# General Topics > Food, Feeders, Live, Frozen, Culturing, etc >  dubia roach + protein theory something every dubia breeder should know

## demon amphibians

I have been thinking a lot about recent threads concerning the dubia roach diet. There have been large debates on what the best foods are such as chicken mash, oranges, carrots, dog food etc. The debate about protein however has sparked the biggest and most heated discussions. 
                Now, some of the points that people have made have got me thinking.  So I did some research.  I stumbled onto to great piece of information that could impact the roach breeding community, and it wasnt hard to find. In fact, this stuff is something you can learn in Jr. high school.  
What I researched does not necessarily pertain to the dubia roach in particular but it has many similarities. What I did was take this information and what I already know about them and did the math. 
This information that I am going to provide is just ballpark example so that we can better understand what types of foods that the roaches require for optimal growth and production and what is not necessary thus making our frogs meal times much more convenient, as well as nutritious and affordable. 
Before I post  my theory to you all I want your opinions.
1. Do dubia roaches require more protein then what we can deliver through fruits and veggies?
2.  Will the introduction of high protein foods such as dog food, cat food and fish flakes really influence how fast they grow and how well they reproduce? 
3. Do dubia even require protein from their food source at all?
With this, I will start a small experiment to prove my theory. Although my experiment will be small and inconclusive because I am not experimenting on my breeders, only the growth of nymphs, using only 20 roaches of different sizes total.  
I am certain I am only reinventing the wheel here. I just want to do it anyway just to see it isolated and first hand.  I will start my experiment today. When I have a good amount of feedback and or interest from you guys, I will post my theory.

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Heatheranne

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## Jeff

Unfortunately, we rely on information from the general web and from books for most of our research on these topics. Primary literature in peer-review journals offers some of the best information, and the topic of protein has been studied on Blattella germanica. These sources aren't as readily available to the general public without accounts through universities or some full-text prints available via Google Scholar. You'd be surprised how long it can take information from these sources to leak into the general public; I've met people who to this day believe a particular python complex is still considered subspecies of one another when a paper in 1998 raised each to full species status. 14 years, and people are still following the old nomenclature. 

If you are interested in insect nutritional studies, I would review some literature by Mark D. Finke. 

In addition to the paper on effects of protein on growth and reproduction of the German Roach (article I linked to you earlier), here is another paper of interest:
*Jones, S. A., Raubenheimer, D. (2001). Nutritional regulation in nymphs of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica 
**Journal of Insect Physiology, Vol 47, Issue 10, September 2001, p 1169-1180.*1) Depends on the nitrogen concentration of the food item being offered. Grain products tend to be higher in protein, and are fine to add to the diet. Nitrogen is often a limiting nutrient in many insect diets and is often obtained through the digestion of amino acids. Plant material as a general rule is often high in carbon (i.e. cellulose and other complex carbohydrates) and lower in nitrogen. Some insects have evolved to thrive on high cellulose diets (termites) and termites and cockroaches are both within the same Order, Blattodea. Some cockroaches are known to contain protozoans to assist in cellulose digestion, so plant matter is undoubtedly a part of the natural diet. They are decomposers, they likely feed on detritus and other junk that falls to the forest floor in the neotropics (B. dubia).

2)  Yes. It can influence them negatively in high concentrations. The type of protein is also an important consideration. I briefly talked this over with Kyle Kandilian at RoachCrossing and he too beleives that moisture is likely the bigger contributor to palatability of the food source. Other considerations are things like carotenoid concentration, which may very likely explain why oranges seems to yield better reproduction for some individuals. 

3) Yes. But not in high concentrations like most people seem to think is essential in a good gutload.

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Heatheranne

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## demon amphibians

Jeff you are a smart man that is exactly the direction i am heading in. Also i read through the article you sent and i learned in fact much more then I was already headed towards to begin with.

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## demon amphibians

I have a good friend that is going to school for biology and well i started asking him questions. And he filled me in on a few key points on plant eating insects as well as mammals. What i gained from it is exactly what Jeff is talking about. So to better understand a decomposers and how they digest there food is some what similar to a herbivore such as a cow. It has bacteria like us that breaks down the cellulose in the plant matter that they eat. Just as such how a banana starts to turn brown after time. (which is a good clue as to why roaches prefer brown bananas over a banana that isn't brown or is not ripe). Even a roach has billions of these bacteria to digest there food. In order to break down things such as grass and wood roaches have a more powerful digestive system then us by far as well as some herbivore animals such as a cow. Now for the protein part (and i am simplifying the explanation i am sure Jeff can go much further in depth) when the bacteria breaks down the cellulose it goes through a change. when it does the roach digest the bacteria itself and use it as a living protein source. kinda like when we eat a steak. Thus providing the roach with a sufficient source of protein.

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Heatheranne

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## demon amphibians

Part 2
Say Jeff and i are wrong and the dubia needs a protein source from food such as grain and what not. I mean after all we gather this information through broken, inconclusive sources. Hince the reason why I labeled this a theory. But mathematics can also provide how little amount of protein is need to be sufficient for these insects in the slightest case we are wrong. 
1.Say a roach weighs a gram.(which is the weight of a paper clip) They can weigh more and can weigh less but we will stick with a gram as an example. 
2. A person weighing 100 lbs requires at least 1 gram of protein to sustain proper growth. Which is 100 grams of protein a day. With this a person will weigh 45359 times as much as the roach.
3. We already know a roach has a much stronger digestive system then us. For this example we will say 10 times better. But we all now it is much better then that if they can digest wood. The 1 gram roach will require .00022046 grams protein a day. 
4. A head of romaine lettuce has 7.7 grams protein. With these numbers it can proved enough protein for nearly 35,000 roaches for one day.
lets take in to account how many veggies have more protein then romaine lettuce the numbers will blow your mind (and mine as well) 

This is an under exaggeration i am just using these numbers as an example. But it will be in this ballpark range that is for certain. 
suppose you have a colony of 1000 roaches. veggies provide more then enough protein for an insect so small even if it requires protein at all.

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Heatheranne

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## demon amphibians

Dog food and other high protein foods are not required. I have mentioned before a variety of different foods are important and i still stand by that but for the reasons of protein it does not apply. Dog food is extremely high in protein because dogs are carnivores by definition. So they need the protein. Dubia roaches are herbivores. I do not doubt for one second that they would eat a peace of meat if give to them, but something as simple as lettuce will supply every bit of protein they need. The information Jeff supplied showed studies of to much protein harmful to breeding as well as killing them. 
Before today i gave my roaches a high protein diet. I thought that the amount space i had them in hindered their reproduction because i was producing between 5000 to 7,000 a month when i should have been producing closer to 18000 a month. Well what i have found was a combination of both.

