Different Cricket Species

[DanSB]

Does anyone have any good information on different cricket species?

From what I can tell there are at least 3 species being sold as feeders:

Brown Field Cricket
Jamaican (Silent) Field Cricket
Black Field Cricket

Maybe I'm not choosing good search terms but other than their mention I can find no good information on if they have different nutritional values or if there is any real difference at all.

From observation between the species I've seen there is a difference in body mass for sure and the black ones bite a lot more than the brown ones. I would imagine there has got to be a nutritional difference between species just how great it is is a mystery!

 

[laurie]

Does anyone have any good information on different cricket species?

From what I can tell there are at least 3 species being sold as feeders:

Brown Field Cricket
Jamaican (Silent) Field Cricket
Black Field Cricket

Maybe I'm not choosing good search terms but other than their mention I can find no good information on if they have different nutritional values or if there is any real difference at all.

From observation between the species I've seen there is a difference in body mass for sure and the black ones bite a lot more than the brown ones. I would imagine there has got to be a nutritional difference between species just how great it is is a mystery!

I order my crickets from Ghann, they are going to switch to the black crickets. It appears my chams don't want to switch. I currently have both, but the black one do not go over well. i can ask if ghann has nutritional info, but I am not sure they will. let me know if you find any info.

 

[clarkrw3]

Not sure on nutritional difference but for sure the Jamaican grow MUCH bigger and gutload like little balloons. For instance when I have both brown and Jamaican at the same time in different bins I will feed the Jamaican about three times what I feed the Browns. I would think just that alone would really effect the nutritional data.

 

[laurie]

Clark where do you get the jamaican crickets?

 

[Texas Ranger]

I refuse to feed black crickets and my chams agree with me on that. I guess they taste bad I had a cave cricket colony going and they loved those things but I missed a month of breeding them and didn't have enough to redo my colony I would love to get those again

 

[DanSB]

Clark where do you get the jamaican crickets?

It looks like Ghann's has the Jamaican Cricket...

http://www.ghann.com/gryllus_info.cfm

Apparently there is some cricket fraud going around!

 

[clarkrw3]

Clark where do you get the jamaican crickets?

I get mine from Mulberry farms...but I know there are a few that carry them. I always put some carrots etc in the bottom of the cage just in case there are leftovers at the end of the day they have something to eat It's funny because they just can not stop eating. I have been free ranging them in my baby Faly cage and was wondering why the ficus looked so bad with a grow light on it, then I saw the crickets eating off the leaves They are little eating machines!!!

 

[DanSB]

I get mine from Mulberry farms...but I know there are a few that carry them. I always put some carrots etc in the bottom of the cage just in case there are leftovers at the end of the day they have something to eat It's funny because they just can not stop eating. I have been free ranging them in my baby Faly cage and was wondering why the ficus looked so bad with a grow light on it, then I saw the crickets eating off the leaves They are little eating machines!!!

Looking at some of the pictures I think I might have Jamaicans. If that is the case the ones I have bite hard and just about destroyed my pothos and bit the crud out of Pipin (and me). I don't let them free range anymore. I wasn't having this issue with the regular brown crickets and was a little surprised to see it happen!

 

[clarkrw3]

Looking at some of the pictures I think I might have Jamaicans. If that is the case the ones I have bite hard and just about destroyed my pothos and bit the crud out of Pipin (and me). I don't let them free range anymore. I wasn't having this issue with the regular brown crickets and was a little surprised to see it happen!

How many are you putting in there for them to be destroying a pathos?? I mean it is HARD to destroy a pathos!! I have been bit twice and both times it was with an adult cricket and I was being stupid, and I don't think they bite any harder than a superworm. I try to not put more into any cage than I think will be eaten that day. That said, I had two living in a crested gecko cage for more than a month without issue until I took them out while cleaning out the bin.

 

[DanSB]

Okay maybe I exaggerated a bit. They didn't actually destroy the Pothos, I'm not sure a nuclear bomb would do that, but they do put holes in many of the leaves so it looked bad.

I left no more than 2 or 3 at any given time free in the enclosure.

 

[DanSB]

Well I found that there was a study the looked at carotenoid absorption in 3 different cricket species and found there was a distinct difference.

This leads me to believe that carte blanche cricket nutritional without being species specific may not be 100% accurate.

Either way I still would like to see a good analysis.

The study itself is hidden behind subscriptions but this PDF gives a good outline of the study and what it means:

http://www.eaza.net/activities/Documents/NutritionDocs/ZA_NutritionIssue5.pdf

 

[Panthergirl11]

Ah looks like I got myself some of those crazy red crickets! They're huge! And I'm gunna try breeding them.

 

[DanSB]

If you succeed I'll buy some from you. They look delicious

Did you get them locally or mail order?

 

[Panthergirl11]

I got them locally at my pet store here in california. I guess they are a Cali special. I bought 2 dozen of them and most were female and they started laying as soon as I put them in the bin.

 

[DanSB]

I live in Sacramento so it can't be too far. If you PM me the store I might go try to get some this weekend.

 

[Panthergirl11]

I got them in gaiser pets here in yuba city. They look freaky with their red heads. They have a bunch.