Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read that I should feed them dry cat food. But they dont seem to really eat much of it. I've had them for months so they have eaten enough to live, is it normal to only see a few pieces chewed on? Or should more of the food be eatten?

Hissers(Gromphadorhina sp.)& their relatives tend to eat mostly decaying plant matter: fungi, vegetables and fruits. They will eat some protein based food, but in very small proportions.

The Blaberus sp. & their relatives feed on protein based foods to a higher degree, (along with plant materials),at least this has been my experience raising them. Blaberus sp. also tend to bite wings & perform other acts of cannibalism.

Clarification:

Blaberus sp. can be cannibalistic when not fed enough protein.

That is very interesting. Of the 4 Blaberus species that I currently have...

Discoidalis
Craniifer
Parabolicus
Fusca

...none have eaten each others wings or anything else for that matter. But of course I do in fact keep mine well fed on plant foods and protein food which is in the form of ground up dried dogfood and it is allways available 24/7 so maybe that is perfectably acceptable to them. I never thought about it but I think that they actually might start to eat the weakest of each other if I were to starve them.

I have read that these two...

Blaberus giganteus
Eublaberus prosticus

...will in fact eat each others wings and maybe even more towards freshly shedded insects of their own species.

John J Starr
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http://www.angelfire.com/wy2/raisingexoticroaches

I think any roach species, when deprived of a sufficient diet or kept in overcrowded conditions will eat their freshly molted tank mates. The victims include both nymphs and adults; you just tend to see the results with adults because the nymphs are usually eaten whole and leave no trace. Plus, it probably happens more often with adults since they're so huge and have a harder time ducking under cover and dodging the other adults. However once in awhile, you might find a half-eaten nymph still crawling around trying to make it. I've seen this happen with B. dubia, E. decipiens, as well N. cinerea, E. prosticus, and a few others.
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www.BugChick.com

chickabowwow

Thanks for the input BugChick.

With any animal I believe that we should allways do our homework and provide the best quality and adequate foods and housing.

BTW BugChick, I visited your site. You have a nice variety of roach species. I will be so happy when all of my current species hit the multi thousand marks.

John J Starr
http://www.angelfire.com/wy2/raisingexoticroaches

There've been studies done on hissers that show females tend to eat high protein diets like cat food whereas the males will opt for high carbohydrates like apples. It could very well be because females need the protein for reproduction while males need carbohydrates for territorial antics. Offering your roaches choices and variety in diet will ensure that everyone is happy.
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www.BugChick.com

chickabowwow