As I mentioned before i will do a growth experiment with 10 vegetarian roaches of different sizes and 10 roaches with a variety of food such as dog food, cat food and veggies. I expect no difference. But i will give updates once a month along with an detailed explanation. Also my breeder bin will receive only veggies such as lettuce, carrots, etc. I will also give updates on the production improvements if there are any.

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Heatheranne

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## Heather

This is a great post! I enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to seeing the outcomes of your study.

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## demon amphibians

It may take 3 solid months before i see any results in my breeder bins. I have babies 1 month old in my nursery  bin that i only feed apples, oranges and popcorn to and they are growing just fine and rather fast if ya ask me. Of course they all grow at different rates. i have 2 month old babies in my large growing bin for nymphs and some of them are even smaller then the younger ones in my nursery bin. And up to now i have been giving them dog food and dog milk bone consistently. What i am learning from the midsize bin is how many deaths that i have. I clean that one roughly every 2 months just because it takes a few hours because i have so many in it. I usually pull out 12-20 dead roaches of different size every time i clean. Of course 20 means nothing to a colony of well over 10,000 but i would like to minimize it. And what i expect to see is less deaths in that bin by removing high protein foods. That I should see by the next cleaning in about a month and a half.

Thanks Heather I will keep you updated.

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## Heather

Very interesting. Thanks!

Mine are eating apples, gel water and Cheerios for dinner tonight. They had potato skins and carrots for their last meal. They definitely like the oranges most it seems.

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## demon amphibians

I have never had much luck with potato skins aside from sweet potato's how do you offer them?

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## Heather

Just rinsed well, then rinsed with dechlorinated tap water. They're just from the potatoes I peeled for dinner. I believe they just nibble for the moisture. The actual skins are left behind. They eat the little bit of potato off of them.

They are eating apples tonight.

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## demon amphibians

right on i will give it a shot. So its the moisture there after. I have tried several times but they were only mildly excepted if it was the only thing in there to eat. Now sweet potatoes they will eat everything it took them half a day to make it disappear they took it over the milk bones and lettuce i had in there but the oranges were also devoured as well. 

tonight mine got a few brown banana's that the fruit fly's were starting to attack. I think i am also going to post a list of preferred foods and a list of foods they refuse or foods that can cause harm.

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## Heather

Good idea. I know mine love oranges most. They can devour a plate full in 2 days at most.

They seems to really enjoy any fruit first, then veggies, then grains. 

Another trick I've found, if you'd like some nice fresh molted ones for frog dinners in the evening,  I give mine a nice mist only from the top eggcrate layer in the morning. 

I had to move mine to a 20gal long because they are multiplying so fast. I even turned their heat lamp down to slow their breeding.

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## Crystal

My focus was on food that contained the most calcium and vit A for my feeder bugs when I first started out.  Too many horror stories of deficiencies, and when I moved on to dubia, I didn't give much thought to protein.  I figured since they were meatier, Banjo was getting more protein.  She bulked up considerably when I began feeding her roaches.  I bought dry food for them from the same people, but I still have bags of it.  I tossed in cat food, among other dry goods, because I had it around.  Can't say whether they ate it.  Then with the breeding, it was easier to see what they preferred (breakfast cereal in the form of flakes and O's), but humidity and hydration were my main concerns, as they still had to do their final molts.  What they ate at that point didn't matter quite as much to me as Banjo wouldn't be eating them directly.  Oranges just worked best, cuz they can stand up to the temp in breeding bin.  Deliciously.
Only recently did I add fish flakes, for the protein, and they seem to be a hit with both crickets and roaches.  Easier to eat than cat food, and I don't feel like I'm stealing from my cats.  Plus, once upon a time, Banjo was basically a fish, so there ya go.  
Breeding is going stellar, tho I did lose an adult male last week.  Right around the time I added the fish flakes.  By lost I mean he dropped dead.  Don't know why but everybody else seems fine, and his death makes three: One young lady in the very beginning, and a larger than small nymph a few weeks ago, part of a group from an order that I put into breeding bin to grow.  The others in that group are growing nicely and startling me when I go baby collecting.  So now I have a small colony of 33 adults, but they're still busting out babies and yesterday I spotted a little lady with red/brown ootheca hanging out.  If that means new pregnancy, then I already have a new pregnancy.  
I should add that everything about breeding these is new to me.  First litter was March 1st and I'd guess 250-300 babies these past 3 wks.  

Heather, your roach food looks sooo appetizing.

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## Heather

Ha ha! Thank you. They eat well. I buy lots of fruit at my house so I don't mind chopping up a few extras for the critters.

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## demon amphibians

Good news concerning calcium. Once again romaine lettuce contains 206mgs of calcium per head about 21% RDA. whatever that means if you give this with oranges you will be giving them more calcium contained in a glass of milk.

fruits and veggies are greatly  underrated when it comes to vitamins, minerals, protein, and essential amino acids. The truth about this is even we can survive just fine and much healthier on nothing but plant foods. If you have a balanced diet you will already gain 48% of your daily intake of protein from veggies and a larger percent in calcium. (people are always asking the question well why do we need to supplement our frogs with calcium? they cant get that in the wild so why do captive frogs need it?) well here is the truth about it. were do cows get calcium from? its in there milk? so does that mean they just produce calcium  from nothing? the answer is NO... it is in the food they eat which is grass and other such items. Grass has lots of calcium.  We cant eat it but given the information below about the roaches digestive system they can very easily digest grass. And as can other insects. The wide variety of different insects which eat plant matter that have high levels of calcium is where wild frogs get it from. some frogs can eat 100s of different types of insects a night. We cant give that in captivity because of the limited amount of feeders we can use. That's why calcium is an essential supplement in captivity. 

I personally have not given roaches grass i have no idea if they would even like it after being spoiled with oranges and lettuce and other much better tasting sweeter veggies and fruits. But if they do eat it there is your free roach food and a beautiful lawn at that. with a supplement of calcium that you would never have to question. 

when it comes to gut loading. I personally believe that vitamin enriched gut loading supplements such as orange cubes and such are a marketing scam. They are selling you something you already have in your fridge or growing in your yard. (I do believe the calcium dust gives the necessary boost. When you are feed such few types of foods. But that is it.) How many women out there look for shampoos that are rich in vitamin E and other vitamins that makes there hair healthier? So here is the question how can you enrich dead cells with vitamins. vitamins have no effect on dead cells. It is a myth companies use to market products. And yes many many other stores and companies do the same thing, one of them being pet supplement stores. Now not all products are marketing myths mind you. But many are and the calcium gut loading supplements are a big one. yeah they may have tons of calcium in them but oranges have just as much if not more that are unprocessed and more easily and naturally absorbed into the body. And that goes for insects, animals and humans alike. 

