Chick starter has DL Methionine in it...a man made synthetic chemical meant to replicate naturally occurring "Methionine" which is one of the essential amino acid proteins necessary for most life here on earth. It has been patented by the University of Florida as a "green" pesticide targeting insects with an alkaline gut physiology including termites, mosquitos, caterpillar/larvae, and our beloved cockroach....among others. It has been sprayed on stored grain for years, hence the reason you will find it in everything from Guinea Pig food, to Tortoise food. Its primary addition is to poultry feed which makes meatier and faster growing birds.
They created DL Methionine because the naturally occurring "Methionine" is known as a limiting amino acid protein, and our bodies don't create it...it must be introduced via diet. If you imagine a wooden bucket comprised of slats, Methionine is the shortest slat making up the bucket thereby "limiting" the amount of water it can hold. By increasing Methionine the bucket can hold more water...i.e..protein. Problems occur because by increasing Methionine, you also increase other amino acid proteins like Histidine...anyone care to guess what Histidine does ???.....It creates Histamine…..why do we have "anti-histamines" ??? Because too much Histamine creates a rash, blisters, itching, etc....even life threatening anaphylactic shock.
Given my experience of breeding approximately 10,000 female Dubia, which were fed cat food pretty much for years. And then I purchased 25,000 female Dubia which were fed nothing but poultry feed their entire lives, I believe the blisters are a side effect of DL Methionine and the resulting increase of Histidine, and protein levels which is not helpful for adult Dubia. Now, I can not recall ever seeing this blistering or "white wing" disease, another defect I encountered in the 25K purchase but never before in my house stock. And I seen a lot of it in the 25K group.....primarily, if not entirely, in freshly molted females...and on wings of males. (can't be sure if they were freshly molted or not)
The other really strange thing about the 25K group was at least 90% of all the adult females were small, barely larger than a quarter. They were all dead within 6 months, and issues continued with their offspring for another year. I've since read that one of the great things about these green pesticides is that they can stay in the colony for up to 3 generations...a little bit of pesticide goes a loooong way. I've linked to the patent application by the University of Florida, you have to dig around and read a lot of scientific jargon, but there is quite a bit of corroborative evidence/research which notes DL Methionine primarily effects 1st thru 3rd instars, causes slower growth and smaller adults, and interferes with the reproduction rates of breeding females.
As an aside.....Methionine, Cysteine, Homocysteine, and Taurine are the 4 common sulfur containing amino acids. Methionine and cysteine may be considered to be the principal sulfur-containing amino acids with Methionine being the initiating amino acid in the synthesis of virtually all eukaryotic proteins. Does everyone know what Sulphur is/does.....its the oldest pesticide known to man.
When you feed poultry feed containing DL Methionine you are feeding your roaches a triple whammy....first a patented pesticide, second increasing levels of histamine, and third you are adding Sulphur to their diet....another known pesticide. There is a better way.....
https://patents.google.com/patent/US7181884
