# how do you make your roach food?



## biomarine2000 (Jan 6, 2011)

I know some people just throw misc items like dog food and oatmeal in the cage to let them feast. What I'm interested to know is how you blend these ingredients into a powder for very easy feeding.  Also what ingredients you use. I've tried to grind up dog food before in a blender and failed miserably.


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## Israel2004 (Jan 6, 2011)

I went out the local amvets and bought a old time hand crank meat grinder, works like a charm for grinding up dog food, cat food, oats & whatever else I have on hand when I'm mixing a batch of bug chow.


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## ZephAmp (Jan 6, 2011)

I am a firm believer in the theory that roaches will eat certain food items depending on what type of nutrients they are needing at the moment. Therefore, I mix a lot of different ingredients together but leave them whole so the roaches can pick what they want. The primary components I use are dog food, parrot food (the kind that smells really fruity and is brightly colored, more on this in a sec), fish pellets, and ferret food. For feeders I mix in some high protein game bird crumble.

The most convincing "argument" I've seen for the selection theory was when I gave my _Eublaberus distanti_ (voracious feeders, they'll eat just about anything) a mix of fish pellets, dog food, and some new parrot food I was trying out. The next week, the styrofoam cup I had placed the food in was nearly gone, but in the tattered remains I found the parrot food, almost completely untouched. You know there's something bad about food when roaches won't touch it (heck they ate the styrofoam but not the parrot food!) Needless to say I've never used that brand again.


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## biomarine2000 (Jan 6, 2011)

Israel2004 said:


> I went out the local amvets and bought a old time hand crank meat grinder, works like a charm for grinding up dog food, cat food, oats & whatever else I have on hand when I'm mixing a batch of bug chow.


That's brilliant. What is amvets?  Also, how much was the meat grinder?



ZephAmp said:


> I am a firm believer in the theory that roaches will eat certain food items depending on what type of nutrients they are needing at the moment. Therefore, I mix a lot of different ingredients together but leave them whole so the roaches can pick what they want. The primary components I use are dog food, parrot food (the kind that smells really fruity and is brightly colored, more on this in a sec), fish pellets, and ferret food. For feeders I mix in some high protein game bird crumble.
> 
> The most convincing "argument" I've seen for the selection theory was when I gave my _Eublaberus distanti_ (voracious feeders, they'll eat just about anything) a mix of fish pellets, dog food, and some new parrot food I was trying out. The next week, the styrofoam cup I had placed the food in was nearly gone, but in the tattered remains I found the parrot food, almost completely untouched. You know there's something bad about food when roaches won't touch it (heck they ate the styrofoam but not the parrot food!) Needless to say I've never used that brand again.


That's hilarious. Thanks for the info.


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## Israel2004 (Jan 6, 2011)

biomarine2000 said:


> What is amvets?


sorta like a goodwill. 5 dollars for meat grinder instead 20-25 else where.


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## codykrr (Jan 6, 2011)

I go to wal mart, buy a 5 lbs bag of old roy dog food, and throw it in a blender i bought at a yard sale for 2 bucks.  works great.  but it is extremely loud.  so I wear ear protection and only do it when no one else it at home.

10 min to grind up a 5 lbs bag, which I store in the 1 gallon rubbermaid jars from wal mart.


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## biomarine2000 (Jan 6, 2011)

I've tried the blender thing.  It just doesn't seem to chop up the food.



codykrr said:


> I go to wal mart, buy a 5 lbs bag of old roy dog food, and throw it in a blender i bought at a yard sale for 2 bucks.  works great.  but it is extremely loud.  so I wear ear protection and only do it when no one else it at home.
> 
> 10 min to grind up a 5 lbs bag, which I store in the 1 gallon rubbermaid jars from wal mart.


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## codykrr (Jan 6, 2011)

hmmm....mine makes a fine powder.:?

I used a cheap coffee grinder too, but I broke the blade once and never did that again.


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## biomarine2000 (Jan 6, 2011)

codykrr said:


> hmmm....mine makes a fine powder.:?
> 
> I used a cheap coffee grinder too, but I broke the blade once and never did that again.


I'm finding that the meat grinders are as expensive as the blenders.  I might just run up to walmart and grab me a $20 dollar one tomorrow.


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## Israel2004 (Jan 7, 2011)

One thing I've noticed with my dubia colony is that the whole nuggets of dog/cat food I throw in disappears a lot quicker then the stuff I grind up.

I still grind it up because I want to make sure the tiny nymphs are eating.


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## biomarine2000 (Jan 7, 2011)

I used to order it from blaberus.com.  they ate it like there was no tomorrow.


