One of the most common questions we’re asked relates to Dubia roach diet. Simply put, people want to know what to feed Dubia roaches. This makes sense because along with environment, dietary choices are among the most consequential and complicated roach-keepers make.
To thrive, Dubia need all the usual tropical roach accommodations. These include appropriate amounts of heat, humidity, and darkness. However, these elements are more or less binary. Roaches either get what they need, or they don’t.
Nutrition is different. While proper nutritional support is a matter of providing roaches with the foods and other substances they need to grow and thrive, this is vastly more complicated than simply finding the right level of darkness, humidity, or heat.
To start, dietary options are infinite. There are as many ways for things to go wrong as right. Perhaps even more! The point is that the dietary decisions you make matter. What you feed your Dubia can mean the difference between healthy & unhealthy, productive & unproductive. Even alive & dead.
But have no fear. We’ve done a ton of work on Dubia roaches and diet, and we’ll show you what we feed our Dubia roaches over the course of a week. It’s about time we address the culinary questions we get, which are usually some variation of “What do you feed your Dubia roaches?”, or “What should I feed Dubia roaches?”. Our personal favorite is: “Your Dubia are the most healthy and enormous I’ve ever seen – what on earth do you feed them?!?”
Slight rhetorical embellishments aside, we thought we’d address these questions by creating a Dubia roach food diary of sorts. A “What Our Roaches Eat in a Day” post, if you will, where over the course of a week we upload what we fed our roaches each day. We’ll start with yesterday.
Dubia roach diet: “nature” vs. captivity
Like most cockroaches, Dubia can survive on a range of food and food-like substances. They are generalist feeders. There are even reports suggesting they can survive on paper and cardboard glue. However, how long and how well they can live eating such things is an open question. We don’t recommend feeding that stuff to your Dubia. They’re obviously not normal fare for roaches in captivity or in the wild. Dubia roaches evolved eating plant matter in various stages of decay, fungi, and probably dead insects and small animal carcasses they stumbled upon. Their “natural” diet probably varies a lot in the wild.
We put “natural” in quotes because to some degree, cockroaches have lived and evolved alongside humans for many thousands of years. This is less true of Dubia and other exotic cockroach species than it is for roaches considered pests in many parts of the world, but it is generally true that tropical roaches tend to thrive in and around human activity. This is partly due to food access, so the “natural diet” for many cockroaches is actually our diet – or at least what we discard into the trash and landfills.
In captivity, people feed their Dubia many foods. On one end of the spectrum are highly processed substances like dog food, cat food, cereal, fish flakes, etc. Sometimes people “dust” these foods with vitamin or mineral powders (like vitamin A or calcium) before offering them up to their roaches. On the other end of the spectrum you have fresh, raw foods like those found in the supermarket produce aisle. Knowing how many people keep Dubia roaches, there’s probably no shortage of dietary variations in-between.
In the end, whatever you choose to feed your roaches is fine by us. We aren’t here to judge. However, we’ve done a ton of research and experimentation on the ideal Dubia roach diet with respect to growth and productivity. This is our business, after all. We’ve found that some foods (and feeding strategies) work better than others. While we won’t give away all our secrets, we will try to give you a sense of what Dubia roaches eat generally, what our roaches eat specifically, and what you can (and probably should) feed your Dubia roaches to achieve and maintain good health, vitality, and of course, their superior nutrition as feeders.
Dubia roach food diary (December 11 – 17)
(AKA: What our roaches eat in a day)
Monday
Bananas
Ripe bananas make great Dubia food. And the riper, the better. Bananas are relatively inexpensive, they’re available year-round in the United States, and they’re high in the sugars Dubia roaches love. Their natural diet includes fruit, but often only if they’re lucky. There is little doubt that fruit contributes to good roach health. In fact, the more fruit the better – to a point, of course. Dubia roaches don’t reach their full potential on fruit alone, but we don’t think they reach it without it either. More on that below.
We prefer organic produce for our roaches when possible and practical, but when it’s not, we wash all produce thoroughly or peel it (if applicable). We recommend you do the same. On the other hand, our organic roaches always get organic food, by definition.
Tuesday
We has potatoes!
