Dog food and orange slices make a great staple roach diet.
These are teneral roaches, they have just recently molted.
Now on to the main topic. Feeding your roaches. You will find that feeding your roach colony to be one of the easiest things to accomplish. A high quality dog or cat food will work as the main diet. Then make sure to supplement the diet with fruit and vegetables to ensure that your roaches will breed readily. I've found citrus fruits tend to be especially liked and work well for inducing breeding and egg laying. While withholding said fruits and vegetables will slow it down or stop it completely.
I will note that if your roaches are feeders for something else, that it may be advised to do further research on your specific animals diet, and choose your roaches diet accordingly. For example feeding reptile or fish pellets in place of dog food, for roaches destined for reptiles or fish. I've also heard claims that animals that eat roaches fed on dog or cat food cause gout in their reptiles. I will admit I have not seriously looked into those claims and it is my OPINION that the gout was likely caused by simply not feeding a variety of things and instead relying on a single feeder insect for their reptiles needs.
Using and raising roaches for the express purposes of feeding other animals is beyond the purview of this blog but I felt it pertinent to mention a possible although in my opinion, an easily avoided risk, of using roaches as a SOLE feeding source.
A note on Periplaneta as feeders, Periplaneta do make excellent feeders for many animals, however they do have one serious drawback, they can be very fast when they are trying to escape a predator, and as a result the chances of escape are increased when moving them from one enclosure to another. If you are using Periplaneta as feeders, do any capture of them outdoors, or in a room where if they escape the can easily be caught, or killed, before they can hide. Now as I have stated previously Periplaneta have some difficulties in infesting homes outside ba tropical climate, and even in a tropical climate find houses not to their liking, but in my opinion, why take chances?
I don't feel like listing a huge list of what fruits roaches can eat, but generally you will find out what your roaches prefer through offering different types of fruit. Mine prefer oranges, peaches, nectarines, kiwis, and watermelon, and they dislike banana, strawberries, Raspberries, blackberries. As for veggies, bell pepper seems to be a hit, but in short if it's safe for feeding to parrots, or vegetarian reptiles it's safe for roaches as well.
That chunk of kiwi is too much for a colony of that size, but since I change fruit out every 24 hours it's no issue. They don't need a lot. Generally changing fresh food every 24 to 48 hours is perfect for preventing mold and smell, as an added bonus it also helps reduce pest infestation, since that's not enough time for fruit or phorid flies to complete their metamorphosis, but enough time for them to lay eggs on it. ;)
Next time, we may discuss breeding, as of now I have some ooth cooking, but they have yet to hatch.
Great comprehensive post man! :D That teneral Australian roach looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYou should get some. :p
ReplyDeleteUm, darklings are mostly plant-eating omnivores in the wild, and Roachcrossing care guide says that roaches should be fed similarly, as too much protein could harm them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how true this is for Periplaneta (haven't researched), but I still imagine that they would do better on a mostly leafy diet, with some fruit/carrots every half-week and dogfood as more of a supplement.
@Periplaneta Missionary I think I'll pass for now! :p Dorylaea orini is close enough looking for me as an adults! Periplaneta japonica is officially on my wish list though, so I may have at least one Periplaneta species in my collection!
ReplyDelete@AlexW There's actually a bit of a discussion on Facebook about the whole protein issue. Alan Jeon seems to think the studies saying that too much protein can be harmful are BS, as there are several roach colonies at his university that have been fed nothing but dog food since the late 90s, and they are thriving.
He's also found that some Corydiids like Therea and Ergaula do fine on a main diet of dog food, with almost no dead leaves, and even grow faster that way!
Of course, brands of dog food vary in terms of protein levels and ingredients, the cheapest stuff is mostly corn based, and is thus probably better for the roaches than the more expensive brands that have more meat in them.
Haven't fiddled with facebook yet. Your mention of Alan reminds me of how margarine was supposed to be healthier than butter but was far worse.
DeleteYes, I know Alan had a lot of personal experience, but it still sounds risky. Keep in mind that he has apparently met Kyle (roachcrossing) for a Eurycotis hunt, and Kyle is a big expert too.
He and Kyle are really good friends, they've met on multiple occasions and talk to each other pretty frequently it seems. Both are very knowledgeable, so that they seemingly don't agree on this subject really does make you wonder who's right? Likely, the truth lies somewhere in between there two theories, but who knows.
DeleteAll I know is that I have been raising several species on just dog food/chick feed for a couple years now, with no bad effects! I only really offer fruits and veggies to sensitive live bearers or certain other roaches proven not to do well without fruits in their diet, or as filler food for large colonies of roaches.