Dubia Roaches (blaptica Dubia): Food for Insectivores Made Better by Gut Loading with a High Calcium Commercial Diet

Dubia roaches (Blaptica dubia) are native to Central and South America, and this species is commonly offered to captive reptiles; however, our understanding of their nutritional value is limited. Moreover, they have a natural inverse calcium to phosphorous (Ca:P) ratio. Reptiles fed non-gut loaded insects are more susceptible to developing nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism. The purpose of this study was to measure the nutritional content of these insects and determine whether a high-calcium (8% dry matter) commercial gut loading diet could be used to produce a positive Ca:P ratio in these insects. Roaches (0.2 g, 16 mm) were fasted for 24 hours and then randomly divided into a control group (n = 6, baseline) and three experimental groups (12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours; n = 6 each). Each cohort (n) represented approximately 75- 80 roaches (15-18g). Roaches in the experimental groups were gut loaded on 50 g of the Fluker’s High-Calcium Dubia Roach Diet (Fluker Farms, Port Allen, LA, USA) for 12, 24, and 48 hours. All groups were humanely euthanized by isoflurane overdose and freezing at -80°C (-112°F). Samples were sent on ice packs to Dairy One (Ithaca, NY, USA) for nutritional analysis. At baseline, all control cohorts had a severe inverse Ca:P ratio (mean: 0.15±0.007, min-max: 0.14- 0.16); however, the Ca:P ratios were found to significantly increase at all three time points compared to baseline (P < 0.0001; all means > 1.4). These results confirm that dubia roaches fed a high-calcium diet can be used to provide an appropriate Ca:P ratio for captive reptiles.