Potatoes (particularly sweet potatoes) are a nutritious source of calories for humans and animals alike. Roaches are no exception. If sweet potatoes are good enough for NASA (external link), they’re good enough for our roaches! Even plain white potatoes are themselves nearly a “complete” food, believe it or not. They have most of the nutrients both humans and Dubia roaches need to not just survive, but thrive. Did you hear about the guy who ate only potatoes for a year? Not that we recommend it, but it can be done.
And of course, we have potatoes for our organic roaches…
Wednesday
Beets & Carrots
Carrots and beets contain a range of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, fiber, sugars, and moisture. They are an important staple of our Dubia roach diet for several reasons.
First, our roaches like them…a lot. Second, they’re among the dozen or so foods that may actually improve Dubia roach health and vitality, based on our experience. We’ve experimented with many dozens if not hundreds of foods over the years to find the ideal Dubia roach diet. In the fresh produce department, beets & carrots are strong favorites.
And we also have a little culinary love for our organic colonies…
Thursday
Apples
As you may have guessed, fruits and vegetables are important components of the Dubia roach diet. They aren’t the only important thing, as you will see tomorrow, but they are significant – both in volume and effect.
Apples contain many of the nutrients Dubia roaches need for good health. Natural sugars, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients among them. Like much of the fresh produce we feed our Dubia, apples are convenient roach cuisine because they’re available year-round.
Some noteworthy advice about apples: Peel them before feeding them to your roaches. They’re high on the “Dirty Dozen Produce List” (external link), so we peel & core them to avoid pesticides, wax, and whatever else might be lingering on their skins. Remember that pesticides applied to produce are often designed to kill insects. Many pesticides render insects sterile or disrupt their reproductive processes in some way. If you’re breeding Dubia roaches, you clearly don’t want that.
And as usual, we have organic fruit for our organic roaches.
Friday
Today’s entrée: Super Secret Roach Chow
AKA: This is where the magic happens.
OK, so fruits and vegetables are important parts of the Dubia roach diet, but we’ve found that they do better with more. And by “more”, we mean other foods.
Pictured is our Dubia roach chow mixed with some super secret ingredients to form about 45 pounds of “special sauce”. Actually, the rest is in a big bucket off to the side. We took certain artistic license for presentation because as it turns out, huge buckets-o’-roach-slop aren’t very photogenic. Who knew?
It’s a good thing roaches live in the dark and lack the usual human dietary sensibilities. Once you move beyond its unsightliness, our roach chow concoction is a beautiful thing. And Dubia roaches love it. They eat up the entire batch in just minutes. Apples…meh. Bananas…OK. But MNERR? Our roaches go so thoroughly crazy for it you can hear their stampeding feet from the next room at feeding time with the door closed. This is actually true.
And they better love it. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t be doing our job. We’ve spent a ton of time over the years researching, developing, and experimenting to find “the best roach chow”. We have adapted our creation to not just their needs, but also their tastes. We believe MNERR is a big part of our (and our roach’s) success.
So after gorging on our roach chow creation, we move on to the next day…
Saturday
Aaaaand….nothing
Don’t worry. You aren’t missing anything. It’s OK to skip feedings. It may even be productive, depending on your goals, what and how you skip, and how much you feed your roaches. All things equal, many animals in the wild don’t have constant access to food. As a result, they may have evolved certain beneficial coping mechanisms (pdf) (external link).
And these adaptations may serve you, too. Some people may want their roaches to live longer. Others may want them to grow faster, or produce more. Whatever you goals, these things are all within the realm of possibility.
However, we don’t recommend going off and starving your roaches. There are trade-offs with general nutrient-withholding strategies, and going beyond just occasionally “giving your roaches a break” from food can be counterproductive if you don’t know what you’re doing. Trust us on that…
So for us, some days without feeding our Dubia roaches at various stages of development is by design, so to speak. However, the how, why, and how often we do it is a trade secret!
And naturally, we spare no expense or effort to accommodate our organic roaches.