I am a top power lifter so i have spent many long days and nights researching supplements and vitamins in stores. And what i have found will have you fuming. there are supplements in stores that will cause a deficiency's in what you are taking. Such as vitamin C. some brands of vitamin C supplements will cause a deficiency in vitamin C. So you go to the doctor and he tells you you have a vitamin C deficiency so you go by more of the same product. The company makes money. If companies do that to humans what would stop them from doing it to animal supplements? 

When you have a cold you are told to drink orange juice. Did anyone know that romaine lettuce has more Vitamin C than oranges?

This information is out there for the taking yet no one seems to know this common knowledge. Now I will say not all vitamin supplements are like this. you will have to do your research for yourselves as much as your frogs to determine which is the scam and which isn't. 

Sorry friends didn't intend on elaborating

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## demon amphibians

with my last post if anyone would like to PM me on the nutritional value of any kind of veggies for you and your feeders please feel free to ask. I have a huge array of sources that could point you in a super healthy direction that could save you money and time. I can give you a complete listing of super foods that can be extremely beneficial to you and your feeders. Which of course will give your frogs and you the utmost nutrition earth has to offer.

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## Heather

Feel free to list away  :Smile: . 

I was just explaining the calcium in leafy green to another member when explaining why why give calcium and why with vita D. This is a nice addition to my teaching  :Smile: .

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## demon amphibians

ok lets start with vitamin D
1. many fortified cereals such as cornflakes and cheerios have a good source- roaches love these.
2. soy products as well as soy beans and edamame 
3. mushrooms.
 and for humans most fish. salmon in particular i wouldn't feed that to your feeders however. that is why i recommend fish as a feeder to your frogs

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## demon amphibians

calcium:
1. collard greens
2. kale
3. garlic 
4.turnip greens
5.broccoli
6.mustard greens
7.spinach
8. okra
9. grape leaves
10. seaweed
11.cabbage 
12. butter nut squash
13. sweet potatos
i can go on and on.

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## Jeff

I always enjoyed the using the following source when selecting choice salad items:
Nutrition Content

I'm very interested in this thread, but must admit that things are incredibly hectic for me right now with my own wasp research; so please bare with me with and I apologize for late replies.

My first criticism:  I would increase your sample size per treatment. Something like 10 cockroaches for each treatment will unfortunately yield no statistically significant results, I fear. We may be able to make rash generalizations, but variability in genetic makeup, sex, and other factors influencing stochasticity are going to skew results. Male and female insects alone can have drastically different metabolisms and physiological needs, where females often need to put more energy into egg production and the partitioning of resources to build fat bodies. This may call for slightly different dietary needs based on sex alone, and there is already evidence of selective feeding in cockroaches to provide their for their individual needs. Genetic variability is also a potential issue; and environmental influence can yield obscene uncertainty. A few degrees of temperature fluctuation between the experimental groups can alter their growth rate, and therefore reproduction quite easily. 

You claim that you are not a scientist, but you have excellent questions and a desire to pursue them... this is precisely the definition of a good scientist. It isn't about what you know; its about what you ask and desire to find out. With that being said, let's get some good data to work with so some reasonable conclusions can be drawn. If possible, try to set up a few groups. Each group can contain 10 insects, but you may wish to subject say, 5 groups to one treatment and 5 groups to another. This way, if something happens within one culture that skews data, you still have data from 4 other cultures to draw from in that treatment. I realize this getting a bit more complicated and space and time constraints may limit just what you can do, but I think increasing the sample size will yield more accurate findings and will be more readily accepted by the insect community. = )   We actually just reviewed a journal submission in the entomology lab; and we sent it back for major revisions. Despite being a long-term, taxing research, the author simply didn't have the data set to draw the conclusions that were suggesting in their study because the sample size was too small.

I hope I don't sound like I'm preaching, as this is not my intention at all! But I think you may wish to personally learn a bit more about insect physiology, so here's just a little bit of additional information to work with:

It's difficult to compare a cockroach to human; because we've evolved in such different ways to tackle the type of foods and problems we face in our environment. We too have billions of bacteria in our GI that are essential to digestions...in fact, there are more bacterial cells in and our our body than our OWN cells that comprise of all of our organs. We are truly a vehicle, or a giant "world" for trillions of microbes. We have special enzymatic activity to tackle the foods we eat and out anatomy and physiological functions have been selected for. Natural selection has driven cockroaches in the realm of decomposers; and they are very good at what they do. There are only a handful of taxa on earth that can process lignin and cellulose, and until somewhat recently, chitin (it turns out many insectivores and even humans contain chitinases). Certain fungi and bacteria are the only organisms capable of such digestion, and the cockroach (along with a plethora of other organisms) have developed symbiotic relationships with various bacteria and protozoans to help them process the foods they eat. Similarly, on the note of grasses that I see have been mentioned; these are usually very poor quality food items (even for cattle). While a pasture may seem like a static grassland, to a cow it is an entire banquet of various herbaceous plants and weeds. If you observe a cow feed naturally, you notice that they too are quite selective in how they feed; grazing on things like clover and other plants mixed within the very cellulose heavy, nutrient-poor grass.

Anyway - I apologize for the spotty replies. I'll add a bit more when I can.

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## Crystal

Roach death #4 found this morning.  Little lady nymph (not one of mine) upside-down under a dogpile of adults in an eggcrate.  I take each death personally, and she was part of the group in there to grow up.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I did another baby sweep.  They do better in their own bin or at least they get 1st crack at food.  They're my feeders so that's important.  And heated breeding bin always seems calmer afterwards, followed by a spurt of births.  I'm sure the births would happen anyway, but I feel better moving the little ones out.  I haven't lost any yet, except to herp suppers.

It's kind of funny that I'm obsessed with how they're doing and what they're eating, meanwhile Banjo's main food right now is calcium covered earthworms that eat dirt.  A few reptivite roaches the other day.  Haven't bought or fed off any crickets in so long, but they're hanging in there.  I'm feeding them the same things as baby dubia and will continue to do so until they die off, probably.  Can't knowingly starve them.  Can't even bring myself to get rid of meal worm beetles, even tho I really don't want them around anymore.  Would like to let them go outside, but right now that's the same as sticking them in my freezer to die.  Say I did put beetles out in backyard once the weather realizes it's Spring not Winter, anyone know if that'd have a negative ecological effect?  It's a large backyard, they'd have to go a long way to get near another house or even another property.  Kind of hoping birds would eat them.  