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## Vulgaris (Jan 7, 2011)

I just mix various dried ingredients in a bag. Stuff that needs ground up, i take outside to my shed and hit it with a sledge hammer (gently of course). The dry diet is also supplemented with fresh fruits and veggies


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## TalonAWD (Jan 7, 2011)

I use poultry feed and they go crazy for it. Even crickets love it. I also grind it up in a blender till its a fine powder. They eat it faster if its down to powdery consistency.


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## Moltar (Jan 7, 2011)

I grind catfood in a blender and mix with oats. That's their staple but I also throw in stuff like veggie scraps, apples, mushrooms, etc from time to time. They seem to really, really love mushrooms.


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## biomarine2000 (Jan 7, 2011)

Thanks for all the ideas for roach food guys.  I picked up a blender from walmart for $13 bucks today and it worked like a charm.  Now I have my own powder roach food that takes very little time to make.  And Cody, its extremely loud.  lol


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## Matt K (Jan 8, 2011)

Grinding food for roaches is rediculous.  Roaches are decomposers, and made by nature to grind up food to consume it.  This includes dog food, cat food, any grains, most fruits or vegetables that they would consider.  Do you need your burger or french fries from McDonalds chopped up into tiny-fine pieces in order to eat it? Most likely not.

Also, stay away from parrot food.  Most brands have propylene glycol or have it as a constituent of the colorant used, and that can in turn be toxic to anything that you feed a roach too, provided of course that it does not kill the roaches.  Its safe for most mammals to consume, but some birds, reptiles, and invertebrates cannot tolerate it at all.  So better safe than sorry.


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## codykrr (Jan 8, 2011)

Matt, I understand what you are saying, but my roaches barely ate before I started grinding there food up.

I do not feed fresh veggies/fruit because of the fruit fly outbreak I once had when I did.  

I started to produce literally thousands more roaches once I started them on a diet of ground ole roy dog food.

To each their own.

Also, for those needing water crystals(if you prefer them over water dishes)

www.watergelcrystals.com

Get the large blend.

1 lbs will last forever.  about a year actually.

---------- Post added at 10:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 PM ----------

Wayne...It is worth the 1.25 for the ear plugs.


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## Galapoheros (Jan 9, 2011)

I buy dry organic cat food at Wholefoods, some greens, a slice of apple or orange and fish flakes now and then.  I don't crush things up, feed about twice a week, don't really think about when to feed I just take a look and throw a few things in without over doing it.  I get small flies but I live alone so don't have to worry about somebody else not liking it.


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## H. laoticus (Jan 9, 2011)

I use dry dog food and don't grind it.  I throw in some leafy veggies every now and then as well as some carrots.  The occasional fruit slice such as apple or orange are used and that's about it.


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## biomarine2000 (Jan 9, 2011)

There probably isn't a wrong way to do it. They are roaches after all. For me its all about convenience. I like it ground up so I csn pour it into a dish. It keeps it from  getting everywhere in the cage. 

Ever since u started keeping roaches I've had problems with the annoying gnats. I still don't know how to get rid of them.


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## Animalia (Jan 9, 2011)

I had gnat problems once with a tank that got out of hand.... I just got a mantid case... 50 little pray mantis... versus thousands of gnats..
Mantis where fat and full and i had no more crap flying around lol.

Then had alot of mantis =D 

Win, Win.

And i think zeus from the none kill rescue has some cases right now.


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## J Morningstar (Jan 10, 2011)

I use a ground organic seafood cat food blend(for this I use my hand blender and it does work great) mixed with finely chopped ends and left over veggies which are mostly spinach, romaine, peppers(yellow green or red) squash of any type, orange and assorted other vegatables..beets were an unexpected fave, and it seems hissers do not like muchrooms.. I make these into meatball sized balls, label the ingredients on the bags so I know what doesn't work, and freeze them in bags till ready to use, then 25 seconds in the microwave before feeding, ta da! Two balls a week and they last months! The onlything paid for is the catfood.
I was thinking of adding alge flakes or disks sometime to try it.


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## MauricesExoticP (Jan 14, 2011)

I have a mill grind the majority of my roach diet for me, ground to a flour like consistency for a couple of reasons, first is smaller food particle size affords a better blend of ingredients and insures every roach is getting every ingredient in the diet, second is that small particle size takes less energy to consume leaving more energy for other tasks like growing and breeding, and lastly because I have way to many roaches to be grinding up ingredients on a daily basis. 

On a side note, I don't use dog or cat food at all, the high fat content is in my opinion empty calories and does little by way of improving feeder quality.

