Bug Treats

[BHReptiles]

I have a colony of dubia roaches that I'm growing up to sustain a bearded dragon when I purchase one at the end of the summer. Can I feed some of these roaches to the rats? I know crickets and mealworms are fine, but are dubia as well?

[MrLang]

The thing about dubia roaches is that the females take 5 months or so to get to breeding size. I wouldn't feed out of your colony until you have 50+ adult females. As for feeding roaches to the rats, I'm not sure why you would want to. I don't think there is harm in it if they actually eat them, but they should be getting all of their nutrition from plant matter.

[BHReptiles]

I've been growing out the colony for nearly 6 months now. I have at least 30-40 adult females (I've not counted them in a long time...I just feed and water them). Nothing is eating them so they are growing and breeding to their heart's content. As for feeding them, I just wasn't sure if you could feed them as an occasional treat. I've never fed my rats bugs but I was just curious if you COULD, not necessarily that I would. It was just more for expanding my knowledge. My rats get Mazuri 6F, Pedigree Large Breed dog food (pregnant and nursing moms only) and then occasional veggie/fruit treat. Bugs aren't on their menu.

[Rhasputin]

No reason not to what-so-ever!
Have at it!

Great healthy treat for the rats with plenty of good nutrients!
Bugs are a very common part of a wild rodent diet.


I feed my cockroaches cockatiel food, which is basically tons of ground up veggies and grains made into colorful little pellets. It's got tons of vitamins in it, so I like to think that atleast some of that gets passed on to my reptiles and rodents.

[BHReptiles]

I make my own roach food. I use chick feed, tropical fish flakes, and whole grain cheerios. The mixture is probably 3 parts chick feed, 2 parts whole grain cheerios, and a dash of fish flakes. Not sure how nutritious that is for the rodents, but my roaches seem to love it and they are thriving ever since I started making my own food for them.

[purple python]

In the past when I had a colony of Dubia I fed plenty off to my rats. I found that some loved them, and some did not and generally they preferred the smaller ones. Mealworms are also a great treat you could try, all my rats go nuts for them.

[satomi325]

The rats love Dubia!

And meal worms are rat crack!

Just don't feed too much. It's great as a weekly treat or so for non-breeding rats.

And its ok to feed a little extra to pregnant/nursing mamas. Great source of extra protein and fat to keep up their energy.

[Rhasputin]

I also like the birdalicious bug bite treats from Wild Birds Unlimited. They're basically little balls of beef suet, some blueberries, and crunched up meal worms. Yum.