Growing Dubia Colony with Cat Food

[seanUTD]

So I only have a few dubias as my complex does NOT want roaches so I haven't been confident enough to order some for fear of interception, but I was graciously given some as I stated by an awesome forum member Reptoman a.k.a. Brian and my question is I have some left over food from my cat (Dry food).. is it a good way to grow a colony up if all else is right... I thought it would be considering its high levels of fat and protein but I could be wrong... I will of course NOT be feeding these to my panther as he is only 4 months and is too small.. At this point Im just trying to build the colony up

 

[Olimpia]

Yes, absolutely. Roaches will go nuts for food with protein in it, so as long as you're just letting the colony grow then that will be fine along with veggies for hydration.

However - and this is important - you want to stay away from feeding your insects animal protein (like in dog and cat food) because too much of it will give your chameleon health problems like gout. Very little is ok but once you start feeding out of the colony you want to add in a lot healthier foods. Sandrachameleon has fantastic blogs on here with loads of nutritional info.

 

[seanUTD]

Yes, absolutely. Roaches will go nuts for food with protein in it, so as long as you're just letting the colony grow then that will be fine along with veggies for hydration.

However - and this is important - you want to stay away from feeding your insects animal protein (like in dog and cat food) because too much of it will give your chameleon health problems like gout. Very little is ok but once you start feeding out of the colony you want to add in a lot healthier foods. Sandrachameleon has fantastic blogs on here with loads of nutritional info.

Well I wont be feeding ANY of the roaches to him until the colony is built up (two months)... Over time is it okay to ween them onto something else more healthy for my cham or will the cat food just plain kill their nutritional value permanently

 

[JohnnyD]

You can feed them dog or cat food but make sure you feed them only fruits and veggies for a week or two before you feed them off. If you grind up the cat/dog food, it will be easier for the roaches to eat. They will grow way faster on the high protein foods.

 

[Olimpia]

Na the cat food should be fine while they're growing and such. If you can throw in other stuff periodically that might be better but they will do well for you. And then a couple weeks before you start feeding them start to cut out the cat food and throw in more veggies and healthy dry gutloads.

 

[seanUTD]

Oh definitely I have oranges, carrots, potato and such in there right now! I'll see if I cant get the colony started thanks guys