More on hunger strikes....

[Ceycham]

From everyone's experience with cricket hunger strikes....do they ever go back to liking crickets again? I am withholding food until he gets hungry enough to eat the dang crickets, but I don't want to find out the hard way that he might literally starve himself before eating them...

 

[Andee]

What is he eating besides the crickets? And how long have you been withholding and his age?

 

[Dgood]

It is probably best that you do not with hold food from him, he should still be on a regular feeding schedule even if he's not eating, they should still be readily available for him if he changes his mind. If he is not eating crickets try other feeders like dubia roaches, super worms, calciworms or horn worms. There a a bunch more feeder insects available, I like to get mine from lindasgonebuggie, full throttle feeders, and mythical exotics.

 

[Andee]

Idk if he is 8 months he should have plenty of weight on him to go at least 2 weeks without food. The OP should offer crickets only during a few hours a day and then remove them. Hunger strikes in my opinion show poor feeder variety and also too much feeding. He likely isn't as hungry as you think unless he is actually sick. Weigh him regularly he shouldn't lose too much weight when doing this.

 

[Ceycham]

What is he eating besides the crickets? And how long have you been withholding and his age?

Andee, hi. He is about 8 months old, I have not been 100% withholding. I've offered a few adult BSF flies over the last couple of days (meaning like 3 or 4). He did not go right for them like his juvenile self used to, but they seem to disappear so I assume he ate them eventually. I also have offered the BSF and BBF worms in a cup, of which he might eat one or two (again I'm not sure. At the time I did not think to count how many I put in the cup) but later I found several drowned in the cup since the mister went off at some point. I know he will eat the hornworms but I am refraining because they fill him so and I fear he cannot get a balanced or varied diet if he's full after one hornworm. This all started after two oversized hornworms filled him up so much he didn't eat again for days. Now he's a picky eater with a significantly decreased and more food drive.

This morning I offered BSF worms and he ate two, plus 2 adults. Now he's done. Crickets are enjoying roaming the cage in the open fearlessly. Since I cannot catch them I am leaving food for them.

 

[Ceycham]

What is he eating besides the crickets? And how long have you been withholding and his age?

It is probably best that you do not with hold food from him, he should still be on a regular feeding schedule even if he's not eating, they should still be readily available for him if he changes his mind. If he is not eating crickets try other feeders like dubia roaches, super worms, calciworms or horn worms. There a a bunch more feeder insects available, I like to get mine from lindasgonebuggie, full throttle feeders, and mythical exotics.

I think I misrepresented the withholding thing. Now that you asked me point blank I realize That I'm still actually offering some foods, but that I feel like I'm not offering what I think of as enough food for his size and age. But also this is on him, he is not eating all of what I'm offering. I'm sort of aware (from reading posts here) that as they mature they drop appetite but I expected that to be after a year old, and also expected to maintain the same number of feeders on an every other day schedule. Before the hornworm incident Norman was eating 15 crickets or so in a single sitting, plus any flying yummies that he could see, without fail.

 

[Dgood]

How long has not been eating crickets for? If he ate two huge horn worms and couple smaller worms here and there And also some flies, has probably not too hungry. As Andee stated.

 

[Ceycham]

How long has not been eating crickets for? If he ate two huge horn worms and couple smaller worms here and there And also some flies, has probably not too hungry. As Andee stated.

Hi Dgood, thanks for helping. I posted November 1st about my concern that after eating two largish hornworms back to back that I may have let the little guy hurt himself. I watched him for days and he wouldn't eat anything (quite understandably!) but after a few days he had a couple nice poops and was back to eating a little. He will still scarf a hornworm without fail if I offer, but his appetite for anything else has significantly diminished, and crickets are apparently better companions than food in his eyes since then. I'm really concerned because crickets are his staple and biggest supply of gut loading and dusting. Back when his appetite was top notch he was only vaguely interested in roaches, so I'm not going to anticipate much help there. Normal Norman would not let a flying insect last 10 seconds, but new Norman will eat one or two, maybe, or let them fly around unmolested, you just can't be sure anymore . Today he ate 2 small BSFs and two small larvae, but this isn't enough to sustain him is it? He seems in good energy, weight (by eye...he's never been weighed by me) and stools and white urates are still happening...I don't want to feed him anymore hornworms until I know I have a staple he will eat, because I can't provide a properly nutritious diet if he will only eat worms. Flies are only available when they deign to hatch out. Unreliable little bugs! and they don't gut load, or dust easily.

 

[Ceycham]

BTW, his available diet this month is dusted gut loaded crickets, BBF larva, BSF larva, any adult versions of these that hatch out, and hornworms. Possibly a couple moths from last months hornworms that grew too big. Hopefully you won't find me deficient in his feed variety, It's basically the best I have been able to manage. Sometimes I get waxworms but I feel I need less worms and more something else.

 

[Ceycham]

Good news! Norman is not apparently on a cricket strike. Just a hunting strike. He took several crickets from a cup today.

 

[steve mcgarret]

I am no expert but I say that you start gradually feeding small dubias and then progress to the crickets. I did this with Panthers ,Veiled's and Jackson's and it worked great.