Dehydrated Fruits

[Dubia Dynasty]

Aside from offering fresh fruits and greens a couple times a week can you add ground dehydrated oranges,bananas, things like that too a chow? I know the moisture content would be gone but would it Inhibit more breeding like fresh citrus does?

[Keith]

It might be to tough to eat and chew.

[Dubia Dynasty]

Hmmmm, ill have to powderize it then. hmm hmm hmm. Trying too work on a custom roach formula. I do know most reptile meal powders have dehydrated powderized fruits, pollens, etc. Guess ill just have to see what the roaches think of it. That is the only sure test.

[rockpython]

It would be fine as far as I could tell. The can eat hard dog/cat food

[Dubia Dynasty]

I was thinking the same thing. Hard dog foods, Whole ground rolled oats, ground cereals, they are all hard and roaches love them.

[Blattodea313]

I have tried it before...it only works depending on what fruit you give them. Apricots can be peeled in half to get to the moisturized part, while bananas are like cement and they do not bother with them. As long as it isn't cement hard then they should like it. Another thing I would watch is how much you give them. A lot of times, dehydrated fruit has a TON of sugar in it. Overall, I find it is MUCH easier to just give them fresh fruit for several reasons:

1. Cheaper

2. Roaches like it better

3. You probably like fresh fruit better too so you can eat the part that you do not put in the roach enclosure

[Dubia Dynasty]

Ty, It was just a thought. I get alot of fresh fruits. My dad recently bought a dehydrator and he has the dehydrating fever.Ill keep all that in mind.

[Monochromnus]

I give mine fresh frozen. Mearow is exactly right. Some love it frozen, others wait for them to thaw. It is cool to watch them. If you use frozen you can have fresh for them all the time. Also, becareful of the frozed fresh fruits. Some of the pacaged frozen fruits, have avacados in it. Read the labels. :

[NRoach]

I was actually curious about this myself. A few days ago I put in dried cherries with all my roach species. E. chopardi, G. portentosa, A. insignis, B. dubia, N. cinerea, B. orientalis, and B. lateralis got really excited and munched away at the pieces I had given them as soon as they hit they hit their enclosures. B. atropos and B. craniifer weren't as eager to eat them, but after a few days, the cherries were gone. O. orientalis, P. fuliginosa, Panchlora sp. "Giant", O. deusta, H. fexivitta, Rhyparobia sp. "Malaysia", and G. lurida didn't seem at all interested in them. I tried with some banana chips and only the adult hissers nibbled on them. When the edges got soggy from the moisture in the substrate, some of my other roaches took some interest. They didn't last long, though. When the banana chips got soft enough, I noticed they went moldy within the next day.

[dubiadudes]

Hmmmm, ill have to powderize it then. hmm hmm hmm. Trying too work on a custom roach formula. I do know most reptile meal powders have dehydrated powderized fruits, pollens, etc. Guess ill just have to see what the roaches think of it. That is the only sure test.

So,

I came across this post completely by accident. When I first got into raising B. Dubia I didn't think twice when I purchased my dehydrator and went to the store and got ten pounds of Oranges. I won't share my whole custom roach formula, but I will share this.

My roaches are all fed dehydrated Oranges in their roach chow. It's a bit tricky to make the chow that I do, but my roaches are worth it because my Bearded Dragons are worth it. I do grind my dried Oranges, peel and all, into a fine powder, and if it is left without mixing it with the rest of the chow it will become slightly sticky and clump together. When this happens I just strain it a couple of times and then mix it right away. I spent over nine months getting my chow just right, it has everything a roach needs and after feeding it now for over two years it has produced some of the healthiest roaches around. I have also found that my females recover much faster after giving birth and usually produce again 11 days faster then with just dog or cat food. On that note, I do not use dog or cat food in my roach chow, but this is not to say that either is bad, I just have found something better.

I make my chow weekly and use over 30lbs of Oranges every week, I have used and still do from time to time use other fruits in my chow but Oranges have always worked the best for what I am trying to accomplish. On a final note, plenty of fresh water, fresh fruits and vegetables, heat and humidity, and my roach chow produce faster, stronger, healthier roaches. I have also gone so far as to do test tubs and have found that I have a lot less dead roaches and I seem to get about 20% more life from my breeders than in previous years.

Hope this information helps,