Cat food question

Temptations? Whiskas (Mars) brand: cheap, low end. I wouldn't even feed it to my cats.. ;)

There's no reason to feed it to roaches. If you have a small bit left over then a tiny amount now and then would be ok, but they don't need cat food protein levels all the time.

 
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I feed my roaches Blue Wilderness dry cat food. For smaller nymphs I mash it up with a hammer and moisten with water since this kibble is hard but ingredients are best of all cat food.

 
Keith said:
I feed my roaches Blue Wilderness dry cat food. For smaller nymphs I mash it up with a hammer and moisten with water since this kibble is hard but ingredients are best of all cat food.
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Have you tried feeding your hissers juvenile iguana food pellets?

 
I dont use Cat Food to feed my roaches.

Why? Because its for Cats.

There are just too many extra ingredients in it that are specially made for cats (Hairball formula, Weight Formula, Urinary Tract Formula, etc)

Why would I want to feed my insects that?

I dont feed my roaches anything that was made specifically for some other type of animal.

 
Actually, I was thinking..if you feed your roaches to like a monitor or a bearded dragon, they make beardie bites and tegu bites etc as dry foods.

Maybe those would work for roaches too, and be kind of a gut load?

 
Maybe for a gutload or occasional/small portion of the staple diet. The problem comes from the protein level and roaches ability to convert and store nitrogen in their body. This can be a problem for some reptiles feed roaches as a staple.

Second problem: reptiles need more calcium than roaches do, thus their food may have too much.

 
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I bought Ferret Pellets for my roaches and give them as an occasional treat. Depends on the species who eats them - the Dubias LOVE them and fight over them. Some of my other roaches ignore the pellets completely. I also give my roaches dog food to munch on - but they're less excited about that.

I've read conflicting posts on roaches and protein. Some posts say "Never" - too toxic, and some posts say to give them SOME protein or they'll nibble on each other! I'm sure this info depends on what species one has. I just reason that "less is more" and only rarely give them protein. All of them seem to thrive on apples and oranges!

 
I tend to go with the primary and secondary literature on the subject of food. Other's experiences and work with food trials seems pretty convincing, too. I haven't had a single dead roach to clean up (can't dismiss the possiblitiy of orange heads eating smaller dead nymphs, though) with keeping it to grain based proteins.

That said, if my cats waste food, sometimes my roaches get it.

I think part of the reason that feeding higher protein exists is because items like cat/dog food and other pelleted foods are convenient (to feed and buy), can boost number of offspring, and that many keeping roaches don't have access to/can't read research papers.

 
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I generally include protein in the form of fish flakes, they really like it, and respond better to it than any other protein source I've tried otherwise.

 
I've kept hissers for 7 years and have always fed them cat food (amongst other things) since we also have cats. They seem to like it (though not as much as carrots and veggies) and it hasn't seemed to harm them.

 
I leave my cats food out for them to eat when they want to. My ferret, Frodo, eats their food. I see on here that cat food is inadequate for ferrets. Is there a food or food mix that I can feed to both my cat and ferret?

Thanks,

Chrissy

 
They're not completely random- he posted the cat food thing on this thread, appeared to post something about welcoming someone back on a thread entitled " welcome back," and posted something about feeding fruit on the dried fruit thread. That's bizarre... I guess he thinks this is funny.

 
I leave my cats food out for them to eat when they want to. My ferret, Frodo, eats their food. I see on here that cat food is inadequate for ferrets. Is there a food or food mix that I can feed to both my cat and ferret?

Thanks,

Chrissy

 
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