Dubias

[Trogdorpheus]

Buying pre-made roach chow is a waste of money in my opinion. Just buy whole oats (not oatmeal) and some cheap high-protein puppy chow or something. Blend up a half n half mixture of that and your bugs will go nuts, mine do. Problem with cat foods is that there are a good number of them which are specially formulated for specific problems that cats encounter, like hairball or urinary tract or blah blah blah (insert random health problem with cats)... some of those special ingredients are rather questionable when it comes to the health of your bugs and ultimately your beardie, so generic puppy food is safer (imo).

 

[dEEjHaY]

FYI so everyone is aware, the temps that heating pads get to at there hottest is no where near the ignition point of carpet or the plastic for the bins. There will be no threat of fire or melting.

I also use ceramic tiles under my bin, works like a charm.

 

[Sapphire]

I made roach chow using:

Kitten chow
Fish food
Oatmeal
Off-brand cheerios

My roaches have been devouring it. Also, I would suggest grinding up any cat/dog food you give them. I put in whole pieces of cat food a good month or two ago and they're still in there, shoved into the corners and around the edges. It's easier for them to eat the food if it's ground up and spread out for them instead of in solid pieces that they can roll/push around accidentally while trying to chew on them, etc.

Also good for them: oranges, carrots, apples, blackberries, collards, etc... Just don't give them lemons or limes, apparently those can be harmful to beardies in some way.

 

[nair88]

Buying pre-made roach chow is a waste of money in my opinion.

i would normally agree with you since i tend to be fairly frugal (a big reason i started breeding roaches in the first place), but it's just so much easier to order it premade and it's not that expensive considering you can get 10 pounds for $15.00 and that lasts for months. i'm definitely not saying that it's wrong to make your own, i just prefer to spend a bit more to have one less thing to worry about in life.

 

[Trogdorpheus]

the temps that heating pads get to at there hottest is no where near the ignition point of carpet or the plastic for the bins. There will be no threat of fire or melting.

This is true if the pad doesn't malfunction. Not to mention most carpets now are a polymer blend anyway... and thus you have to worry about them melting before you do igniting. The UTH's I know have a history of shorting out, and have the potential then of heating up much higher than they were intended and can and have been known to melt carpet, as well as plastics. The human heating pads however, being in a market where the primary user's injury would involve a much higher legal cost than that of a pet, have more safety mechanisms in place. In other words, if a human heating pad shorts out, it stops heating, whereas a UTH shorting out could lead to excessive heating and property damage.

I've seen firsthand a shorted UTH that cracked a friend's glass aquarium as well as burned a hole into his carpet.

 

[J0ker]

heathig pad it is

 

[juniormmm]

Heating pads are much cheaper than uth as well. CVS sells the only non auto-shutoff pad that I can find for about $15. Most uth are at least twice that cost