Nutritional Differences

Roachman26

Roachman26

Seventh Instar
I've been feeding mostly baby hissers to my two little Brachypelma smithi because that's what I have in surplus. Occasionally, I'll slip them a dubia, or a found cricket, but I'm really trying to build up the dubia, and all the others too. Is there much nutritional difference between the different species of roaches? All of my roaches are basically eating the same things, so I don't think that's much of a factor. I worry that there isn't enough variety.

 
My guess is that for an invert a 'roach is a 'roach. If you were to offer other prey as well (meal worms, grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, etc) then that is where there maybe would be a difference. My opinion is that for predatory inverts really diversity in diet doesn't do much. Think of all the tarantula breeders have had tons of healthy livestock some from generations of eating nothing but crickets...

If you are worried they are missing trace minerals and vitamins you can feed your ‘roaches something different the day before your feeding day (e.g. switch between bananas, oranges, dry food, grains, greens). That’d be an interesting experiment though, seeing if you can increase growth rate or adult size by “fortifying” their diet.

 
Interesting, I've always wanted to know this as well. For mantids, some hold the view that whatever they eat will have an effect on the size and the well-being of their oothecae. I'm not really sure this is true but I make sure I feed their feeders the good stuff.

 
Oh, DD's shares the copyright to that study now? I wonder if they know the Wormman has it plastered on his website for the last ten years. Could be a big lawsuit down the pipe here! (couldn't find the data on Blaberus.com though)

 
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