Hisser Chow

EulersK

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My dubia colonies have been thriving for ages on pure unmedicated chick feed. I supplement them with fruits and veggies, sure, but they'd reproduce just fine on nothing but the chick feed. I'm beginning to think that hissers won't follow the same nutrition. I can certainly tell that the feed I've poured in has diminished, but nowhere near the rate that I thought it would for such large inverts. They seem fond of fruit, but I despise feeding fruit so often due to the flies reproducing in uneaten bits.

The simple solution would be to just feed fresh food... which isn't much of an option to me. I'm trying to make a production here, and that's not quite easy enough. I'm looking for a dry food that they'll readily eat and that I'll supplement with fresh food, just like the dubia colonies. Does anyone have success with such a food? Dried fruits came to mind, but those are so ungodly expensive.
 

Patherophis

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Dog food and dry bread work quite well in my case, but I have quite small colony of hissers so I am not sure how it would work in larger scale. They are the best eaters from all roaches I have.
 

EulersK

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Have you tried fish flakes?
Dog food and dry bread work quite well in my case, but I have quite small colony of hissers so I am not sure how it would work in larger scale. They are the best eaters from all roaches I have.
Ah, that may work. I think that I'll mix fish flakes and dog food in a blender for the chow. I can't believe that I didn't think of that. Thanks guys :D
 

VolkswagenBug

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Ah, that may work. I think that I'll mix fish flakes and dog food in a blender for the chow. I can't believe that I didn't think of that. Thanks guys :D
No problem. You could also put some oatmeal or plain oats in with those to dilute the high amount of protein (assuming you're using that as their main food). If you do, you'll have to check and spot clean to make sure it doesn't get moldy.
 

WeightedAbyss75

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If you can, you could feed sweet potato. My G. oblongata go crazy for the stuff, and it tands to last quite a long time :D But I would agree that hissers really like some type of fruit or veg in the diet, may be able to mix this in to your hisser chow? Just an idea ;)
 

Hisserdude

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Honestly, chick feed should work just fine for them, as long as they are also offered fruits and veggies, (which they seem to really like). I'm using the stuff for most of my roaches, and while I don't actually have hissers, the majority of my roaches eat it just fine. I have noticed that some species eat less of it than they do cat food, but they are by no means starving, and they seem perfectly healthy, so I think it's just more filling or something.

Also, if your colony is just starting out, they may not eat too much, they honestly don't go through food all that fast until their population starts growing large. I really think that's the only thing that's going on here, not a specific food preference or anything.

BTW, while it seems like roaches really LOVE fish flakes and eat it much faster than dog/cat food, that's because it has much less volume, so they just run out of food way faster. In reality, they really don't have much of a preference between dog food and fish food, and fish food is usually a lot more expensive...
 

Randomjoe

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Like Hisserdude said chick feed with fruit and veggies is fine, and the just don't eat as much as you would think they would. My dubia and orange heads both out eat my hissers.
 

EulersK

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Honestly, chick feed should work just fine for them, as long as they are also offered fruits and veggies, (which they seem to really like). I'm using the stuff for most of my roaches, and while I don't actually have hissers, the majority of my roaches eat it just fine. I have noticed that some species eat less of it than they do cat food, but they are by no means starving, and they seem perfectly healthy, so I think it's just more filling or something.

Also, if your colony is just starting out, they may not eat too much, they honestly don't go through food all that fast until their population starts growing large. I really think that's the only thing that's going on here, not a specific food preference or anything.

BTW, while it seems like roaches really LOVE fish flakes and eat it much faster than dog/cat food, that's because it has much less volume, so they just run out of food way faster. In reality, they really don't have much of a preference between dog food and fish food, and fish food is usually a lot more expensive...
Thanks for the info! I think that I still may try adding in some dog food. It's just that the adults seem terribly skinny compared to when I first got them, and they go absolutely mad over the fruits I provide as if they're starving. Conversely, they're certainly reproducing, so there's that.
 

Hisserdude

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Thanks for the info! I think that I still may try adding in some dog food. It's just that the adults seem terribly skinny compared to when I first got them, and they go absolutely mad over the fruits I provide as if they're starving. Conversely, they're certainly reproducing, so there's that.
The females may look flat after giving birth, but if the males are also very flat, that is a bit strange... Well let us know how it goes, curious to see if they'll pick the dog food over the chick feed!
 

EulersK

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The females may look flat after giving birth, but if the males are also very flat, that is a bit strange... Well let us know how it goes, curious to see if they'll pick the dog food over the chick feed!
Well, I threw in some ground dog food overnight to see how it went. That was certainly the problem - they ate every grain of it. On top of that, I noticed that a good chunk of the chick feed was gone as well. I think that a needed aspect of their diet was missing from the chick feed, and the dog food provided that. So thanks @Patherophis and @Hisserdude for the advice, that did the trick!
 

Hisserdude

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Well, I threw in some ground dog food overnight to see how it went. That was certainly the problem - they ate every grain of it. On top of that, I noticed that a good chunk of the chick feed was gone as well. I think that a needed aspect of their diet was missing from the chick feed, and the dog food provided that. So thanks @Patherophis and @Hisserdude for the advice, that did the trick!
Huh, weird, you got some picky hissers there lol! :p Well I'm glad they are eating more now, hope they do well for you!
 

EulersK

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Huh, weird, you got some picky hissers there lol! :p Well I'm glad they are eating more now, hope they do well for you!
An interesting note is that the E. javanica's have no problem with pure chick feed. They're all nice and plump. It's the Gromphadorhina sp. that's the picky one.
 

Hisserdude

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An interesting note is that the E. javanica's have no problem with pure chick feed. They're all nice and plump. It's the Gromphadorhina sp. that's the picky one.
That's really weird, you'd think the Gromphadorhina would be less picky!
 
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