Another B. dubia question

[Tremors]

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I am not a long term and constant keeper of B. dubia so I don't have that long term experience.

Here's what I want to know - I have read all over the www of the craziest things people feed to their B. dubia. The last time I had some I threw in some of my Mazuri water turtle food and Purina Trout Chow #500, and some ZooMed turtle pellets and the little suckers vaporized it. I also had at the same time in their enclosure roach chow I bought from the seller along with water gel and oranges etc...

I've read on this site of people using Ol' Roy dog food from Wal-Mart.

Exactly what is the best type of dry food to supplement their diet?

 

[EShell]

Dubia will eat many things, but we must remember that whatever we feed our feeders goes straight to our actual specimens.

I would suggest researching the nutritional values required for your eater, then tailor the feeder's diet to provide the best benefit to the end user.

For example, I feed my Dubia to bearded dragons. I use a mixture of dry cereal or oatmeal, bearded dragon pellets, tropical fish food and a high calcium food, like cricket chow or Layena crumbles (high calcium laying hen feed). I run this through the blender so it's well mixed and pulverized and the Dubia eat it readily.

This mix would not be best for feeding tarantulas, because they don't need the calcium supplement, so I would not use the cricket pellets or the laying hen feed, but would use more fish/cat food and regular chicken feed.

Note that chicken feed is a well balanced blend of nutrients, and VERY cheap when compared to the inflated cost of "pet" foods, especially stuff relabeled for "exotic" pets.

If we examine the nutritional labels on many types of pet/livestock feed, we see most of the difference is in processing. For example, fish flakes and cat food share most ingredients and proportions, but the flakes get rolled out flat, packaged in tiny containers and sell for ten times as much as cat food.

I also feed fresh fruit, mainly oranges, but also apples and occasionally bananas. The oranges are said to be a great aphrodisiac and encourages reproduction. The fruit helps keep the humidity up, but must be changed out frequently to avoid fruit flies, which mostly seem to come in on the apples.

 

[bugmankeith]

Mine get the usual dry cat kibble,apples,bananas,romaine lettuce, white bread. and a misting each night for water.

As a treat they also love cooked hamburger meat, beef or pear baby food, and canned papayas sold for iguanas.