Someone suggested that overly crunchy foods could kill roaches by wearing down their mouth parts.  This makes some sense to me.  Sure they're good scavengers, but being kept and bred, and they don't have to be.  I find the little bites they take out of carrots adorable.  Cat and dog food is meant for cat and dog teeth that could tear you up.  I've seen roach infestations where they'd moved into bags of dog food, but nobody there was hoping they'd live a long life.  Just a thought.  

I live mainly on vegetables, and cereal with soymilk (I think most dairy is gross).  Very little protein and subsequently very little muscle.  I take D3 2000 iu daily because I think sunshine is gross too (just kidding, but I burn), and have soft bones which resulted in a buckle fracture.  Painful and silly.  Banjo gets d3 with her calcium cuz I've taken away her sunlight, and there's nothing she can do about it.  No matter what I feed her bugs, she'll get supplements, because I'm too worried about what might happen if she didn't.  No way I could ever recreate what she might eat outside on a summer night.  Totally agree that cricket/insect diets aren't worth it, but I still keep a jar of orange cricket cubes in my fridge, just in case.  

I'm curious what the wasp research is about.  A piece of what was probably a hornets nest fell off the eave of front porch last summer and it was fascinating.  Old and abandoned, but the thought of all the little bees in their little bee beds tickled me.  I know wasps/hornets/bees are not all the same, but I've never been stung so I feel quite friendly towards them all.  Skimmed many a drowning bee from swimming pool.

As far as roaches go, I'm interested in anything that might lower the body count.

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## unkempt1

Very interesting thread! I look forward to the findings! 

Up to this point I've been satisfied with lurking, but now I have some questions: how about salty foods? Does this inhibit the overall long term health of a colony? What effect does it have on roach physiology? And are there any calcium-rich foods you shouldn't feed your colony, such as powdered milk or pet foods that contain high levels of calcium? I ask because I have read (and I admit from random people on forums) that calcium is bad because it can inhibit molting. That being said, I like to think that there are some items that are good or bad for them, calcium notwithstanding.

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## Crystal

So after a baby sweep yesterday, several hours later there was a new litter, and other than removing the dry food/water crystal bowl for cleaning, let them be.  This morning, more brand new babies and for the 1st time ever, I caught them in the act.  Not what I expected so I wasn't totally sure what I was seeing til I looked it up.  The gross part was that when male roach finished and left, female roach moved too and under her were more fresh nymphs.  My goodness.  Roaches be crazy.

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## Jeff

Crystal - I've been doing phylogenetic work on the superfamily Chalcidoidea; which comprise of very small species of wasp that are often overlooked. The few species I work with are parasitoids of the gall-midge fly, _Asteromyia carbonifera_, which attack goldenrods and other Asters. Much like cockroaches, the general public has negative feelings toward wasps and hymenopterans in general despite very influential ecological roles. The majority of Chalcids in particular are parasitoids and can have immense implications as a means of biological controls; in the species I've worked with we often seen parasitism rates of upwards to 30-50%. Wasps and other parasitoids we work with (Tachinids) are responsible for keeping populations of many pest species down, and they often have a particular affinity for caterpillars. Feel free to PM me if you want additional info, I don't want to stray away from the main topic of the thread ; )

Augie - I've done a little experimenting with calcium additives in mealworms (T. molitor). Unfortunately, the results of my mini-project were un-conclusive to say the least and I had little desire to replicate it. I attempted to add X mass of calcium citrate to small cultures of treatment groups in an otherwise controlled environment. Temperature and humidity constant, dry food was weighed, moisture was provided in a non-nutritional/compromising fashion, colony mass and individual larvae mass were recorded daily and notes were taken on the molting and ability to properly eclose from pupae. Unfortunately, my colonies were tampered with... but over the course of about 4 weeks I noted no obvious death toll or inability to molt from one instar to the next. With that being said, I have personally observed mass die-offs and what would appear to be difficulty with molting in crickets when fed an excessively high calcium diet... but its difficult to attribute this to just calcium. Crickets are pretty fragile in the scope of things; it could just have easily been disease or some other factor. For all we know, it may even be some other nutrient all-together. Vitamin D3 for example is frequently associated with calcium supplements we use for herps and would therefore be a likely candidate for use in gutloading. 

On the note of feeding hard foods - I used to grind up my hard, dry food such as dog and cat kibble in order to make it easier for the roaches to feed, but I've completely stopped doing this over the last couple of years and can say with confidence that colonies will still thrive even when whole pieces are offered. I'll be honest in that I'm ignorant in my understanding of how specifically cockroaches feed; but I'd wager they utilize some type of digestive enzyme activity in their mouths during feeding to make breaking down larger and drier food bits easier. Just speculating, but I've never had a problem with mine finishing off their food and having no noticeable side effects on their ability to continue to feed and thrive. 

Just a little food for thought: cockroaches will probably find the quality of food we offer to be far richer than much of what they would otherwise encounter in nature. I wouldn't expect to see any significant difference in a roaches ability to survive or the number of offspring produced purely by feeding something like apples instead of bananas. Insects don't often store large amounts of nutrients and as a result they likely excrete most of the goodies they obtain by foraging (hence why gutloading in a 36-48hr window is so essential). There is often a difference in providing what is best for the feeder insect vs. providing what is best for the pet reptile or amphibian. Cockroaches are a little easier because they are generalists and can thrive feeding on a wide variety of food items. Try feeding silkworms who only feed on mulberry a special gutload and they will perish rapidly; or at the minimum have implications on their ability to reach adulthood or reproduce. 

I think examining protein vs. relative non-protein should be interesting, but I don't expect to see anything significant coming from feeding one particular food item in a category compared to another in the same category (i.e. feeding kale instead of spinach). These foods are so rich compared to forest-floor detritus that roaches are likely exposed to in nature that we are probably already seeing pretty close to maximum brood sizes and adult sizes in most of our captive environments, even if there is some differences between how each of us care for them. Sort of speculating again, but considering much of the neotropical forest is comprised very extensively of plants who with low palatability and defensive compounds I'd wager the garden goodies we offer are like eating at a 5-Star restaurant with each meal.

