What to feed hissers

[MrGhostMantis]

I've tried banana, cucumber, apple, carrot, watermelon, dog food, and cat food. They never show interest. Any ideas why?

 

[docwade87]

Not sure why they wouldn’t eat any of that.

If I remember when I had them long ago, I fed mine roach chow or big chow. Repashy has one that you can make and all roach species I’ve ever kept go nuts over it.

 

[ReignofInvertebrates]

I keep mine on a diet of fresh carrots and fish food pellets. They seem to enjoy both of those.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Mine will eat all of that.
I mainly feed rabbit pellets and fish food but they get carrots, banana, melon, squash, whatever.
Mine love squash and melon the most I think.

They might not be eating if the temps are low. Not sure.
How are you keeping them?

 

[MrGhostMantis]

I recently have to swap out the bedding to paper towels because of how high the humidity was too high in my house. It also has been around 80-85 where they are kept.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

I recently have to swap out the bedding to paper towels because of how high the humidity was too high in my house. It also has been around 80-85 where they are kept.

Temp is good but ditch bedding and keep them on vertical eggcrate. It makes cleaning a breeze.
I started with six a couple years ago and have a colony easily almost a thousand.
They are very hardy

 

[Smotzer]

Mine were like yours were very picky and did not seem to want to eat anything fresh like fruit or veggies. But they would devour rolled oats particularly and sometimes cat food. How I got them to eat fresh was mush some fruit or banana into the rolled oats to get it into them that way. Eventually they got used to the taste but it was like giving a dog medicine where you had to trick it into eating what was good for them by sneaking it in their food.

 

[Polenth]

Fish food and cereals are favourites. Peas and apple slices are the fresh favourites. None of mine have liked cucumber.

I did have one who didn't like wet food of any sort, so that can happen... not an issue as long as there's a range of dried food and drinking water. He lived for four years.

 

[Whiplash Girlchild]

You could try potatoes, oats, squash, pumpkin, dog food. Dry food works best as it doesn't rot as quickly. Oranges seem to be pretty popular with mine.

 

[DrippingPopsicle]

There are many commercially available roach diets made primarily for dubia roaches that Im sure they would enjoy eating. You can get some at a local pet store probably.

 

[BladeGypsy]

I had a colony in a ten gallon tank. They ate just about anything. (No meats and such though) They seemed to absolutely love cheerios. Oranges worked well too. But basically I gave them what I had on hand at the time that was a fresh fruit or veggie. For water, I eventually opted out of using any sort of water dish and misted once in awhile is all - they lived just fine. I second the egg crate suggestion. Once/if you have a large colony - it keeps things much simpler to maintain.

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Can you describe how you gave them food and how you kept them?

 

[BladeGypsy]

Sure thing.
I'm only describing what worked for me, please keep that in mind.

So, ten gallon glass tank with a metal screen lid.
Vaseline/petroleum jelly lining the inner-upper rim, to help prevent escapees. \

Originally I purchased them from a local kid and their parent that did not want them anymore - they came in the ten gallon tank but with decor and cork bark and coco fiber substrate and a water dish with little plastic animal themed decor.
I learned the hard way - switch all that crud out. They actually EAT the plastic leaf decor and everything else!!!! Obviously NOT good, especially when one is using them for a feeder source to other critters. They also eat the cork bark. And they can hide in the teeny crevices of the bark, the nymphs are especially hard to remove if one decides to not use cork bark any longer in their enclosure.

I ended up nixing the water dish as well - no more nymph drownings, and no larger roach going to the shallow water dish to attempt a molt and end up drowning, and also no scum to clean out of a water dish all the time.
A little water mist - or not.
Basically, the initial set up was pretty - but a complete disaster for maintenance.

So, I ended up with a glass ten gallon tank with egg crate ONLY and there was a heat mat attached to the SIDE, not bottom. I tried a heat mat at bottom and it got WAY too hot for comfort.
Feed them.

When my colony started to get far larger than I need/preferred, I unplugged the heat mat.
All lived just fine, just less breeding - my current dubia colony is the same.


As a note, if you have just a few hissers as pets, a lot of this experience can be thrown out.
In large numbers the issues I mentioned arise more readily.


I hope some of this helped though.

 

[connieisdead]

Mine usually eat romaine lettuce, apples, carrots, and fish flakes, and they all eat very readily.