I believe most use the cat and dog food for cost effectiveness, please correct me if I'm erring in this assumption.

That leads me to question how much do you feed any particular number of roaches. I would think volume of food consumed is not exactly a determining factor in its quality (several posts mention how much their roaches like a particular concoction of ingredients or commercial roach diet), but rather the result of breeding numbers or growth rate increase vs a particular quantity of food. 

Of course cost and end nutritional value of the insects being fed also play into the equation of roach diet value.

For example: fruits and vegetables range from 80 to 90% water and are fairly expensive as compared to your average bag of ol'roy dog food at Wall*Mart, but those fruits are also pretty low on the nutritional scale unless you are very adept at combining just the right quantities of fruits, greens, legumes, and root type vegetables, and supplement with a few B vitamins. The cost would be out of this world, and your production per dollar would be pretty low. 

Dog food provides all the required nutrients and a boat load of fat, and some stuff I'm not at all interested in making its way into my pets even in the smallest portions.

In the end, for me at least its a matter of nutritional value first, the food conversion rate being second on my list of priorities, followed by the overall cost effectiveness of a particular diet.

Maurice Pudlo


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## codykrr (Jan 14, 2011)

Maurice.

Yeah, I pretty much feed dog food, because they eat it, its cheap(for the masses of roaches I have) and seems to do the job well.

If I were feeding reptiles I would for sure change the diet to incorporate more nutrition. but for my collection of spiders and such it works great.

I have heard numerous variations of "roach foods"  and to be honest they all have there benefits and down sides.

I really believe you should feed your feeders according to what will be eating them.

For bearded dragons, chameleons, anoles and various other reptiles I would defiantly feed them a higher fruit and green ratio over just dry food.

I am curious as to what you feed yours now though.  maybe send me a pm if you dont want to post your recipe.


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## dtknow (Jan 14, 2011)

Probably the most cost effective way of getting nutritious roaches would be to feed your main colony on dog food etc. and then have a seperate container you feed out of stocked up with good stuff(fruits, veggies, leaves(blackberry/mulberry etc.) high quality dogfood or fishfood...I find dubia absolutely crave old Crested gecko Diet). The roaches will only eat so much fruits and veggies so it is best to still provide protein for the ones that are no longer thirsty but still a bit hungry. Of course periodically when numbers run low simply throw in some from your main colony.

On grinding up food-I would agree with the majority that grinding it up does make a difference in that less energy is used eating it which makes more energy for other things. Also-nymphs can feed easier. No need to grind down everything though. Someone on here noted that whole kibbles dissapear quicker this is due to them grabbing them and running away with them and feeding in their shelters.


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## Israel2004 (Jan 14, 2011)

dtknow said:


> Someone on here noted that whole kibbles dissapear quicker this is due to them grabbing them and running away with them and feeding in their shelters.


 That would be me. My colony is so small that I'm sure that it's not them pulling the kibble into the egg crates. I have one flat in there that I just pick up when I check on them. Whole kibble gets ate faster.


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## AudreyElizabeth (Jan 14, 2011)

dtknow said:


> Probably the most cost effective way of getting nutritious roaches would be to feed your main colony on dog food etc. and then have a seperate container you feed out of stocked up with good stuff(fruits, veggies, leaves(blackberry/mulberry etc.) high quality dogfood or fishfood...I find dubia absolutely crave old Crested gecko Diet).


Hey this is not a bad idea. After all, you gut load feeders from the pet store. 
I have fed Crested Gecko Diet to my dubia colony in the past. They do love it, but the cost would be prohibitive to feed as part of a staple.


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## catfishrod69 (Jan 14, 2011)

well if your wanting to do it easy, then dont grind it at all....dont see the point....my dubia have deep oatmeal bedding, i give them a few pieces of dog food, and every once in a while a few sliced carrots or potato, and some water gel....same for my lats and lobsters, only bedding isnt deep at all, just thin layer....i just dont wanna put too much work into feeding my feeders.....i already got alot of things to feed...


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## J Morningstar (Jan 16, 2011)

Mine are both feeders and pets, I use the ocean blend organic cat food(one bag bought every 2-3 months), but also since my wife and I eat a lot of vegetables there are a ton of trimmings that are not eaten, they get root vegetables like beets and yams, they get all sorts of dark greens like spinach,chard, and romaine, I also throw in an orange wedge into every batch of food, I believe I have a very well balanced staple diet for them as it varies with what I eat. So they get variety as well. But none of their "expensive" produce is bought for them except the orange about once every month and a half.


