Different Roach Types

[zlew]

Hi, right now I've been feeding my guy dubias. Cup feeding doesn't seem to cut it for him and worms are hard to free-roam feed. But he loves his dubias. Im wondering--do discoid roaches and hissing cockroaches have different nutritional value, just to give him more variety? I think he likes the way they move and look.

 

[zlew]

whoops wrong forum! sorry!

 

[zlew]

could I gutload different roach colonies differently for more variety?

 

[zlew]

Bump! Anyone?

 

[nick barta]

I would guess varying gut loads would give you only marginal differences, and it would be a guessing game. I would think that different species would give you different protein levels, perhaps even different absorption levels.

Where is Sandrachameleon when you need her?

Nick

 

[fluxlizard]

Yes you can gutload to get varied nutritional value- and this is especially true if you feed a particular recipe over the lifespan of the insect.

And yes, different roaches have different nutritional values. I saw a chart once that had a few different species of roach alongside other feeder insects. There were differences in the roaches that were fairly significant, but I can't recall what they were or where I found the chart.

I've seen a chart with different species of crickets also, and they also had significantly different nutritional values.

I once saw some speculation that roaches in and of themselves may lack something specific that lizards need or greatly benefit from- but I can't remember what that was now, and for that matter have no idea if the speculation proved correct. A protein or not enough fat compared to protein or something maybe? Anyway, it is probably best to feed at least one other non-roach insect alongside your roaches to make sure your lizards get whatever that missing ingredient was and just to round things out.

Variation in diet will make a difference for different colonies, but different species of insect tend to maximize different nutrients when fed even identical diets. (For example, when fed the same diet, the calcium content of mealworms will be higher than that of crickets).

So you can improve and play with nutritional content some with different groups of the same species, but different species and moreso different genus of insects, play an important role in a varied diet as well. You probably can't play with diet enough to make a roach and a cricket have identical nutritional values, for example. But you can feed to provide a certain significant amount of varied nutritional value within a single species- vita-bugs is a commercial example that exploits this fact- feed a high quality food over the lifespan of the insect and it will have a higher nutritional value than an insect fed lower quality diet- even when that insect is later gutloaded.

I breed and feed lobster roaches, dubia, hissers, blaberus hybrids and green banana roaches, as well as mealworms, crickets, superworms and soldier fly larvae in the summer.

Collecting roaches is interesting in and of itself too though. I'm resisting the urge to add discoids to the insect menagerie, but I might give in at some point. LOL.