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Bad food for roaches


likebugs

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I have tried the search feature and found loads of information. Unfortunately, I haven't found everything that I am searching for, so I will ask.

I found a thread that showed what roaches might not eat, but I am still a little worried that I will feed them something bad. I only have 4 discoids, a male and female pair, and a pair of large nymphs. Other than the day I brought them home when the adult male took a piece of dry oatmeal, I have yet to see evidence of them eating. I have offered them apple, romaine lettuce, carrott, and banana, for the wet dish. And, crushed dog food and dry oats in the dry dish.

Is there a list of foods that are bad or fatal to roaches?

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That is good to know I have a huge bag of walnuts that I was thinking about sharing with them. :mellow: I am glad that I posted a question before I introduced new things. Is there a food that they really like that will have them out eating, so I can view them? :lol: These roaches have been more interested in the egg flats than what I have given them so far. <_<

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That is good to know I have a huge bag of walnuts that I was thinking about sharing with them. :mellow: I am glad that I posted a question before I introduced new things. Is there a food that they really like that will have them out eating, so I can view them? :lol: These roaches have been more interested in the egg flats than what I have given them so far. <_<

Bananas usually work for getting mine out and about. They might be full too. Give them time, they'll eat.

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Stay away from nuts of any kind.

I don't know if I had a bad one or if all roaches are effected by it, but coconut killed off a bunch of my regular hissers.

Don't they use coconut oil in cleaners and some insecticides?

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Bananas usually work for getting mine out and about. They might be full too. Give them time, they'll eat.

I have probably been spoiling them. :lol: I have kept a wet dish full of good stuff in there the whole time that I have had them. Because of their size, I thought that I would have seen more frass. My mantids frass up a storm, but I guess these guys are a bit slower with that. They are much cleaner than I thought they would be.

When American roaches infested my tree crabs enclosure, there were splatters of crap everywhere in there, and it kind of put me off getting roaches. <_<

So far, I am glad I got these, they are pretty neat in comparison with some of the other inverts that I have kept. :D

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I have probably been spoiling them. :lol: I have kept a wet dish full of good stuff in there the whole time that I have had them. Because of their size, I thought that I would have seen more frass. My mantids frass up a storm, but I guess these guys are a bit slower with that. They are much cleaner than I thought they would be.

When American roaches infested my tree crabs enclosure, there were splatters of crap everywhere in there, and it kind of put me off getting roaches. <_<

So far, I am glad I got these, they are pretty neat in comparison with some of the other inverts that I have kept. :D

Yeah they don't make much frass.....unless you have 1,000s of them...

Don't judge by "pests," they're just that: interesting, cute, crappy pests :P

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I actually let the Americans go at it for a while, especially since the crab didn't seem to mind. When they started to grow in numbers and many of them were mismolting to adult, I had to clean the tank and therefore I let all the roaches outside. I figured that even though they wanted to be in there, something about the habitat was making them unhealthy. :( Their frass was too splattery, and their wings were not pumped all the way out. I actually let my kid keep a nymph that she found, (in secret from the other householders), until it molted to adult. :lol: Even though I don't particularly like the species, I don't completely hate them either. The nymph my daughter kept woukd sit on her hand and eat treats. The species seems to make a cool pet, if one can get past the pest stigma, and the smell. :lol: They are just not for me. ;)

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  • 6 months later...

I gave all mine Papaya last night (fresh) and this morning it is gone from each and every dish! :) I was so happy to find something that they all liked!!!

I know that is not a "bad" food, but I saw other posts with good stuff they liked too.

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  • 2 years later...

I saw nuts listed as a no-no for roaches. I wanted to revisit the topic.

I received several un-opened boxes of Bear Naked Nut Cluster Crunch cereal, a week past the sell date (anyone else on here have freegan friends?) and I wanted to share the bounty with my roaches. Walnuts, pecans, and ground almonds are in the ingredient list. Sounds like I can't share it with my roaches... maybe I could pick out the portions without nuts? or maybe I should just stick to fish food, dog food, slices of apple and carrot, and other "safe" foods.

I already had some of my new B. dubia die this week... one of my students wanted to share her Inta Juice fruit smoothie with them so I let her give a small dixie cup of it. There were at least 3 dead nymphs and an adult male who was acting off within the next few days. I was just happy that a student took interest enough that she wanted to share what she had with the roaches! And from the website, it seemed safe enough. I wonder if it had yogurt in it or something. Guess the smoothies sold here at school are not for my roaches.

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Mine love cucumbers! Are you sure?

The smell they don't like but it is practically safe for them to eat it. Also, the wild roaches or the house pest varieties are ones who hate it most. Captive bred roaches either ignore it or is unaffected by the cucumber scent.

Don't they use coconut oil in cleaners and some insecticides?

Coconut oil can be processed for used in floor waxes, dunno bout insecticides though. You may be mistaking it for chrysanthemum as those are used for pesticides.

Be careful of feeding them tomato or peppers, or basically anything from those two groups. Tomatoes are in the nightshade family and make poisonous chemicals, while peppers are spicy (obviously lol).

Peppers are only spicy to animals that has an allergic taste bud receptor such as mammals. Peppers are safely eaten by animals such as land hermit crabs, turtles and birds

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I toss pieces of pepper to my orange heads frequently. Just make sure no stem pieces are on any of the pepper - the same for tomato. While the fruit is perfectly safe, the stems and leaves of tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes (all in the family Solanaceae) are toxic.

As for the smoothie.. the Inta site looks suspicious, there is no nutritional information (unless I'm missing it) and vague over encompassing health claims. It could be possible that extra calcium is added to the smoothies, though, which isn't good for roaches. If the cereal is still good, eat it or share it with someone who wants it. Sell by dates are more or less a suggestion on items like that.

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