Kayroxyoursox
New Member
My crickets keep dying. I buy them, put them in s cricket keeper, i put some apples in there for them to eat, and some of that water jelly for them and the next day they are all dead. It's making me mad, what can I do?
Crickets keep dying.
- Thread starter Kayroxyoursox
- Start date
Chase
Chameleon Enthusiast
Are they banded or the old brown crickets?
I saw on Facebook where Eric Adrignola has been having an issue with the old brown ones. I think the cricket virus is still messing with them. Do you ever notice them laying there but their legs are still moving?
Chase
JaxyGirl
Avid Member
This is what I do and I have very little cricket loss. Get a large bin such as sterilite or rubber made. I feed mine Rapshy Superfoods Superload insect gut load formula. You can feed it wet or dry. I prefer dry. I also will give them some fresh greens etc. Instead of using a sponge or cricket cubes for water I dampen a plain white piece of paper towel so they can drink from that. I find that it's easier to change out and it doesn't get bacteria build up and the crickets won't drown. Instead of egg crates to climb on that gets full of poop and bacteria I use pieces of aluminum screen for them to climb on. It has great surface area and it allows the poop to go through the screen for easy cleanup and extra air circulation. This works really well because I order 1,000 crickets at a time and it gets expensive especially when they die.
Kayroxyoursox
New Member
Yes that's what they do. They just lay there and I'm like oh they're dead but they're still moving a little. Also my chameleon hasn't been touching them. And it's just the large ones, the small ones I get for my baby live long enough for him to eat them all.
Kayroxyoursox
New Member
Thanks for the advice ! It's weird because I just buy them from petco like 30 at a time which I have to go every couple of days, but until recently there would be none that died . Now i buy them and I only give him like 10 and the next day they are all dead. It's happened like 3 or 4 times in a row. Now
Aves
Member
I got 100 1/2 little ones on Saturday and I got like 4 maybe 5 dead ones by now, in only 3 days.. I don't think it's a big death rate but is something..
I try keeping them as live as possible. I feed them the orange cubes and give them salad and carrots
Kayroxyoursox
New Member
I got mine 2 days ago. 40 lg and they're a dead now
JaxyGirl
Avid Member
I have the same prob with Petco crickets. They just seem unhealthy to begin wth. Who know where they get them from and how long they've had them by the time we buy them? There are lots of good cricket distributors. I get mine fro LLLreptile.com you can get 500 shipped for 29.99 (that incudes overnight shipping) they arrive nice and healthy and its sooo much cheaper then buying them from the pet store. I'm actually waiting for mine to come from them today.
There a a bunch of sponsors on here that sell crickets also.
wmacintosh
Member
Ive also bought some from petco and I've had nothing but problems with them. I went to a different pet store and havent had a problem since. I think it had something to do with the supplier they were getting them from.
Aves
Member
You can get them online from Flukers.. there are 500 for 11.90 plus couple of bucks for shipping, depending how you want them delivered...
I'm going to order online, and pretty soon going to breed them or maybe not, I'm still thinking about it
charly1954
New Member
500 for $30, thats $3 for 50. At most bait shops thats around what they sell them for. Might look around for one. Most the more you buy the cheaper they get, mine is $5 for 100.
LoosePin15
New Member
I order mine in batches of 500 from Fluker's as well and they have - by far - the best survival rate of any I've tried. While it's convenient to get them when you need them from the pet store (PetCo/PetSmart), I've found the survival rate drops considerably compared to Fluker's.
Kayroxyoursox
New Member
I bought the boxed flukers ones from pets mart the other day , and they were even the old 50% off ones, and I haven't lost one yet i don't think. I guess I'll start ordering them online thanks guys!
jcarlsen
Chameleon Enthusiast
While mine didn't necessarily die quickly like yours, I got pretty fed up with crickets after a few months, and apparently so did my chameleon... I made the switch to dubias and I haven't looked back. I'm sure you've seen the reasons people praise them (don't smell, don't jump, better protein for your cham etc...).
The only thing with the roaches is that they're good at hiding, so I use a feeder cup with mesh on the back and my guy goes to town on them. If you can get over the fact that they're roaches, I think they're just a better feeder overall.
Wowbango
Established Member
My little guy loves them. I just can't completely switch since they're so much more expensive than crickets.
jcarlsen
Chameleon Enthusiast
My little guy loves them. I just can't completely switch since they're so much more expensive than crickets.
That's true... Though I got a pretty decent deal from dubiaroaches.com, at least compared to the crickets I was buying from petco. If I had more than one chameleon, I'd even look into breeding the roaches.
LoosePin15
New Member
I wish my guy would eat them...he has an aversion to dubias for some reason, so the ones I have I'm just keeping alive in hopes one day he'll change his mind.
AlohaChameleon
New Member
Thankful for all of the above information as we are trying to breed crickets as well and have not had great success. We are extremely frustrated!
Mass cricket death daily. Legs twitching but pretty much dead.
We've been getting them at Petco and here in Hawaii they are $8 for 30 crickets.... So, it's easy to see why we are frustrated.
The problem with Hawaii...is that we have no choice but to buy from local pet stores on island. We tried ordering online and...it's impossible because of the agricultural restrictions here. I'm tempted to ask my family on the mainland to find a cricket supplier and mail them to us.
Still hopelessly trying to breed crickets without having to drive across the island to find a good cricket supplier.
Mass cricket death daily. Legs twitching but pretty much dead.
We've been getting them at Petco and here in Hawaii they are $8 for 30 crickets....
So, it's easy to see why we are frustrated.The problem with Hawaii...is that we have no choice but to buy from local pet stores on island. We tried ordering online and...it's impossible because of the agricultural restrictions here. I'm tempted to ask my family on the mainland to find a cricket supplier and mail them to us.
Still hopelessly trying to breed crickets without having to drive across the island to find a good cricket supplier.
