding them off, broccoli is like spinach, it will actually prevent them from absorbing and using the calcium present in their food

[pturley]

Apples, sweet potatoes, carrots and dried up CGD (to clean my dishes for me) are all staples in my B. dubia colony. The eggcrates also sit on a layer of Iams dog food kibbles that they eat when there is nothing else available.

I also throw in whatever veggie bits are left on the kitchen cutting boards. No real limits thus far. They even ate the leftover ciliantro stems I threw in there a couple days ago!

Sincerely,
Paul E. Turley

[PaulZ]

Originally Posted by 420leachie

I keep a very high quality dog food(Wellness)in their enclosures all the time but they only nibble at it.No water or water crystals,they get enough from the fruits and veggies.They are doin' very well and breeding like crazy!

We also feed our dog wellness, so that's what I steal for the roaches. I used to try to keep water in with them. I had a bowl with a sponge, or water soaked cloth, etc. But I have given that up and figure if I feed enough fresh veggies, they'll get the water from that. They are also a lot cleaner the drier you keep their environment.
My roaches don't like the hard dogfood and I think the babies may be incapable of eating it. Unless you grind it up. Then they eat it a lot faster and the population seems to grow much faster. I think it's because the babies survive better.
Because of the lack of water, sometimes I'll soak dog food before giving it to them. They seem to like that.

Mine like bread just fine. Especially if I soak it in water first. But, then again maybe they're just thirsty.


I haven't noticed that they don't like tomatoes. I'll have to check. But mine will eat celery no problem.

I did try to give them lunchmeat and cheese (an old sandwich) one time. They didn't eat it. After that (and for hygiene reasons) I've avoided meat based foods and only give them veggies scraps.

[critterguy]

Funny other people use them to clean dishes too. They are also very fond of yogurt- a dab of that or else throwing yogurt cups/tubs in with them.

If they haven't been fed in a while I will feed them dry food first before offering the fruits since it gets them to eat more it seems.