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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ohaple" data-source="post: 329548" data-attributes="member: 11034">This is a good point, and I definitely agree. I tried to acknowledge it in my original post when I wrote "I understand there may be a significant difference between the conditions A. vulgare prefer, and the conditions under which they breed best/fastest, but I will only be testing for preference here" but I know this is a wall of text so things like that get lost easily. Testing for best conditions is largely anecdotal based on keepers who have years of experience. Their experience is useful even though they don't have hard numbers. The only such study I know of is "Optimization of Culture Conditions of Porcellio dilatatus for Laboratory Test Development, 1999"Choice will determine what they prefer but not necessarily what is best for them. There is some correlation between preference and suitability due to evolution, but it breaks down somewhat when scarcity isn't present. Candy and fatty meats are great for humans when food isn't plentiful. In fact, lean meats like rabbit have been known to cause "rabbit starvation" since they don't have enough fat. On the contrary, our plentiful western society can see fatty food lead to heart disease etc. I am going on the assumption that isopods are somewhat the same.Protein and chitin heavy foods may have benefits in small quantities, but should not be a meal replacement. I advocate for a balance of foods with leaves being always available and supplemental food being rotated so that the isopods can get a variety of nutrients. The purpose of the choice experiment is to help narrow down what sort of supplemental foods the isopods crave because there is likely a correlation between what they crave and nutrients that benefit them.</blockquote>

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