I have been reading all the post of what to feed dubia roaches for a large breeding colony. From what I can tell the majority of us use agree on Oats, Grains, Fish flakes, and High grain dog/cat food with 12-13% protein.
The thing is I have use cheap dog/Cat food ground up in the past and didn't have a problem of them breeding. But, I do remember having adult Dubias that died. However, that could be because of low humidity. I should mention I breed them several years ago and decided to start up again.
Has anybody did an experiment by putting 10-20 adults in a separate container with only low quality dog food while having another container consisting of the same number of adult but, feeding them High quality grain and such?
12-13% protein is way low. I'd consider THAT to be a low-quality food source.
My chow mixture base components are Kitten Chow (min protein 30%), Ferret Food (min protein 40%),
Oats, High-Vitamin type cereal (grapenuts, kasha go lean, etc), a little raw sugar, and a small amount
of fish flakes or bearded dragon pellets (whichever I have on hand).
[Note: the ferret food is just because my ferret wouldn't eat this particular formulation, he prefers the 42% mixture from the same company and I have a big bag of this other formulation].