Sunday
Oranges and Greens (tangerines, actually)
We usually feed our roaches oranges, but on this day we got a great deal on tangerines. Organic tangerines, no less. We also picked up some mixed greens because that’s just how we roll! Dubia roaches love oranges specifically, but they are often picky about citrus generally. They like it sweet, not sour, and some citrus fruits more than others. Our general rule is to feed citrus no more than twice in a week. This is probably a good rule for most feeder insects because some reptiles get upset stomachs after eating roaches and other insects loaded with citrus fruit. Once a week is fine. Any more and you should keep a close eye on your animals for ill effects – especially the sensitive ones. Chameleons come to mind, and maybe geckos too.
And there you have it – a typical dietary “week in the life” of our Dubia roaches. Of course, we change things up all the time. We choose seasonal fruits and vegetables when possible and are always on the lookout for sales and local specials. We offer our roaches “snacks” if we come across something awesome at the farmer’s market, a distributor, or wherever. And, we’re not afraid to experiment. With a few exceptions, we aren’t rigid about what we feed our Dubia. We do consider some food items staples, and we insist on some things we think Dubia roaches shouldn’t do without, but we’ve also had reasonable success with variety, and we urge you to give that a try!
Paula says
Hello! I’m new with my colony and I was wondering how to make the wet chow? Also what do you do for water supply? I do crystals but someone told me that was bad? Please help??? Also seems the wings of some of my bugs look like the have been ate on ?
DRD says
Ah yes – our secret roach chow recipe.
So what I will say is all you need to do is add water to the consistency you want. You could make the chow more runny to provide more hydration. Just make sure you have a food dish that can handle moisture and clean out any leftovers daily. Or, you could make the chow consistency more on the dry side if the wetter version tends to cause a mess in your colony, and if your roaches don’t need that much hydration. How you ultimately make your roach chow will depend on the situation in your colony or colonies.
In case you’re wondering how to start: You might try easing into it with a drier mix of chow and water while continuing to supply water crystals on the side. This allows you to monitor the hydration of your roaches. Try to get a sense of the driest “wet chow” you can make where the roaches stop consuming the water crystals. You might consider that point the minimum “wetness” you need to make the chow in order to supply enough water.
Otherwise, it’s entirely up to you. As long as your roaches have adequate hydration, you can make a wet roach chow according to your own preferences rather than theirs.
CJ says
Awesome!-ish ;) Preparing is half the battle. How do you prepare your fruits and vegetables? Does it all get sliced? Do you just cut the banana in half and throw it in the bin? orange peels? The stems on the greens? While I definetely have my own system, it would be nice to see some clarity from other Dubia breeders.
Additionally, I’m out of dry rations and, well, so are you. If I can’t get it from you are you willing to share the recipe? I really want to take great care of the dubias for our bearded dragon and I’m finding dry food to be the biggest obstacle.
Thanks!
DRD says
We peel everything and slice up large items like apples. There is no right way to do it though. Whatever works for you will work for the roaches. While we probably won’t give away our roach chow recipe any time soon, we do plan on selling it at some point in the future. To get a notification when it’s in stock, sign up for in-stock notification on the product page and you’ll get an automatic email as soon as it’s available.
Allison S. says
Hi – I just want to be on your Dubia roach chow mix AS SOON AS IT IS AVAILABLE…thank you. I love my bugs and the reps I feed them to.
DRD says
Our roach chow has been a great success for us, so we highly recommend it to anyone wanting to raise big, healthy Dubia roaches. We can send you an email as soon as its back in stock. Just go to the roach chow product page and enter your email address where it says “get notified when its back in stock” to receive an automatic email the instant it’s available!
RedTail says
DRD;
What do you think of adding a few drops liquid baby vitamins to the water when you make up the water crystals?
Also I’ve heard a high protein diet is important as these are feeder insects. I have protein powder as I drink protein shakes. Can I sprinkle a bit of this on their food or would protein in this form be harmful?
Thanks
DRD says
Both the vitamins and protein powder sound fine as long as the ingredients are safe for your animals. Dubia roaches are already high protein feeders, so you might want to be careful not to go overboard with even more protein. I am fairly sure the high protein diet will be unhealthy for the roaches, which is not a direct concern, but it does suggest caution is in order. Insectivorous animals evolved to eat both insects and whatever the insects ate. In the wild, insects generally do not eat a high protein diet. In fact, their diets are usually relatively low in protein.
Steve says
Are peaches a no no for dubias being gutloaded for leopard geckos?
