Building up Dubias Colony

[CrazyChamLady13]

Well, my 3 amigos, Freckles (beardie), Kayla, and Waldo all have switched gears on me and said they didn't want roaches anymore. So I've been feeding them crickets and hoping I can get some silkies. In the meantime, this gives me time to populate my colony. I was thinking about feeding them some dry cat food for the protein, roach dry mix, fresh wet mix. It stays pretty warm in the apartment but looking to get a heat pad too.

But someone told me that all I need to do is throw food in once a week and water crystals in and leave them alone. Is that true?

 

[camimom]

You don't want to feed cat food, its too high in protein.

I tend to feed my roaches whenever they run out of food, to keep the colony going.

You want warmth, water and food, that's the best method to keep them breeding.

and I cant believe waldo went on a strike. try not offering any food to him for acouple days, and then offer roaches, see if that fixes his little stubborn issue.

 

[drcrossfire]

You don't want to feed cat food, its too high in protein.

I tend to feed my roaches whenever they run out of food, to keep the colony going.

You want warmth, water and food, that's the best method to keep them breeding.

and I cant believe waldo went on a strike. try not offering any food to him for acouple days, and then offer roaches, see if that fixes his little stubborn issue.

to elaborate-- cat/dog foods are too high in animal protein for them. Dubias convert this into uric acid crystals which over time, builds up in their system. This is bad for 2 reasons:

1.) The uric acid will eventually kill off your colony! you will see a colony collapse in the future.
2.) If you feed the dubias to your chameleon, the uric acid will build up in the joints of your chameleon and can cause gout.

best to use plant proteins~ I go to a farm shop and buy alfalfa by the 50lbs bag and feed them that. Its for horses.

 

[CrazyChamLady13]

Lol yep he turns his nose to them. He even flared up and started hissing at them.

 

[CrazyChamLady13]

to elaborate-- cat/dog foods are too high in animal protein for them. Dubias convert this into uric acid crystals which over time, builds up in their system. This is bad for 2 reasons:

1.) The uric acid will eventually kill off your colony! you will see a colony collapse in the future.
2.) If you feed the dubias to your chameleon, the uric acid will build up in the joints of your chameleon and can cause gout.

best to use plant proteins~ I go to a farm shop and buy alfalfa by the 50lbs bag and feed them that. Its for horses.

Alfalfa pellets huh? My mom has horses I can see if she can send me a small bag.

 

[kgallego]

to elaborate-- cat/dog foods are too high in animal protein for them. Dubias convert this into uric acid crystals which over time, builds up in their system. This is bad for 2 reasons:

1.) The uric acid will eventually kill off your colony! you will see a colony collapse in the future.
2.) If you feed the dubias to your chameleon, the uric acid will build up in the joints of your chameleon and can cause gout.

best to use plant proteins~ I go to a farm shop and buy alfalfa by the 50lbs bag and feed them that. Its for horses.

This is very interesting. Thanks for this information. Do you mind if I ask from what source you're basing this information? I don't mean to question you, but as I'm sure you're well aware of, lots of people post their opinions on here which are not based on facts.

I've noticed that my roaches get much fatter when I throw in a few pellets of dog food. I assumed that it was a good thing, so I've been keeping a limited amount in there (10-15 pieces for ~600 roaches). If it's going to cause problems for my roaches and cham's, I'll put an immediate stop to it.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Seiryu]

Here is a good article.

http://www.store.repashy.com/can-feeder-insect-diets-contribute-to-gout-in-reptiles.html

It should also be known that it isn't JUST dog/cat food that can cause roaches to store uric acid, it's a certain protein % regardless of where it came from.

Keep in mind, when roaches were first starting off, a lot of places did use dog/cat food in their chows without too many problems. There wasn't nearly as much scientific research on these right off.

Really you want to shoot for 10-18% protein. Dubia already have a roughly 32% protein content when fed to our reptiles.

 

[little leaf]

Alfalfa pellets huh? My mom has horses I can see if she can send me a small bag.

make sure you ask your mom what the protein is in it- it can go from 12% - on up - I also use rabbit food & NON MEDICATED chick started as a base- but I also add all the stuff from Sanderas blog to my mix- then I bake it for like an hour to help dry it out- some of the seeds can make it cake in the blender - also the dried fruit makes it cake I think ?? but you will see a huge jump in your roaches if you add the correct food , and some heat -

 

[ridgebax1]

The amazing thing is that they will eat anything including other roaches. I have a colony that had been neglected for months and they were surving just fine. They were not given food or water as my son decided not to use them for his daughter's lizard. When I decided to start caring for them there were still a couple hundred in the bin. Now they get a dry gutload I made using Sandra's blog water crystals and fruit and vegetables. I have an overhead heat source and they are making babies like crazy!