Switching food

[Jesus]

I used to feed my hissing & dubia cat food but due to economically reasons I cannot longer afford that is it okay if I feed them dog food instead? we get huge bags of dog food I was wondering what was the difference between feeding cat & dog food or is there none?

[Randomjoe]

Dog food should be fine.

[Hisserdude]

Dog food works just as good as cat food in my experience.

[Jesus]

1 hour ago, Hisserdude said:

Dog food works just as good as cat food in my experience.

Alright thanks

[Psydeus565]

Depends on the dog food sometimes, my hissers would not touch Kibbles n' Bits and Ol' Roy brands. Those two foods are likely not very good for dogs as well since the roaches wont even touch them. 

[Jesus]

1 hour ago, Psydeus565 said:

Depends on the dog food sometimes, my hissers would not touch Kibbles n' Bits and Ol' Roy brands. Those two foods are likely not very good for dogs as well since the roaches wont even touch them. 

When we used those brands the dogs had diarrea we got Purina and the roaches eat it all :P

[BlattaAnglicana]

My hissers turned their antennae up at dried dog kibble and wouldn't touch it (I bought a huge box of it too, what a waste as I don't even have a dog!) but absolutely love cat treats (dried but slightly moist 'biscuits') and can't get enough of them. I must admit I haven't tried a different brand of dog food (the one I bought was the "value" dog kibble from my local supermarket so maybe my hissers just have very discerning taste!) but in my experience so far, cat food is definitely preferred.

[Matttoadman]

I feed my hissers, dubia, pantanal old fashioned oats. You can get a huge container at Walmart for 2$. I also add the dirt cheap cat food from time to time but the oats are the favorite. 

[Jesus]

21 hours ago, Matttoadman said:

I feed my hissers, dubia, pantanal old fashioned oats. You can get a huge container at Walmart for 2$. I also add the dirt cheap cat food from time to time but the oats are the favorite. 

I have oats too plenty of em but I don't use em much due to those annoying lil white bugs :(

[stanislas]

3 hours ago, Jesus said:

I have oats too plenty of em but I don't use em much due to those annoying lil white bugs

That's the reason I also refrein from using oats... Last time I used that, the enclosure was swarming with tiny white specks. 
As far as I know, cat food is in general better quality, with more proteins, due to the fact that cats have higher requirements than dogs. I guess cockroaches know the difference somehow. 

[Matttoadman]

Never had that problem.

[WarrenB]

On 2017-5-21 at 2:58 PM, stanislas said:

That's the reason I also refrein from using oats... Last time I used that, the enclosure was swarming with tiny white specks. 
As far as I know, cat food is in general better quality, with more proteins, due to the fact that cats have higher requirements than dogs. I guess cockroaches know the difference somehow. 

Cat food also includes added taurine, an (almost) amino acid they can't synthesise as well as dogs, so they need a more direct source in their diet. For the purposes of Jesus' original question, I guess that if some roaches can synthesise all they need from oat protein, a switch from cat to dog food isn't going to phase yours much.

Ironically, feeding my new batch of roaches made me look up dog kibble ingredients and additives on packets and online. The stuff I've got here seems okay, but the research got me to experiment with raw feeding for my dogs and cats. (Partly because I realised it was ironic to worry about feeding my roaches what I was happily setting in front of my dogs every day!) Seems to be going well so far, so the upshot is I might have a good amount of leftover dog and cat kibble for roaches to munch on.

[Tleilaxu]

Roach Wars break out over the Purina One Smart Blend large breed formula. (Chicken and rice) Even the smaller Surinames try to haul off kibbles as big as they are.

https://www.amazon.com/Purina-ONE-SmartBlend-Chicken-Formula/dp/B0000AH3QT