DRD says
I’ve never heard that. If leopard geckos can eat peaches directly, I imagine they could also eat them second hand, as they would with a gutloaded feeder.
Ron J. says
Do you feed any grains ever?
DRD says
Yes, our roach chow contains whole or minimally processed grains.
Jeff J. says
Hi. I just fed my colony some peeled and halved Gold Kiwis. 2 days later there were dozens of dead Dubia laying around the dish. Is this something you have ever experienced? Thanks
DRD says
Interesting, and sorry to hear about the dead roaches. We haven’t fed our roaches kiwis, so we don’t have any firsthand knowledge about any potential affects. We haven’t heard anything about kiwi either. Kiwi fruit is generally considered low in pesticides, which are usually the cause of problems in Dubia roaches when they’re fed fruits and vegetables, so it’s possible the issues came from the fruit itself. Bottom line though is that we don’t know for sure.
Adam M. says
Kiwi, especially the skin, has enzymes that break down protein structures. Like pineapples, they can be deadly to some roach species. Hence, if you eat too much kiwi or pineapple it can leave you with a nasty burning sensation in the mouth. If you want to use kiwi or pineapple, you will need to cook it to denature the enzymes or buy canned. Hope you check back and see this!
DRD says
Interesting, thank you. Dubia roaches don’t like pineapple, which seems to fit with what you’re saying.
Amanda B. says
Do you cook the potatoes before feeding them to the roaches?
DRD says
Nope. Raw is fine, though they will eat it cooked. It’s just not necessary. Keep in mind these are sweet potatoes. Regular white (Russet or similar) potatoes may be different.
Kelly B. says
When you make your wet chow, have you ever used a 100% real fruit juice? Maybe a super green drink? I am thinking of using frozen oj, an apple juice or a super green drink.
DRD says
All of your ideas are good ones. Our general rule is the more “natural” the diet, the better. This means fruit is better than table sugar, natural foods are better than processed ones, etc.
Kelly B. says
I just set up a mini colony today. I think I over fed them, I put roach chow, carrots, organic spring mix and an orange. The colony are being kept in a 5 gallon paint bucket(home depot) with 1/8 inch holes drilled all around the bottom and screen glued on the outside. It sets in another 5 gallon bucket. Since they shipped 3 days ago, I am going to leave it like that and clean in 2-3 days. Can you over feed them?
DRD says
Dubia roaches themselves will eat as much as they like and then stop, so overfeeding problems are primarily issues of colony cleanliness. Roaches don’t like spoiled food, so keep that in mind too.
In that regard, yes, you can give a colony too much food. If it’s dry food, it may keep for a while until the roaches get around to eating it. Or, cleaner crews like lesser mealworms may get into it and use it to proliferate faster than you may like. If it’s wet food, it may spoil, which can cause problems we’ve detailed in various places on our site.
In either case, the solution is to clean up any excess food and only feed your Dubia what they can eat before spoilage or takeover by cleaner crews can occur. With wet food, this is about a day in our experience. With dry food, it may be a few days, but it’s going to depend on conditions and circumstances unique to that colony. The best thing to do is get an appropriate size feeding bowl for the colony, fill it up with enough food to last a day or so, then refill as needed. If any problems occur, you can just dump it out, clean the bowl, and start again.
Keeper says
Do i need to feed them everyday? Is it safe when i feed them once a week?
DRD says
No, you don’t need to feed Dubia roaches every day. They can actually go many days without food or water. The key to how often we feed them lies in their purpose. For us, it’s health and breeding. For others, it will be maintenance as feeder roaches for their animals. For still others, it may be something else.
Faefocta says
Is it possible to give my small dubia colony bell peppers?
DRD says
Maybe. It’s not something we’ve tried specifically. Bell peppers are generally high in pesticides, so if you try feeding them to your Dubia roiaches, be sure to wash them well.
LeeAnn H. says
Are strawberries or grapes safe?
DRD says
We have never tried either one, but both fruits are high on the “dirty dozen” pesticide list. If you feed either of them to your roaches, wash them thoroughly and peel away the skin at a minimum. However, avoiding them is the safest choice.
