Hi all!
I have a large bin of dubia, a mix of small, medium and large. Though mostly medium to large. Probably maybe about 100? Not that much. Anyways, I’ve been trying to gutload them by providing them vegetables, greens and on the occasion small bits of fruit. But it doesn’t seem like they eat much like at all. I’ve painted the side of the bin black to attempt to make them feel more hidden. They have some egg crates. I have the food placed right next to the egg crates. But they don’t seem to touch it that much. When I first got them they were chowing down immediately. But I feel like whenever I do check on them I rarely ever see them out except maybe one or two that might be eating. What can I do to fix this? I’ve heard some say that they need a heat mat, but I’ve also heard that heat is what they need to breed, and I don’t want to breed them, they’re strictly just feeders and I have a reliable affordable source of buying them locally. Plus I honestly just get a bit nervous
But yeah. I just really want them to be eating to give my beardie the best nutrients through them possible.
They usually eat at night in complete darkness. I feed my colony arugula, sweet potatoes, some oranges and apples.
Don’t forget to offer them water, I use a round lid in which I put a piece of cotton wool soaked in water so that the little ones don’t drown.
I feed mine- baby carrots, stale (hard) honey wheat bread, collard green and roach mash that I make myself, blender mixed - oats, plain wheat cereal, guinea pig pellet or rabbit pellets.
I don't usually see my roaches eating, but I know they are because the carrots are SHREDDED the next day I just give them roach chow & carrots with a water pouch, I'm worried about getting another mold cloud if I put anything else in there
As Nick mentioned, they will mostly eat at night. Here are some things that I found will impact if and how much they eat (some might sound familiar):
-Temperature (more when it's warmer)
-Time of the year (most in the summer)
-Stress
-Amount of space