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## demon amphibians

I am totally on board with you Jeff. The main statement i am trying to make is that you really dont have to search far and wide to get your feeders exactly what they need. Just like you said Kale and spinach are far superior to what they can find on the forest floor. I mean just look back at some threads that people post. They are asking where to find things such as calcium and protein when they can find something sufficient in something that everyone believes is low in nutrition such as lettuce.  All i am doing is trying to rule out the need of vitamins and nutrition outside of things you can find in your fridge. I mean think about it carrots are a super food along with spinach, broccoli squash and Kale(which is the king of veggies there is nothing out there that we can buy veggie wise that surpasses kale in nutrition.)  We already giving them everything they need and more. So this hunt for answers of things we should add to our bins to improve our feeders growth and reproduction are much simpler then most may think. 

I also agree with you on the protein experiment. I don't expect to see any differences in my research. But that is exactly what i am looking for. Also death rate based off that info you sent me. And i am going to take your advice and instead of two i will do six, 3 with nothing but veggies and 3 with a higher protein diet such as dog food and other high protein foods. I will keep them all together in a bin that i already have a constant temp and humidity. 

Now i also agree that you can not compare a roaches digestive system to ours or even another decomposing insect the same size as a roach. I just used that as an example to help other readers to help them better understand the points i am trying to make. If people have something to compare then what i am saying starts to make more sense then if i were to give a scientific analysis.  And also about the grass nutrition yes you are also right about that, cows don't only eat grass they eat a large array of different foods and yes they are picky. But something as simple as grass can provide more nutrion then most people are lead to believe especially if we are talking about a very small insect that  may require a fraction in the thousandths of what we need. For anyone else who is reading this yes veggie items in your fridge have much more nutritional value then grass. 

I know for a fact that oranges improve breeding significantly and i will be honest i have no idea why. Moister is a point that has been brought up and i think we all can agree that is a factor but i do know that it isn't the only thing. It may be calcium, it may be vitamins contained in oranges. If anyone does have an idea please feel free to share. I have also read that grapefruit also has the same effect. This i have not tried so i would have no idea.  I have tried lemons and limes thinking it may be citric acid or something else that an acidic fruit may share. But even if there is nothing else in the bins to eat they barely even take a nibble at them.

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## demon amphibians

Now also where i would like more research is in the department of space. How much space do they really need to reproduce at top performance. Like i have mentioned before i am producing between 5000 to 7000 a month when with as many as i have should be seeing closer to 18000 a month. I do have large bins but i just have so many I feel like even if i had a 100 gal bin it would still be filled out. (that is a little less then 3 times the size of my largest bin. I do have 4 bins 1 with my mid sized nymphs when they become adults i move all the females to 2 separate bins of 25 gal along with the appropriate amount of new males.( Each bin has about 650 females a peace with the males of 1/3 the amount). The rest of the males go to a feeder and to sell tank were i keep out of my roach colony set up. these guys i will either feed or sell to a pet store. which ever comes first. Then i have a smaller bin about 10 gal were i send all the babies until they have reached about there 3rd molt. I do this so they have a better opportunity to get a jump start on life and have no food competition from the larger roaches as well as reduce the small possibility of cannibalism. After a majority of them have reached a better size i transfer them to the 36 gal bin for my midsized nymphs. Now what Jeff stated is true they all grow at different rates i have some babies of the same age as others that are almost 5 times larger. So i am just going off of a majority before i do the transfer. I think it is funny how i have larger nymphs in my breeder tank that are just over a week old that are larger then some that are in my midsized nymph bin that were borne in early February. 
So if anyone can elaborate on the appropriate amount of space required please give feed back.

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## Jeff

> I know for a fact that oranges improve breeding significantly and i will be honest i have no idea why. Moister is a point that has been brought up and i think we all can agree that is a factor but i do know that it isn't the only thing. It may be calcium, it may be vitamins contained in oranges. If anyone does have an idea please feel free to share. I have also read that grapefruit also has the same effect. This i have not tried so i would have no idea.  I have tried lemons and limes thinking it may be citric acid or something else that an acidic fruit may share. But even if there is nothing else in the bins to eat they barely even take a nibble at them.


My current hypothesis is that it may be carotenoids; while moisture is certainly a significant contributor to palatability in cockroaches and their well-being, plenty of fruit products and the offering of water crystals can provide more than adequate moisture in the diet. Its a big factor, but I think there's definitely something else going on otherwise I'm not sure if we wouldn't see a difference in what we feed so long as moisture (water crystals) are always available.

Carotenoids are incredibly important to a number of physiological processes, and their uses are relatively unexplored. Oranges have some incredibly dense concentrations of carotenoids....something in the ballpark of 30 individual carotenoid pigments are found in valencia oranges and these pigments are known to manifest in the eyes of flies and other insects. This idea was brought up by my friend Jeremy Heath, who did his dissertation on carotenoids in the midge systems. He found that carotenoids were found in certain female glands and within the eggs of midge flies; and it wouldn't surprise me if this occurs in other insects as well. We are familiar with the more charismatic compounds like B-carotene that is so often found in orange-pigmented food items, but there are dozens of individual compounds that each hold the potential to drive some physiological benefit. Not just in terms of Vitamin A; carotenoids are attributed to human development and vision, photosynthetic processes, and antioxidant potential. Its very possible that cockroaches and other insects who are so finely tuned to detect food quality and individual odor molecules that I think its plausible that they may *know* about the benefits in high-carotenoid fruits and vegetables and may seek them out voluntarily, with benefits that increase their fitness.

In terms of space:  This is probably going to be common sense to you so I apologize, I know you are an experienced roach keeper as well ; ) but - What kind of structures are you using in your bins to increase surface area? I'd assume egg flats, which are my personal favorite. You can squeeze a greater amount of roaches in a small area if you stack them vertically and pack them in the bin entirely - I offer food on the top surface in larger colonies using a flat piece of carboard or drop select items down into the cracks below so that smaller nymphs foraging in the frass and debris can more readily access some of the food. I personally use a rack system for my cockroaches, which allows me to squeeze more bins into a smaller area. The rack is heated with flexwatt, and each shelf can hold up to 3 - 20 gallon bins. I mostly distribute individuals among the bins when the populations begin looking a bit dense; and it seems to have the most success if you can cut colonies down to about 2/3 or 1/2 their size when splitting. This creates a ton of extra space in the bin; and I think the realization that space is available encourages additional reproduction because there is less crowding, easier access to food and ability to consume more of it in a sitting, etc.