As an aside, apples are also on the dirty dozen pesticide list, and we feed our Dubia roaches a lot of apples. This is a bit of a risk, but we wash and peel the apples. We also buy organic whenever possible.
Shanise S. says
Hey, when you feed them bananas and oranges or any form of fruit with skins, do you leave the skin off or do you peel and chop them up?
DRD says
We peel them always, even fruit with edible skins like apples. We do this to avoid exposure to any harmful substances, even if the risk is low. We learned this lesson the hard way, so washing and peeling is just part of the routine.
Denise says
What can cause a male Dubia’s wings to look chewed?
DRD says
It’s likely that their wings are being chewed. Male Dubia roaches can be aggressive with each other. It’s actually very common for them to fight. However, they fight more often and more intensely when their colony is under stress. You can read about how to reduce colony stress in our article about breeding Dubia roaches.
Farron J. says
Is it OK to feed Dubia roaches floating catfish pellets? They’re high in protein 23%, plant based, plus vitamins C, A, D3, B12 and E. Also sodium, calcium, crude fat 3%, crude fiber 7%, phosphate minimum 0.80%, and zinc. Pretty much a little of everything.
DRD says
Everything you mention sounds fine. Fish food is generally OK for Dubia roaches, so your catfish pellets should be fine.
One trick we use that may be helpful is to isolate some roaches and try out whatever the new thing is you’re doing on them. See how they do, then decide where to go from there. We find this particularly useful with new food items.
Katie says
I have about 400 medium dubia roaches. I use a roach chow and occasionally feed them carrots, collards, apples, and oranges. What do I need to feed them to gut load them and for them to start breeding? Do I need a heat source or will room temperature work for breeding?
DRD says
Gutloading and breeding are entirely different things. Gut loading is for when you’re about to feed them off to your animals. Breeding requires complete nutrition and special conditions.
You’re on the right track with roach chow and whole foods. Assuming your average room temperature is in the 60’s to 70’s, they’re likely to benefit from higher heat.
Tristan M. says
What are the most important nutrients in a roach’s diet?
Also, I recently got 50 juvenile roaches and am feeding them every 2-4 days. Should I feed them more often?
Thanks!
DRD says
Without giving away our secrets, a balanced diet is the most important approach when feeding roaches and other insects. For Dubia roaches, you can skew the nutrients a bit toward protein first and carbohydrates second. They probably don’t require much fat, though they do need some. What’s found in common food items is probably enough.
Your feeding schedule ultimately depends on your goals and purpose for the roaches. Specimens and pet roaches probably don’t need to be fed more often as long as they’re getting enough to eat. The same is probably true for feeder roaches, which in addition to every 2-4 day feedings can be separated from the colony and fattened up when you want to feed them off. As long as they’re getting enough to eat, the difference between one, two, or three days is probably not critical in these cases.
Sabrina says
Would it be possible to keep and feed a single Dubia roach as a pet? I can’t support a colony, but would love to have one as a pet! Also, what feeding steps could I take to ensure that it lives as long as possible rather than breeding or feeding?
DRD says
Sure, that would be fine. A few words of advice: If you get a female, ask for one that is still a nymph rather than adult. We could do that for you if you want. This way you don’t end up with a pregnant female. Or you could get a male.
Feeding would be the same for specimens and pets as it is for breeders and feeders. However, you can probably space out the feeding times for the former. You can also relax about nutrition. Roaches can survive on a very poor diet. We focus so much on nutrition because our primary interest is breeding. For a pet, some vegetables and fruit like carrot, apple, banana, potato, and whatever else you find they like would probably do nicely. Dubia roaches are particularly fond of apples and carrots, but you will find that they will devour almost anything when hungry!
Daisy says
Hi! I’m curious, do you leave dry chow in there everyday while feeding the fruits and veggies or just the wet chow once a week?
DRD says
While we don’t want to give away all our Dubia roach feeding secrets, you certainly could provide your roaches with a constant supply of dry chow if you wanted. You just have to make sure it doesn’t spoil or get taken over by cleaner crews (if you use them) or attract and support other insects.
Grain-based dry chow tends to promote lesser mealworm proliferation while having no effect on Dermestid beetles and their larvae – though if it contains animal products, it’s conceivable that it could.
