Done with crickets

[ISA my Veiled]

So like the title says... I'm just done with crickets, they smell, die to quickly, and are just a pain. So besides roaches, which I would get if I could have on my apartment, I need a primary food source for my three chameleons, any ideas of a staple I could use. Keep in mind I'm in the us lol thanks!
Ben

 

[deadhd5]

What are you using for a cricket keeper? From your description of your cricket experience, it sounds like you could be providing them inadequate housing.

If you cannot use crickets or roaches you are going to have a tough time providing your cham the proper nutrition and diversity. There aren't too many feeders as easy to gutload as crickets and roaches.

 

[Mike Fisher]

So like the title says... I'm just done with crickets, they smell, die to quickly, and are just a pain. So besides roaches, which I would get if I could have on my apartment, I need a primary food source for my three chameleons, any ideas of a staple I could use. Keep in mind I'm in the us lol thanks!
Ben

Besides that nasty cricket virus, if their needs are met, the only reason that crickets should die is old age.

 

[Thegreatfonz]

I'm about to give up on crickets too. I always have crickets die. I only buy about ~60 large for my 6month old cham but there are always atleast 15+ that die. I use a large cricket keeper with paper towel rolls (usually use egg carton but I got the virus so I threw them all out). Also, though out my time using crickets as feeders they seem to only eat the dry gutload from a bottlecap even though there are oranges/apples/carrots/potatoes with gutload on them in the cage. I just started buying adult crickets so I thought they would definitely eat up all those fruits and veggies but I guess not. They're just becoming a pain in the *** honestly..

I'm in an apartment too and hopefully I'm gonna start breeding silks sometime soon.

 

[GabeCastro]

Ben!

Good to see you back bro!

I personally HATE crickets myself, I wish my cham loved Dubias...Dubia care is 100x easier and they don't stink, get out, make noise, etc. Only problem is my cham doesn't really care for them. He ate a few adult males but doesn't hunt for them. I'll be giving giant banana roaches a shot pretty soon, figured they're big green roaches so how can a cham not love them plus males can fly a bit!

You can also try death head roaches? They're still brown, but they look cool!

If you can somehow start a breeder colony with Locust that would be huge. But we all know getting Locust in the US is damn near impossible unless you get WC.

Mantis' are another option, but I've heard they're a nightmare to keep alive without wars going on.

Only staples I know people use are crickets, dubias, and banana roaches (rare, but some do).

 

[pigglett79]

If you have a wide variety of feeders, there is not a need for crickets necessarily. I use a mix of 4-5 feeders and give them so that no feeder makes up more than 20-30% of their diet. You can use roaches, isopods, mantids, flies, silk worms, horn worms, and so on.

 

[Ventari]

i started doing silkworms myself cause my male stopped eating crickets(just spits them out) they are about the same in nutrition and no exoskeleton

 

[ChuWuti]

One thing that can happen if you're keeping your crickets in small cricket keepers is a build-up of toxic wastes, both fecal and dead bodies. In particular, if you see one dead cricket, remove it immediately, or you will soon see more, because the decomposition processes release toxic gases that kill the rest of the crickets fairly quickly. You might find they live longer if you keep a few spare cricket keepers around and switch them to a clean one every couple of days to reduce the build-up of toxic wastes leading to death.

Good luck!

Sandy

 

[ISA my Veiled]

What are you using for a cricket keeper? From your description of your cricket experience, it sounds like you could be providing them inadequate housing.

If you cannot use crickets or roaches you are going to have a tough time providing your cham the proper nutrition and diversity. There aren't too many feeders as easy to gutload as crickets and roaches.

I keep them in a 60 gallon rubbermaid tub with a screen in the top so I know thats not a problem, i've been doing this for a couple of years now and havent had any problems until recently really. I use bug burger, fresh oranges, cricket quencher, and occasionally potatoes. So thats not the problem. They just die.. and smell. And its getting irritating as all hell trying to deal with it. I have two growing chameleons who need the nutrition more than my full grow year and a half female so its a problem I can't get roaches though, roaches would probably get me kicked out of my apartment.

 

[chefboyardee]

How big are your juvi chams? Have you tried phoenix worms?

 

[Curtis James]

This is great stuff so I'm just gonna post so I can look back onto it later



Thank you everyone!

 

[Andee]

Lol it's funny, my cham refuses to eat crickets now so I am feeding him only a large varied diet of many different roaches, hornworms and soon to be mantises.

 

[little leaf]

I am also not using crix- they just keep dieing on me too- I lost like 800 in one day- the rest in less than a week -then I had the banded crix, they did better, but then they started to die - I am going to try 1/8 th for my baby Jax, but all the big guys are off them- I feed mostly roaches, horns , silks, and flies - a mantis now and then......

 

[dom1959]

butterworms?

 

[stephga]

I had lots of cricket death too, and have now got some Dubia roaches to try as a staple. My cham won't eat crickets anymore, but he doesn't like roaches either! He loves the silk worms and horn worms though.