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## Crystal

I can't imagine a larger baby output than what I've seen this past month, in my micro-colony.  But they're young roaches in the prime of their lives. My gut says over-crowding would be an issue too.  I've seen it in rats, which are not roaches, but breeding happens for mostly the same reasons across the board.  I'd imagine it wouldn't happen (as much) in a grossly over-crowded environment where babies wouldn't thrive, or would take away resources, add to the chaos, what have you.  Particularly since roaches can abort.  

Moving babies out works for me cuz they need to stay relatively small and get 1st crack at food.  Also why grinding it up works for me.  I've had oranges in breeding bin from the beginning, before they were mature enough to breed.

Gotta say tho, that some of the situations and numbers you guys describe sound nightmarish to me.  My biggest fear in starting out was that it'd spin out of control.  Opening a bin and seeing a pile of bugs stacked up would have me running screaming down the street.  Even tho it's netting a profit, this isn't something I'm planning to continue forever.  I'm not even properly planning for this to continue past the death of the adults I have now.  When I catch a larger nymph during a baby sweep, I toss it back in with adults.  Sometimes.  Summer concerns me.  I had great success in cold weather, cuz I could control how warm they were.  A very hot and humid summer might speed everything up.
Ok, I'm scaring myself.  Maybe I should invest in a better AC.  Give them ice cubes and anti-depressants.  Or take away their oranges.  How great of a difference is there?  

Also, local pet stores buy your roaches?  I'm guessing you're not talking about the big chains.  Which is too bad, since dubia really are great feeders, and SHOULD be more widely available.

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## demon amphibians

I wouldnt worry about an over production if i were you yosh. I mean i have this many because I started with about 1200 and consitantly fed oranges, and had almost perfect temps and humidity. And trust me even under these conditions it took them a while to get going. It is just a that my third generation of roaches are becoming adults and starting to breed. These past couple of months are when i really started noticing batches in the thousands. With 35 females if you let your colony go for a year. your colony will be no larger then 8,000 at best. If you take away the oranges your poplulation may be 20 percent smaller. But this is if they are breeding as very best they can with no deaths. Always remember to that only about 20 percent of all new berths will be females. so this 8,000 population is an extreme exaggeration.

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yoshimi

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## demon amphibians

sorry I didnt reply to your question sooner Augie. For the sodium honestly i don't have an answer for you. I want to assume that it probably wont cause harm. I have feed saltine crackers to them and i don't know if they ate it or the slate was just dropped on the bottom of the bin. Sodium is very important to us and other animals but you really cant compare to an insect. You will be very surprised with how many foods out there naturally contain sodium. There is a lot of sodium in dog food. And they seem to eat it all the same. But if for instance they to require sodium it will be in a very very small amount. Much less then you will find in a bread product.

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## demon amphibians

So for the vegan roaches. I just cleaned my bins today after two weeks and I only found one death due to me setting a water dish on one and squishing it. This is a huge difference compared to the past couple times i cleaned where I found several unexplained deaths. This may mean nothing about the effects of high protein diets. But i will update you in two weeks when i clean again. Also i found my production a bit larger maybe 2,000 larger. But again this may only be because i added 113 new females to the breeding bins.
 As for the experiments i haven't added the other additional containers as of yet but the two i do have there are no significant differences that i can tell but one thing i did notice is that they do prefer wet dog food over many veggies and fruits. Wet i mean i soak dry dog food in water and blend it with carrots cheerios and a few other ingredients.

what you mentioned about space jeff. I do have my bins packed with egg crates but I do think i can fit a few more in. I also use paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls ( the card board part of course) to fill in the empty spaces. 

over all my colony is doing a bit better it is kind of a pain only feeding veggies because they bring up the humidity levels drastically. But i can use extra humidity with my ceramic bulbs. The roaches seem to being handling it well.

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## Crystal

> I wouldnt worry about an over production if i were you yosh.


Too true!  I counted up my sales since 1st births (March 1st), and it totaled 600.  100 of those were from West Coast, out of which I added some to breeder bin.  A few of those died, but I've still got some growing and thriving in there.  I only have 24 female and 9 male babymakers.  Was 10 males, but one died of a broken heart or OD'd on fish flakes, dunno.  Obviously some I fed to Banjo, and I still have a few left, but not a surplus.  Just sent out 150 and that's that til new births.  I'm hoping it's any day now.  

I noticed that the cat food was what seemed to mold in cricket bin, so I removed all cat food bits and stopped using it in my dubia food.  Using fish flakes instead, but not a lot.  No new deaths.  Yay!  

The babies and the females seem to like the dry mix best.  Maybe the babies just like to hide in it, dunno, but I did see a gravid female dining on some chow.  Everyone likes carrot chips, but the males are the ones most often caught eating oranges.  Females do too, but I rarely see little ones on the oranges.  

I've also noticed that the males tend to stay on the cooler side.  Maybe it's akin to men wearing boxers to increase their lil swimmer count.  

My intrusions on their home might be what's holding back new births, as I recently picked up a produce flat from BJ's, put it in there, then panicked that it might've had pesticides on it and removed it.  Temp is good right now, they have food, so I'll keep my big head out of there.  

You know, you've been a big help.  Out of the 1st round of babies, I think I got pretty good numbers.  I'm satisfied with it, at least.  Hoping for a repeat.

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## Crystal

Just had the smallest dubia litter ever.  Physically tiny, and I think there were only 5-10.  I'm so bummed.  Not sure what I did.  Increased the heat today, maybe they were preemies.  I don't know, but between this and the messed up worms and Banjo shedding again and climbing instead of eating, and boy crickets chirping non-stop (eggs are being laid, i saw her do it), I'm about ready to give up.  
WHY would they be so small and so few?  Was she only a little pregnant, did she mate just a little bit?  I could get weirder with that, but in seriousness, did she try to abort and the viable babies lived?

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## demon amphibians

> Just had the smallest dubia litter ever. Physically tiny, and I think there were only 5-10. I'm so bummed. Not sure what I did. Increased the heat today, maybe they were preemies. I don't know, but between this and the messed up worms and Banjo shedding again and climbing instead of eating, and boy crickets chirping non-stop (eggs are being laid, i saw her do it), I'm about ready to give up. 
> WHY would they be so small and so few? Was she only a little pregnant, did she mate just a little bit? I could get weirder with that, but in seriousness, did she try to abort and the viable babies lived?


