crickets keep dying!

P

pedro

New Member
I am having a problem keeping my crickets alive. I bought a 1000 1/2 last Friday and I bet 80 % are dead. I try to pull the dead ones out, but they are mixed together. I keep them in a 10 gal, glass tank with a screen top, plenty of tubes for them to hide, a water dish with a sponge in it. Plenty of greens and some fruit everyday. It has only been 6 days.
I read to feed them gutload formula where do you get it?
 
1000 might be too many for such a small tank.
How old were the crickets when you got them? They only live about 6 weeks, so if you got crickets that were already 5 weeks old.....

You can make your own gutload easily - papaya, spirulina, dandelion, carrot, etc. A member on here sells "cricket crack" which is popular (though you'd still want to use some fresh fruit and veg along with it).
 
Dude I would just buy some cricket crack. After reading the ingredients I felt like I should be eating it for my own health haha.
 
There is a problem with crickets that's been going on for two months now. You may have just gotten a bad box of crickets. It's some kind of virus that's killing them off. :( So I've been told.
 
pedro said:
Is there a formula to make this gutload?
Click to expand...

There are all sorts of recipies for gutload.
This recipie is quite popular: http://www.adcham.com/html/husbandry/gutload.html
This blog entry might help you make one of your own:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
Your aim is to provide a range of vitamins and minerals, with a mind to more calcium than phosphorous if you use the typical prey like crickets.

edit:I think your problem is more likely lack of sufficient space and ventilation, than a virus.
 
Last edited:
SSimsswiSS said:
There is a problem with crickets that's been going on for two months now. You may have just gotten a bad box of crickets. It's some kind of virus that's killing them off. :( So I've been told.
Click to expand...

Any idea if this poses any health hazard to chameleons that eat these crickets?
 
it is most definately the small tank..they smother each other..toy need a clear blanket box ...stack 2 layers of the egg crate that came with it....put water in one cornere and food ( dry gut load) in a dish under the egg crate....the clear blanket boxes are too slick for them to crawl up...so no need for a lid and better ventalation
 
I had a prob with an order of crix from a site sponsor. I am not going to say which one. I bousht 500 1/2" crix in Feb. I swear they have not grown at all. I purposely bought them a size smaller than needed so I could feed them all off before they died. Half were dead on arrival and the other half have grown very little in over 4 weeks. I bought some locally and have been feeding those to my animal. I keep feeding them to see if they will grow. None are dying its very strange. :confused: Im keeping them in a seprate bin to just monitor them.
 
Texas Panther Man said:
I had a prob with an order of crix from a site sponsor. I am not going to say which one. I bousht 500 1/2" crix in Feb. I swear they have not grown at all. I purposely bought them a size smaller than needed so I could feed them all off before they died. Half were dead on arrival and the other half have grown very little in over 4 weeks. I bought some locally and have been feeding those to my animal. I keep feeding them to see if they will grow. None are dying its very strange. :confused: Im keeping them in a seprate bin to just monitor them.
Click to expand...

What are your temps. Crickets will grow when kept warm enough (around 90)
 
Turns out me and Texas Panther Man were getting our crickets from the same place and having problems. I think mine were infected about 90% would half wake up twitch and die when they were shipped in. The crickets I got as a reship two weeks ago are just fine so I hope the virus is out of the colony. I imagine it would really suck to be a cricket supplier and to have this virus come into your colony.
 
jeanjacket812 said:
Turns out me and Texas Panther Man were getting our crickets from the same place and having problems. I think mine were infected about 90% would half wake up twitch and die when they were shipped in. The crickets I got as a reship two weeks ago are just fine so I hope the virus is out of the colony. I imagine it would really suck to be a cricket supplier and to have this virus come into your colony.
Click to expand...

From what I have read it can be almost impossible to recover from this virus if infects the facility. I hope that is not true but it was a scary read.

Just buy from Ghanns and you will be fine... so far
 
Thanks for the intel. Yah I thought it was the weather for a while but it had to be sickness. I do 2 day shipping with heat packs and out of 3 orders of 500 maybe 50 would make it. I was getting reships of deads and it real frustrating. I just got a good reship though like I said so I hope they're all good now. This place I go to charges 18 bucks for 500 to my door with heatpack so I hope they get their crap together.
 
jeanjacket812 said:
Thanks for the intel. Yah I thought it was the weather for a while but it had to be sickness. I do 2 day shipping with heat packs and out of 3 orders of 500 maybe 50 would make it. I was getting reships of deads and it real frustrating. I just got a good reship though like I said so I hope they're all good now. This place I go to charges 18 bucks for 500 to my door with heatpack so I hope they get their crap together.
Click to expand...


Good luck, I am glad its looking better. It really sucks when the feeders you rely on start to drop off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Andrew1283
My Crickets Don’t Die
2
Replies
23
Views
2K
elizaann2
elizaann2
BryanP
Keeping crickets alive
2 3
Replies
58
Views
5K
CryptKeeper
CryptKeeper
yungzerk
baby crickets
Replies
6
Views
477
yungzerk
yungzerk
MegaMatt
New Panther Hatchling feeding
Replies
8
Views
780
Sonny13
Sonny13
L
How best to keep crickets?
2
Replies
23
Views
3K
duke42748
D
Back
Top Bottom