# What do you feed your roaches?



## Deliverme314 (Nov 17, 2003)

B.Dubia is what I have I believe... also what are the best conditions to breed and rear these suckers... I have been giving them crushed cat food, thawed frozen veggies(corn, peas carrots) oranges, lettuce(not ice berg... romaine and the sort), spinach, banannas... basicly I have been trying everything... they sample a little of all but I want to know the best to feed my feeders and get them reproducing.  Temp at about 76 or so average... whats teh best way to water them?  There is no substrate so pretty much I just spray in their every other day and let em drink off the ground... I figure they are also getting alot of moisture from their food...

Thanks


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## Buspirone (Nov 17, 2003)

How many roaches do you have? If you are starting with only a couple dozen you won't notice much if  any food missing. They don't eat much untill you have a couple hundred meduim sized nymphs. There is no need to crush up the catfood. I just started a B. bubia colony so my experience with them is very limited but when I started my orange head colony it was driving me nuts because I thought they weren't eating. They were. You are probably just giving them way too much food too. I offer the same food for a week or two and then change to something else. It takes that long for them to become bored with their current food and they relish the change when it comes. I would stay away from misting unless you are using distilled water otherwise you will get water stains. The small nymphs can use water stains to get a footing and climb the walls of your enclosure. Its sounds like as far as your roach diet is going you are on the ball.  I'd get some water crystals for watering them. I use them and they are great. I think Code Monkey posted a link to a source for them that is cheap. When buying the dry crystals you get way more for your dollar than when you buy brandname waterbites. Temps about 80 - 85 will increase their growth rate and subsequent breeding.


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## Code Monkey (Nov 17, 2003)

Cat food is *much* too high in protein - they can actually toxify themselves if fed too much protein. Roaches do not excrete nitrogenous wastes efficiently but rather wind up storing most of it in their abdominal fat as a store for lean times - since cultured roaches don't often see lean times, it can build up to lethal levels. I'd go for a cheap dog food (which is still too high but they do well enough in the course of their lifespans).

I feed mine dog food, carrots, moldy bread, left over pizza crust, etc. As Buspirone said, a small amount don't eat that much, but once you get several hundred they can devour quite a bit. I only put carrots in once a week or so and they will devour an entire *large* carrot in less than a day.

Also as stated, bumping up the temps will increase both their growth rate and breeding. I keep my bin in the utility closet next to the hot water heater, stays between 78-82 year round.


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## Buspirone (Nov 17, 2003)

Thats good to know about the cat food. I was starting to keep my B. dubia the same as my orange heads.


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## chuck (Nov 17, 2003)

never heard that about the cat food, guess ill take out the bowl of cat food then
someone on these boards suggested apple sauce blended with dry cat or dog food to make a paste, they love that stuff.  i used it once but it was a pain to clean


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## Code Monkey (Nov 17, 2003)

They did a study once with common "people foods" and their attractiveness to roaches in the space of a week. A sticky cinnamon bun led the way with over 200 roaches coming to feed on it, bacon got 0 in the same period. Although we raise them on dog food mainly out of convenience, it's not at all what they're engineered to thrive on.


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## chuck (Nov 17, 2003)

so foods high in sugar will be better than other pet food?


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## Buspirone (Nov 17, 2003)

Did they try coating  the bacon with a sticky syrupy sugar coating?


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## Immortal_sin (Nov 17, 2003)

I feed mine spinach leaves, carrots, apples, dog food, and pretty much any other veggie  or fruit I happen to have lying around. They LOVE tortilla chips though! I don't feed them that too often, but they are all over those!


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## Buspirone (Nov 17, 2003)

Does the toxification caused by their inability to sufficiently  excrete these wastes pose any type of risk to the animals the roaches will be fed to or affect the roaches ability to continue breeding. Does the toxicity only shorten a roaches life span?


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## OldHag (Nov 17, 2003)

I feed mine carrots and apples and dogfood and all the left over tid bits from cooking...I have a small bowl of water with cottonballs in it so the babies dont drown...its worked very well!! 
Anyone want some baby hissers??
Michelle


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## jezzy607 (Nov 17, 2003)

I feed my lobster roaches rodent chow, and sometimes throw in some bread, and/or fruit.  I mist them 1-2 times weekly or put in a drenched piece of bread, for water.


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## Code Monkey (Nov 17, 2003)

Shouldn't pose any threat to anything eating them because they'll just do what the roach should have done: crap and/or pee it all out. It does shorten the life spans for those roaches fed a mainly protein diet. One of the guys in the entomology department here figured this stuff out.

I'm not even sure if cat food is enough to kill them when other things are offered as well, just that it's way, way, way above the amount of protein they should be eating for their main diet (the effects were found by not giving the roaches any choice about what they eat).


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## Cockroach (Nov 17, 2003)

I feed my colonies low-protien dog food, carrots, mushrooms, popcorn, potatoes, bell peppers, oranges, oatmeal, cooked white rice, banannas, onions, cooked cabbage, apples, leaf veggies, raw green beans, broccoli, couliflower, grapes, cookies, and bread. They never have to be offered any water because they get all their moisture from the apples I keep in their tubs constantly. 


laters,
Bill


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## jaijjs (Nov 20, 2003)

I use a mix of 40% catfood to 60% dogfood With powdered milk and some fish flakes dampened with a little olive oil. They also like brown sugar. In the past I've used hog chow and chick mash that is unmedicated. The olive oil works very well when you are changing the types of food that they eat. They'll eat 99% of all veggies and fruit. The only thing that I have found that they won't eat is cukes..


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## Wade (Nov 21, 2003)

This dissscussion has possibly solved a mystery at my house. I generally use unmedicated chick mash as the primary diet for all my feeder insects, but it's become increasingly hard to find without any meds in it. I've been experimenting with alternatives, including cat food, which I was drawn to primarily because of the transparent buckets one brand comes in  I haven't noticed any problems with the cockroaches yet, but then it's only been a few months. I have seen a much higher mortality rate with the crickets, however. I had considered the possiblity that it was the dye, but protien toxicity makes more sense (thanks Chip!). Since then I managed to score some more unmedicated mash, so it's back to normal for now.

I have found the chick mash to be a good diet in and of itself, with little else. I've never tried to track the health of an individual roach, but they reproduce like crazy so I assume they're doing OK.
Dry diets have the advantage of resulting in drier feces and subsequently a drier, less smelly cage.

I do give my orange-heads (E. prosticus) high protien food in addition to the chick mash. They're the only species (out of the 4 I keep) that actually seem to prefer cat, dog or trout chow (the last is for my turtles) to the chick mash.

Wade


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## jaijjs (Nov 21, 2003)

Wade, What is the protien % of the trout chow that you are using? The way things are now most Farm & Feed stores carry the unmedicated chick feed around here anyway. The hog food is really cheap and most Roaches will eat it


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## Wade (Nov 21, 2003)

I'm not sure on the protien content on the fish food. I call it "trout chow" but really it's a general food for game fish. I believe it to be lower in protien than dog or cat food since it's made for a wide range of fish, not all of which are obligate predators.

Wade


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