This is something that happenes to me as well on occasion. And it very well could be stress that caused this reaction. I have seen them abort almost fully developed eggs before. even some lived. You have to remember that with these guys patients is important. I mean i even get impatent with mine and i have thousands of babies every two weeks. My opinion on the matter is you should get more adults I am talking a few hundred more let them do there thing for 6 months to a year. Then consider selling and feeding them.  I mean you seem like you enjoy culturing them as much as i do so why not?  Your toads will love you for it and you can make tons of money. With 24 females you will not be seing much production. 600 is for sure some good numbers but now you are in that down time where you have to wait 2 months for your next batch. If you think about it, that is a long time. With a few hundred you will have berths almost every day. And to be honest keeping 10,000 roaches are no harder then keeping 50. they just eat more and breed faster.

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## Crystal

> This is something that happenes to me as well on occasion. And it very well could be stress that caused this reaction. I have seen them abort almost fully developed eggs before. even some lived. You have to remember that with these guys patients is important. I mean i even get impatent with mine and i have thousands of babies every two weeks. My opinion on the matter is you should get more adults I am talking a few hundred more let them do there thing for 6 months to a year. Then consider selling and feeding them.  I mean you seem like you enjoy culturing them as much as i do so why not?  Your toads will love you for it and you can make tons of money. With 24 females you will not be seing much production. 600 is for sure some good numbers but now you are in that down time where you have to wait 2 months for your next batch. If you think about it, that is a long time. With a few hundred you will have berths almost every day. And to be honest keeping 10,000 roaches are no harder then keeping 50. they just eat more and breed faster.


So true on that I enjoy it.  But I only have the one toad for now.  Had another litter in there this morning, and in removing all the babies, I came up with about 40.  So that's fine by me.  
Took a larger female nymph out of baby bin and put her in breeding bin to grow.  There are others in there with the same purpose, but unfortunately the largest one is a male.  At this rate, without adding adult females, yeah it will be slow going.  
I may have to sell off everybody, but hoping to get another good round of babies out of them 1st.  That's why it was so cruddy to see a teeny tiny litter yesterday.  Also why I'm not adding or putting any more money into this right now.  Got kind of a lot going on, but I agree, that it wouldn't be much harder to take care of a larger colony.  
As far as selling, what would be the reason for someone to ship them loose in a flat rate box, during the hottest months?  If you don't include a moisture source, have a well ventilated cup, why would loose be better?  They're roaches, they can squeeze in and out of anything, particularly the little ones, so I wouldn't trust a box to hold them unless you taped it up completely, which I feel would be about the same as a deli cup in a reasonably taped up box, sent Priority or expedited.  Or will they die enroute to destination if it's particularly hot and they have no moisture source?  I've been shipping them dry and advising everyone to give them carrots or whatever when they get there.  Those are my babies, dangit.  Anyway, it was just something I read and I'm curious as to why.

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## demon amphibians

Why are you thinking of getting rid of them? I understand your take on things and yeah it can be disappointing when you have such a small litter. But when i bought 1,000 a little over a year ago they more then pulled there own weight. Since i got them they have done more then fed my toads and frogs but feed one of my friends gecko collection as well. Not to mention I am  working on a roach order for the San Diego reptile show of 10,000 roaches. Sometimes i feel like i am just going above and beyond breeding these things but i never thought when i first got them that i would make money off of them. When i started breeding i was just concerned about feeding my frogs and saving money but in turn, what i have gained from these creepy little basturds is food for my frogs, something to do when i am bored and sell them to other people in need for a price that is reasonable for almost anyone, and i still make money off them, when they are the ones doing all the work.  They paid for themselves in two months. I am like you Yosh i think of them as pets and i do care about every last one of them. they may only be insects but they have brought me much joy.(Kinda weird to say that) And i am not just talking about selling them i am just saying that i have grown kinda attached to them. Its nice to have someone around who enjoys this species as much as i do.

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## demon amphibians

Ok so i have been doing this experiment for a little over a month now and Updates are in order. However i decided to give my updates after my next cleaning which will be in about a week. But i will say that what i am leaning through this is very promising. I have noticed some big key points that I originally set out to find.  I Just didnt want you all thinking i abandoned my research on the topic. Unfortunately this experiment was expected to and is taking a lot of time before i have sufficient data on the questions many of us have had concerning the dubia roaches need for protein. wish me luck and be expecting updates shortly.

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## Crystal

> Why are you thinking of getting rid of them? I understand your take on things and yeah it can be disappointing when you have such a small litter. But when i bought 1,000 a little over a year ago they more then pulled there own weight. Since i got them they have done more then fed my toads and frogs but feed one of my friends gecko collection as well. Not to mention I am  working on a roach order for the San Diego reptile show of 10,000 roaches. Sometimes i feel like i am just going above and beyond breeding these things but i never thought when i first got them that i would make money off of them. When i started breeding i was just concerned about feeding my frogs and saving money but in turn, what i have gained from these creepy little basturds is food for my frogs, something to do when i am bored and sell them to other people in need for a price that is reasonable for almost anyone, and i still make money off them, when they are the ones doing all the work.  They paid for themselves in two months. I am like you Yosh i think of them as pets and i do care about every last one of them. they may only be insects but they have brought me much joy.(Kinda weird to say that) And i am not just talking about selling them i am just saying that i have grown kinda attached to them. Its nice to have someone around who enjoys this species as much as i do.


Moving and my bf is not ok with roaches.  Tried to get him to look at them, but he said it was a contained infestation and he's had dreams about them infesting his house.  Also he's not feeding and taking care of them, which is what brings out the affection.  Made him watch Banjo eat a worm, back when she wanted to eat, and he said it was gruesome, but I think a part of him went, awwww.  Still, his house, his rules, gotta respect it.  

I'll be sticking around here or popping (haha i wrote poop) in from time to time to see what happens here and because I like frogs and bugs.

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## demon amphibians

well these kind little creatures wont infest that is for certain. I have dropped plenty of them and they all turn up dead. And i live in the warmer part of the US to boot.

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## Crystal

Maybe losing a pregnant female in the summer might cause a surprise, but it's unlikely since they're big and really easy to catch.  Even the little ones.  MUCH easier to catch than escaped crickets.  Those I used to have to just wait til they showed up in the cat water or as a cat toy.  One of mine will play with bugs or just meow at me, like, "ant! ant!  look, ant!", while the other eats anything outright.  I'll be there with a tissue to get whatever and she's just like, chomp! gulp.  And as far as escape, dubia are just so ridiculously bad at climbing anything smooth, it's a non-issue.  

People hear "roaches" and they don't think of dubia, or the like.  You should see, or already know, how people's eyes widen when I tell them I breed them.  Til I explain that they're not like house roaches.  Even then, they probably think it's nuts.  Meh.

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## Carlos

> Maybe losing a pregnant female in the summer might cause a surprise...


