​Dubia Roach Diet

As dubia roach breeders, one of the most common questions we get is “What should I feed my roaches?” And it’s a good question! I mean, what do roaches eat? What do they eat in the wild and what should they eat in captivity? What is best to feed them so that they are nutritious for your pets? There are a lot of things to consider when deciding what to feed to your feeders.

Some of you may be wondering why it even matters what we feed our roaches. What you feed your roaches is super important for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that whatever nutrients your roaches get is the nutrients that your pet gets when they eat the roaches. Feeding your feeder insects nutrient dense foods is very important for the health of your pets. The diet of your roaches is also important to ensure that they don’t die off before you have the chance to use them up. Healthy roaches will not only live much longer but will also continue to grow and might even breed eventually.

So, what do dubia roaches eat in the wild? In the wild, dubia roaches typically feed on fruits and vegetables but they will pretty much eat anything that is available to them! Dubia roaches can survive on pretty much anything but that doesn’t mean that all of those things are good for them. They do best on fresh fruits and veggies, specifically sweeter veggies. They tend to enjoy citruses such as oranges and tangerines. They don’t love sour citruses like lemons and limes as much. In the wild, roaches just need to eat to sustain themselves while in captivity, roaches need to be gut loaded in order to also sustain the pet that you are feeding them to.

What is gut loading? Gut loading is feeding your feeder bugs nutrient dense foods to maximize the nutritional value for your pets. To gut load your insects, you should be feeding them lots of fresh fruits and veggies as well as a high quality chow. The chow should have some protein, but not too much. A chow with a protein of around 20% will also encourage breeding with your dubia roaches.

Our roach chow is a custom made, pelleted chow that provides lots of extra protein and minerals that the roaches will not get from fruits and veggies. Our chow has been tested and adjusted over years of raising dubia roaches and we are confident that we have the formula perfect. Our roaches get plenty of fresh chow, twice a week as well as other things to complete their diets. Some things that we have found our roaches love include oranges, apples, carrots, greens, squash, sweet potatoes and bananas. It should be noted that our roaches are fed the best foods for breeding. When the roaches are about to be fed off, they should be fed foods that are good for the pets that you are feeding them to. For example, citrus fruits like oranges are great for encouraging breeding but may cause stomach upset for pets that eat the roaches afterwards. If you feed your roaches foods that may cause your pets an upset stomach, it is best to wait a couple of days so that those foods can leave their system.

What do roaches drink? You can keep your roaches hydrated using things like water crystals. We use water crystals in our colonies but are careful not to allow mold to grow. We remove all old gel twice a week and replace it with fresh water gel. Roaches can also get all of the hydration they need from fresh fruits and vegetables. Roaches do not do well with a dish of water as they tend to drown.

As you can see, there are tons of things that roaches can and will eat if they are offered to them but it is best to feed your roaches whatever is best for your pets! Water gel, fruits, veggies and quality roach chow are all important parts of your feeders diet and their nutrition should be taken seriously. As with anything, roaches love a variety of different foods and you will notice that they will eat some meals much more aggressively than others!