I HATE Crickets!!

[Cherron]

Alright.. I know that a varied diet is a must for chameleons. I know that crickets are a good feeder choice because they will eat anything and they are so easy to gutload. I have kept chameleons for years.. so I know all of this. BUT.. I HATE crickets. HATE them!

So, here is what I am wondering.. (bear with me.. it is 3 am and there is a cricket underneath my refrigerator chirping its heart out and despite my greatest efforts, I can't find the darn thing). Aside from roaches are there any other insects that I can use as my staple feeder? I keep lobster roaches right now, but my landlord probably would evict me if I was keeping a colony large enough to feed my 9 chams out of.

I know that silkworms are a good source of calcium but are not good for gut loading. I am wondering if I fed mainly silkworms with the occasional roach, wild caught moths, (very occasional)meal worms and wax worms, would this be sufficient? Could adding extra vitamin supplements compensate for the lack of gutloading in the silkworms? I gutload my lobster roaches, but as I said, my colony isn't large enough to feed out of constantly.. perhaps just 2 or 3 adult roaches per cham each day.

I am so sorry to ramble on.. I am just really over keeping crickets. Despite my best attemptes, I have a million escapees, it seems. They stink no matter what I do.. they are noisy and just gross!

Perhaps in the morning I will not be so aggravated with them. I highly doubt it though Any opinions or advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Heika]

Superworms eat pretty much anything you put down for them, too. They gutload pretty easily. I wouldn't call them a staple because they are a bit high in fat, but they are a strong second choice. And, none of the panther and veiled crews ever refuse them around here.

Wild caught moths adjust missing nutrients in chameleons fairly quickly, I think. I love to feed them.. the bug napper runs every night during the season here. All the chameleons get at least a few every day, and no one refuses them either. Personally, I think they are an excellent staple if you can catch enough of them.

House flies gutload easy too, and chameleons love them. They are cheap and abundant, but they sure are annoying when they get loose.

 

[Marc10edora]

I know, I hate crickets too. I can't wait til my colony of dubia get big enough to feed off. Right now I'll have to put up with the stinky, noisy, and annoying crickets.

 

[Julirs]

I buy 1/2" crickets and they don't make noise and so far 500 of them are not stinky. I did buy larger ones, and they were loud and died rather quickly.

 

[Canopy Chameleons]

I as well have a horribly loud cricket under my fridge, and it seems like it has been there for months. I don't use crickets anymore. It's been quite a while since anyone has gotten crickets. I feed Supers, Silkies, Hornworms, Turk Roaches, and really, I think that's just fine, and no complaints from the Chams at all, I just make sure that everything is gut loaded properly.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

As much as I would love to eliminate crickets, I just can't.
Yes they stink and they're noisy but dang it they are such a good feeder.
If I could I would be offering 50 kinds of insects
to my chameleon every week so I can't justify eliminating one.
Besides, if you have baby chams or mantids in the house, pinheads are a heck of a lot easier to deal with than fruitflies.

-Brad

 

[roo_71]

Well another approach is to deal with the loose crickets that inevitably escape. I have roughly 6 glue boards that I get from Lowes (Tomcat brand) that I strategically place throughout my apartment and are out of site (yes, one is under the fridge). I usually sprinkle a little bit of gutload in the center to attract the crickets. They do a great job.

-roo

 

[Laragail]

If keeping the crickets is driving you nuts, maybe you could go ahead and raise all the other feeders yourself-- and just get a few crickets at a time from the pet store.

that way you can buy smaller ones and feed them off before they get wings.

It'll be a little more expensive, but save you all the hassle.

I think cricket keepers work pretty well, the tubes make it easy to dish out the crickets without all the escapees.

 

[SeanCJ]

I buy 1/2" crickets and they don't make noise and so far 500 of them are not stinky. I did buy larger ones, and they were loud and died rather quickly.

I buy the 1/2 size also for my boys leopard geckos and bearded dragons. Like Julirs has said, they do not make any noise, are not stinky (far less die off), and they will keep longer than the 3/4 or full grown crickets.

 

[louiesowner]

I buy the 1/2 size also for my boys leopard geckos and bearded dragons. Like Julirs has said, they do not make any noise, are not stinky (far less die off), and they will keep longer than the 3/4 or full grown crickets.

Thats what I do.

 

[zinc99]

I hate them too, I have made silks my primary feeder with a few crickets from petco once and a while.