Angela S. says
What is the best ratio (males to females) for best production? We seem to have die offs sooner than we think they should. They get fed every other day, temps are right, etc
DRD says
All things equal, 1:5 male to female or higher (more males) will work for productivity. There is no universal ideal M:F ratio, but there are proportions that work better or worse for each situation given the conditions in the colony. Fine tuning from the standard 1:5 recommendation will depend on things like space and food availability, environmental conditions, the health and virility of the males, etc.
LM says
More females, right?
DRD says
To clarify the previous comment: 1:5 is the male:female ratio, so one male for every five females. This is a maximum in the sense that more males will not improve productivity and may even reduce it for reasons explained in other posts.
So the answer to your question is yes. The adjustment from a baseline of 1:5 M:F is the addition of females.
Michael P. says
How do I make the roach chow? Thanks!
DRD says
It’s our secret recipe!
Devin says
What’s the best way to thoroughly clean fruits and veggies of pesticides? I don’t trust “organic” in my stores because that’s what killed my colony before. I fed my roaches organic stuff but didn’t wash it and the next morning all of them were dead. I have no idea how to thoroughly clean fruits and vegetables.
DRD says
We wash fruits and vegetables with an “eco-friendly” soap (you can find lots of them in stores), but we also peel some items. Apples are one example of a fruit that we always peel and de-core before feeding them to our roaches. To be honest, there may be no way to be sure there’s nothing harmful on the surface of any fruit or vegetable, whether organic or not. To be safe, we tend to remove the skin where appropriate. You obviously don’t need to do this with things like bananas, but whenever there is skin that is exposed to dirt or the elements, we remove it.
Bo M. says
What soap specifically do you use? The ones I’m finding have a whole bunch of fragrances or “skin softening” ingredients. Are those okay for roaches?
DRD says
With hesitation to recommend a particular brand, there are a fair number of so-called “eco-friendly” soaps on the market. The one we have on hand at the moment is “plant-based” and free of color and fragrance. The ingredient list appears very basic, with things like glycerin and magnesium. Nothing that sounds potentially toxic.
This one was purchased in bulk at least a year ago, probably more, and it seems likely that there are even more of these “earth friendly” soaps to choose from now.
Terry says
Is it dangerous to feed Dubia roaches medicated chicken feed? What if it is diluted 1/3 rabbit chow, 1/3 oats, and 1/3 chicken feed?
DRD says
A quick search reveals that medicated chicken feed contains Amprolium, which is designed to kill certain bacteria by interrupting metabolism.
This likely has very little upside for insects that rely heavily on bacteria for metabolic health, and lots of downside risk. Whether it’s harmful for Dubia roaches specifically, we can only guess.
Our advice is to avoid it entirely, but if you want to use it, experiment with a small Dubia population first.
Norine says
How do I get the food that you make?
DRD says
Here are links to our Dubia roach chow and our Dubia roach gut load.
Zack P says
I would like to make my own dry food for my Dubia roaches (and crickets and super worms). I know the full recipe is top secret, however; that’s not what I’m asking for.
I would like to know what base component you use in your Dubia roach recipe? Or what you would recommend starting with?
I would like to make a dry food that is entirely plant based, since I’ve learned that feeder insects usually do better on plant based proteins vs animal based proteins (such as cat food or fish food).
DRD says
While I appreciate your question as well as your interest in our Dubia roach chow, at this time we aren’t giving out information about its ingredients or specifics about the processes we use to develop them.
If that were to change in the future, we would certainly post that information here on our website.
Karen Withers says
I’m a little confused. Can the chow and the gut load both be fed dry and wet?
DRD says
Yes, that’s correct. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Which option you choose will depend on your circumstances.
For example, if the goal is to provide enough food for 3-7 days and not think about it again until that time, dry is the best choice. On the other hand, if you’re providing just enough food for one day and the roaches are also in need of moisture, wet would be the way to go.
Dubia roaches will eat our roach chow wet or dry. In broad terms, dry is more convenient than wet, but roaches find wet food more palatable. Wet food is for people who monitor their colony closely and can replace uneaten food daily. You can feed your roaches dry food too if you check them daily, but what you probably shouldn’t do is feed them wet food and let it sit for days until it goes bad.