If worried about escaped roaches, just leave a wide mouth jar with couple inches of molasses leaned against wall.  It will become a contained "tar pit" for bugs  :Frog Surprise:  !

Good thread DA  :Frog Smile:  !

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## Laserwolf52

I know this thread is old but I was wondering if any results popped up? I am considering switching my roaches to a diet that is based off your research.

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## demon amphibians

the research has been conclusive protein is bad news. I just avoid animal products all together. plant diets do have protein but it does not seem to cause the issues that protein from dog food, cat food and fish flakes cause. the big issue is uric acid and slowed breeding. my research was only on dubia but many experts in the matter as well as I believe that it applies  to hissers as well. There is a second thread that i made with more detailed results.

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## Laserwolf52

Thank you for the info and for putting in the time to do the study! Is it okay if they have some high protein food like chick starter that doesn't have any animal based protein?

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## Jeff

Chick starter (non-medicated) is fine as a dry gutload to use in conjunction with produce as a moisture source.

Demon: Do you have data to share? A study is not a study unless someone can replicate exactly what you did... can you give insight on methodology? Numerical data?
Purely observational studies are nice to gain some insight on a system, but without hard data they should not be taken as conclusive.

For the record - I'm only encouraging good science. I think there is adequate information from even peer-reviewed primary literature that excess protein in the diet is bad for cockroaches. Even in a human-associated species, the German Roach, that can presumably handle higher protein loads than tropical species, have ill effects in reproduction and oothecae size when fed excess protein. I think there is a balance that can be found, however. There is a significant difference between plant-based protein and animal-based protein that would be found in things like dog/cat kibble and fish flakes. The plant-based are probably easier to metabolize and offer a different route for obtaining nitrogen than the latter. 

**See 1988 study published in Annals of the Entomological Society of America by Hamilton and Coby: Effects of Dietary Protein Levels on Reproduction and Food Consumption in the German Cockroach (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae).* 

I think its still okay to feed dry gutloads that are grain based to add nitrogen (protein) to the diet, but the diet should be strongly supplemented and heavily weighed toward greens, vegetables, fruits, and other produce items both for moisture and nutrient benefits (to the cockroach and the herps that feed on them). Uric acid buildup should only occur, in my opinion, in roaches who are fed a diet very heavy in animal protein and otherwise offered few other resources (i.e. a diet of only dog food and water crystals). It's worth exploring cases where uric acid problems have arisen and compare them to those (the majority) where it does not. Too often in herpetoculture we hear of a single instance or two (recall trevo worm cases) and we are quick to jump to a conclusion that it holds universally... and this is totally understandable! We all want what is best for our pets and don't want to take any risks whatsoever (consider costs/benefits of feeding wildcaught in some scenarios). I think some balance needs to be found, and further investigation needs to be done to evaluate just how much is _too much_...

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## demon amphibians

Absolutely Jeff unfortunately i no longer have the precise notes from the study. Ol lady threw them away during spring cleaning. But i remember it like it was yesterday. I first started with the growth experiment. to find out if protein effects growth. i did roughly 20 containers worth of tests with different sized roaches for a month. I believe each contained 10 roaches in each. i fed half the containers a blend of cat food, dog food and fish flakes with carrots lettuce and oranges. it was a wet mash.( i did not do only animal product blends they always had veggies too) the other half i did veggie blend with chicken starter. The growth rate was almost exactly the same but the death count in the animal protein containers were 12 more then the veggie containers. This particular experiment did not have me convinced and really didnt prove anything because many situations can cause death. Meanwhile i was running the experiment on my breeding colonies. I took brand new adults from my growing colony and separated them into two colonies I intended it to take place with 2 different colonies but it later involved my 3rd and largest colony. (I will get to the 3rd colony later) The two test colonies had 1,000 in each give or take 100. I continued to feed my primary colony and  test 1 colony  the animal protein with the veggies and oranges. While test colony two only got veggies and chicken starter. In one week i noticed a slight difference between the two test colonies but not big differences. the difference was how many roaches i would catch mating each day. test two i would always find a hand full in process of mating. and test one I would rarely find them mating. i would separate babies every two weeks. The first two weeks separation yielded roughly the same. i didnt really notice a drastic change. around the 3rd separation at about  1 1/2 months was where the answers started to come. test colony two's babies nearly doubled test colony one's. And the random deaths in test colony one was at least 4 times higher then in colony two. By the sixth baby separation at month 3. The baby count in test 2 was out numbering both Test 1 and the primary colony which had a few thousand breeding females. the death count in test 2 was a small hand full while death count in test 1 was near 100, and the primary colony was a few hundred. So from there i stopped the experiment and gave all colonies nothing but plant matter for food this includes chicken starter. Two months later the other two colonies increased baby numbers by 4x and the death toll dropped significantly.  
I do apologize i do not have all details and exact numbers from my baby separation counts. I should have made a log of it on my threads. But since the experiment i have had to pretty much give roaches away because they would run out of space in my numerous bins. I would sell 10,000 of thousands at reptile shows as well as locally and still it would seem like i didn't get ride of any at all. 

Now these roaches can breed and thrive on animal protein they are roaches that is what they do, they multiply. Roaches are said to be the most likely creatures on the earth to survive in the event of disaster. They just thrive better without animal products.

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## Insects By Ready Reptile Feeders

We have multiple bins of Dubia Blaptica Roaches that we produce for our Dubia Starter Kits we quickly found out by starting out bins with equal conditions and number of roaches that those fed a varied diet including Fresh Fruits and Veggies fared better.  High protein diets are avoided in nature and this should be replicated in captivity.  Understanding that many customers ask for a dry food that need not be replenished every day or so, We do sell a Roach Chow/Food that is High in nutrition and optimal in protein 14-15%   We recommend that feedings should be 65-70% (or more) fresh fruits and Veggies and 30% or less supplemental moderate to low protein grain based food if desired.

Excess protein as well as excess supplemented calcium seems to cause molting problems and die offs during molting as well as the documented uric acid buildup in the animals that feed on these insects.

Calcium and protein from Natural Food Sources Fruits and Veggies poses no problems and is optimal and why our roaches are ALL Natural Vegetarian Fed and our Amphibians and Reptiles love them!  Just watch overfeeding high oxalic acid containing greens like Rhubarb which should be avoided as it blocks calcium absorption and to a lesser extent of spinach and kale.  The key is variety. 

In Summary High Protein is better for Dubai Roaches We Raise All Our Dubia Pre-Gutloaded with nutrition from All Natural Foods (Fresh Produce Fruits and Veggies)

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