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## AaronP (Jan 16, 2011)

*Feeding Roaches*

I grind my food... why? After raising roaches on a pretty large scale for over 3 years, I find that roaches eat the ground stuff faster. 

They are decomposers, but in the wild, bacteria,enviroment,sunlight, ect, start the decomposing process. In captivity, all we are doing by grinding is mechanically decomposing instead of environmentally decomposing( allowing the critters bacteria ect in the environment to do it. ) 

I find mine go through almost 2x the feed in the same amount of time, if it is ground up. Whats that mean? they are spending more time eating and swallowing food instead of chewing(breaking) it up. When you have 70K lobsters in a bin, you notice how quickly the food disappears

Food: Variety is the Spice of Life. We have all heard that saying before, unless we live next our T's, i.e. under a rock. But it is really true. The more good quality ingredients, variety the better. Can you raise roaches on nothing but cheap crappy dog food? yes... but do you want to feed cheap crappy dog food to your tarantula are bearded dragon? or your dog for that matter? Probably not once you know what is in it.. As far as fresh fruits and vegis, i try to give all that I can as well. it dose lower the maintenance on the water dish, and I am sure that there are nutrients,enzymes,ect that are only found in fresh foods..lots of things break down when the food is heated and dehydrated ect.

Gut loading:  I believe that some gut loading can be good...but dosen't it make more sense to grow the roach with quality ingredients as opposed to just sprinkling some on top( or stuffing some inside as it were) when you are done?


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## VickyChaiTea (Jan 21, 2011)

Question would raw or cooked meats be a good source of protien? Why or why not? What about moist cat/dog food as opposed to dry? Are grain free cat/dogs food preferable to ones that are made out of almost nothing but corn (science diet, ol roy, friskies, ets.)


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## codykrr (Jan 23, 2011)

VickyChaiTea said:


> Question would raw or cooked meats be a good source of protien? Why or why not? What about moist cat/dog food as opposed to dry? Are grain free cat/dogs food preferable to ones that are made out of almost nothing but corn (science diet, ol roy, friskies, ets.)


Meat would be bad mainly because..

A. it rots

B. it would cause an outbreak of maggots/flies.

C. it stink!:barf:

moist cat and dog food will have the same problems as above.

You could use grain free dog/cat food. but why?  I feed cheap ole' roy and my colony thrives!


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## VickyChaiTea (Jan 23, 2011)

Well if you're using it for animal protien I'm afraid you won't find much if any. All the protien in low quality dog food comes from corn. So maybe roaches don't really need that much animal protien?


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## eeyoremd (Jan 24, 2011)

I feed all my roaches flake fish food and sliced cucumbers... They're not only thriving, but breeding a bit more than I'd like.


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## baconmushroom (Jan 25, 2011)

fruits really do well in my opinion, oranges and bananas to be exact..and you dont need water crystals since they get all the liquid in the fruits..but thats just me..so far so good with the roach colony.


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## dtknow (Jan 25, 2011)

AaronP said:


> Gut loading:  I believe that some gut loading can be good...but dosen't it make more sense to grow the roach with quality ingredients as opposed to just sprinkling some on top( or stuffing some inside as it were) when you are done?


Not necessarily. While its true roaches are uptaking the nutrition from their food-you can only change the roaches chemistry to a certain point with their diet-excess will simply be excreted. I have no evidence to support my belief but I think that feeding some roaches on a high quality diet for several weeks prior to feeding them off would result in equivalent nutritional value compared to roaches fed this same diet all their lives. Keep in mind a large part of what your animal is eating is the gut contents of their prey. Gross as it is-the smell of the gut contents changes depending on what the roaches are eating(I know this because sometimes I chop them or they get ripped in half by my bluetongue skink...if they've been fed a lot of fruit they have a distinctly sweet, yeasty odor).


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## hassman789 (Jan 30, 2011)

I am thinking about getting a roach colony (can't deal with crickets) and I have dogs so I can just give them dog food as a staple. But I also have these dry box turtle food pellets. I really want to get rid of them. Do you think roaches would do good on that for a little while?


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## ZephAmp (Jan 30, 2011)

hassman789 said:


> I am thinking about getting a roach colony (can't deal with crickets) and I have dogs so I can just give them dog food as a staple. But I also have these dry box turtle food pellets. I really want to get rid of them. Do you think roaches would do good on that for a little while?


That will be just fine for them. Probably better than the dog food.


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## hassman789 (Jan 30, 2011)

ZephAmp said:


> That will be just fine for them. Probably better than the dog food.


Cool thanks!


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