cup feeding

[dj special k]

Okay, So last night I tried making a cup feeder out of one of those plastic milk jugs. I asked about one of these probably a month ago. I was wondering how you would make a container that would keep the crickets in there without having them jump out. My assumptions were right, they do jump out. They crawl along the wall of the inside of the container (where I glued some mesh for them to climb just like I've seen people make), and jump out within a matter of 10 minutes.
I'm using "medium crickets" here. I don't know if everyone who said they had a low escape rate of crickets using this technique used younger and smaller crickets, but I don't know what I did wrong.
I'll have to post some pictures tonight, maybe you guys could tell me what I did wrong.
Basically, It's a milk jug where I cut a large openning at the front (cutting a big rounded square that took about 2 sides. I left about 5 or 6 inches from the bottom for a wall so they wouldn't just walk out. Two sides had wire mesh glued to it so they were able to walk up and have my cham see them and eat them. The mesh was about 4"x2" with one inch margins from the rim of the openning (that way they wouldn't be able to just reach over to the ledge and climb out). It was working well until 10 minutes later I'd hear "TAPPP" i look over and see one of them hit the screen wall of the cage... They have freakin powerful legs!!! I don't know what went wrong....

 

[bg77]

I have had a few get out. I use medium crickets as well. I did see a rather large bugger climb right out a few minutes ago. He went straight down to the rocks in my plants.

 

[Justin Carl]

well what i use is a 2 liter bottle with half cut out and with aluminum screen at the back but i put packing tape around 3 sides of the screen and the edges of the bottle.it usually takes a determined cricket to get past that. maybe one out of a dozen.

 

[bucky]

Well...id say it takes maybe some hours for em to get out of mine( I dont know the dimensions)but,they probably just decide,hey,lets jump for it. One does and they think hes dead lol

 

[Scotty]

Man, there's no stopping them, I don't care what anyone says...
I have built the same as you and the same as everybody describes it on this site (and others) and even gone to the effort of teflon painted the remaining sides of the milk container to stop them scrambling up the plastic and only the mesh and most of them jump out.... so you aren't doing anything wrong!
Cheers
Scott...

 

[Orin]

I cup feed with 16oz. deli cups. I use either teflon paint or vaseline and feed using lobster roaches. They never get out. In some cages I just set the cup down, in other's I have to wire it on so the chameleon doesn't turn it over. It works really great and they never get out. The lizards get used to it (like feeding out of a dog bowl they come running) and it's much more interactive than throwing in a few crickets. They'll watch you put the roaches in and eat them even while you're putting them in.

 

[mightyzug]

i can count on one hand how many crickets escape from my auto (cup) feeder in a week, it's literally as close to zero as it is ever gonna get. between tape + gap there is at least 2 inches between the climbing screen and the edge of the cup... the front part of the cut on the jug makes it about 3.5=4in deep. maybe it's because they crawl into it on thier own they are less likely to jump out?? i dunno but it works great for me heh

 

[SuperRad]

What i do is take a deli cup with lid, and i cut the lid in the middle so that way the crickets can't climb straight out without having to climb upside down to get out. I never get any that escape unless they stand straight in the middle of the deli cup and jump straight up. Seems to work great.

 

[dj special k]

Yeah. Dam crickets are smart. They just go to the very top of the screen i glued on the wall of the milk jug that faces the openning of the jug, and then they launch themselves as hard as they could. If only they could talk, I'd hear "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" or "wooohooooooo" every 3-5 minutes. I'm gonna think of another design that doesn't have a flat vertical surface that faces the openning in which they can just launch themselves out. Dam kamikaze crickets... Thanks everyone for the input. After reading about so many people having success and low escape rates on their cup feeding, i feel a little better that i'm not alone.

By the way, I'm still not near the point of resulting to roaches. I've tried so hard to keep roaches out of my room and can't sleep when i know there is one crawling around... So there's no way I'm gonna buy some and breed them. Yikes!! ahhhh... dang.. just thinkin of em...

 

[Scotty]

i can count on one hand how many crickets escape from my auto (cup) feeder in a week, it's literally as close to zero as it is ever gonna get. between tape + gap there is at least 2 inches between the climbing screen and the edge of the cup... the front part of the cut on the jug makes it about 3.5=4in deep. maybe it's because they crawl into it on thier own they are less likely to jump out?? i dunno but it works great for me heh

Here you go mightyzug, trying to push that invention of yours again...lol I already told you how good it was!
Ours are only the standard type, in saying that my roaches don't escape from it, it is only the crickets that do.
Cheers
Scott.