I know that people say that the dubia breed more with oranges, so I have been throwing some in the colony and out of everything I put in there, they love the oranges the most! Always eaten completely! What I was wondering, can you give them too much oranges? Or can I keep a steady supply of them in there?
As long as they are eating them before they turn moldy, its fine as a staple food for them. Provide food with protein too though like crushed cat/dog food etc.
Cool, thanks man! I have my own little blend lol, some cat food, bran, and a little bit of cheerios lol, they seem to like it alright, I also put a lot of veggies in
I almost bought some fish food to throw into my big bag of food, but I wasn't sure, super high protein though, like 47%!! but it said something about new chemicals to clear and not cloud water, so I was kind of leary about it haha
People at the Arachnopets say giving roaches some oranges (fruits and veggies) do help them breed. I've been keeping tarantulas, and some bugs, for over 12 years, so I know about this stuff, too. I love bugs!
We use a mixture of cheap cat food (30# for $17) and game bird feed, it has like 35%+ protein in it. I buy it for the button quail so its not like I'm going out of the way to get it LOL. and its 45-50 cents a pound.
You can NEVER give them too much citrus. It definetly AMP's up their breeding behavior. You MUST compensate the sugar and fluids with some protien/fat content in their gutload.
I personally cover the bottom of their tupperware with a 1/4'' thick layer of gutload and leave oranges on the "cool" sie of the tupperware so they dont dehydrate and cook. If kept on your HEAT PAD side of the tupperware.... They tend to mold over easier as well. I hav found that a SOLID COLORED TUPPERWARE works a lot better than a clear tupperware due to the inaccesability of light. Dubia's are nocturnal so they will breed 24/7/365 if it is dark 100% of the time.
I found that most bugs don't need that much nutrients. Tarantulas for example can feed on crickets that have not been gutloaded and fed properly and thrive. Scorpions also don't need that much nutrients. Veggies and fruits are good food sources for roaches of all species.
I think it's something their digestive system can handle well. Animals are adapted to eat the food they evolved to eat, so they tend to do better on the stuff. Cattle grow really big just eating veggies and grass. Tarantulas live as long as 30, 40 year fed on crickets that were not well fed and water.