A question about gut loading, dog food and dubia

I am going to start a dubia colony for my chams.

Question: If I am to raising dubia on Dog food, how long should I quarantine them and feed them cricket crack and veggies to be safe for my cham?

I NEVER use dog food for gut-loading. That is what was first thought to be healthy for them, along time ago. I feed mine vegies along with some chicken meal, very little. That way you don't have to quarantine or wait at all. If you go to several of the big food chainstores, you will eventually well hopefully find one that will give you fruit and vegies that they can no longer sell for human consumtion. This can be extremely helpful in keeping a roach colony fed and happy and staying in one place. lol. Around here Hannaford is really good. I go every Tuesday and i usually get a HUGE garbage bag full of stuff.

bake said:

I am going to start a dubia colony for my chams.

Question: If I am to raising dubia on Dog food, how long should I quarantine them and feed them cricket crack and veggies to be safe for my cham?

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As long as possible. the longer the better. several weeks if you can.

I prefer to almost never use dog food or other animal protein/fat. I feed them good stuff all the time. Its far easier than remembering to separate out and specially gutload in advance. I also tend to think a life of good food makes for a better roach (better in terms of cham consumption) than a roach only having goodness from what's in their guts that day.

I too get free bruised apples and such from a local grocery, during the winter when Im not able to grow as much myself. Buying carrots in a 5 pound bag is pretty cheap. Squash is pretty cheap. Dandelion leaves grow free as a weed in my back yard. You probably can find cheap alternatives to dog food too. the less dog/cat/chicken food you use, the better, IMHO

dubia df or not ?

bake said:

I am going to start a dubia colony for my chams.

Question: If I am to raising dubia on Dog food, how long should I quarantine them and feed them cricket crack and veggies to be safe for my cham?

Click to expand...

dubia can cycle an amazing amount of food, so their systems clean out fairly quickly, on the other hand if you want to start feeding off of your colony right away, i would just skip the dog food altogether. properly gutloaded dubia will thrive just fine without any df (assuming you have a nutritious and well balanced gut load) and then it becomes a non issue. i feed my dubia the same gutload i feed my cricks , occassionally i throw in a melon rind, or a pinch of bee pollen and of course some water crystals

I know that a lot of people who sell roaches breed on Dog/Cat food and broccoli exclusively, then they sell them off. Therefore, I wait a couple months before feeding them to my chams., just to be safe.

I breed my dubia/lateralis colonies and crickets with Colard greens, dandelions,Kale,carrots,oranges,apples,melon and oats. The feeders love it just as much and it is very cheap. Everything I have read says it is safe also.