Making Cricket/Roach Chow this winter

[Chino82]

Winter is upon us in Upstate NY which means I need to make sure I keep my feeders alive and reproducing. Already lost 2 boxes of crickets in delivery due to cold.

I know there are so many recipes out there for feeder chows, but wanted to try something different with what I had on hand.

For the base I’m using this rabbit food which I will grind to a powder.

To this base I will add bee pollen, moringa powder, nutritional yeast and nonfat dry milk.

I’m also contemplating adding some of my vegan protein powder

I’m planning to start a grasshopper colony this spring so looking to make chow for them as well using the rabbit food powder.

 

[Chino82]

This is the moringa powder nutritional data

 

[MissSkittles]

Looks good to me, but I’m not all that knowledgeable about invert diet/nutrition like @jamest0o0 and some others.

 

[Chino82]

Currently I have dubia roach and shadow roach colonies

 

[nightanole]

Id watch using a base of Guinea pig or rabbit food. You have to really watch the vitamin and mineral mix. You will have a good amount of die off if the calcium and protein get too high, and the cham is not going to be happy if they have high gut loads of The Fat-Soluble Vitamins: A, D, E and K. Plenty of Guinea pig pellets are bucking close to 20% protein which will kill off a dubia colony(though the crickets would be happy).

You can however dilute with alfalfa grass pellets.

 

[jamest0o0]

Id watch using a base of Guinea pig or rabbit food. You have to really watch the vitamin and mineral mix. You will have a good amount of die off if the calcium and protein get too high, and the cham is not going to be happy if they have high gut loads of The Fat-Soluble Vitamins: A, D, E and K. Plenty of Guinea pig pellets are bucking close to 20% protein which will kill off a dubia colony(though the crickets would be happy).

You can however dilute with alfalfa grass pellets.

Got sidetracked, was about to say almost the exact same as this lol. I’d dilute it or feed very small amounts.

Many roach species can handle higher loads of protein(Dubia not as much though), but may not be great for the Cham. I’d be concerned about excess fat soluble vitamins.

I liked using whole ingredient horse chow. My colonies thrived with it and didn’t have any added vitamins. You should be able to put this stuff to use, I just wouldn’t overdo it.