My crickets are on CRACK!

[broderp]

Cricket Crack that is.

My question is this:

Is oranges and carrots OK with this? I'm assuming that the fruit can provide them moisture. Is there any combination of stuff I shouldn't put I there?

What the heck is "collard greens?" I couldn't find any at the grocery store. I'm wanting to try the crack and vegies for a while and make a batch to freeze.

 

[spottea]

I tried collard greens, they're kept with the kale and stuff. But, you have to buy a big bunch for about $2 or $3, and it doesn't keep well I don't think.
I ended up chucking most of it out, same with the dandelion greens and kale. I don't want to eat it, so it's kind of a lot of money.
I've been using mainly sweet potato, yam, orange, stuff that doesn't go bad to quickly.

 

[broderp]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I was worried about waste before I started this new cricket regimine.

I don't typically eat a lot of vegetables, besides onions and peppers, and once in awhile a salad, but with a vegitarian in the house (my daughter), that never lasts. lol

May I ask how mush you feed quantity wise to your crickets?

I just bought 100 large last night, chopped up 1/2 of a very small orange, and about 3 finger pinches of sliced carrots along with the crack.

I'm afraid to over feed them (if thats possible) but it seems like I may have added too much as it seems to be drying up already and I don't know if they will eat it if it start to go bad. So I will be removing it, and that is more waste. Should I try to feed only what they will eat and refridgerate the rest?

These guys hit the food hard, but I'm not sure is they will eat it all.

 

[spottea]

I bought about 50 a week or so ago, and they are on the biggish side for my cham. I give them cricket crack all the time, and two days ago I popped some sweet potato in the cage, about two slices. They have sucked a lot of the meat off, and it's all dried up, so I repeated the same thing today. I just keep the sweet potato in a Paper towel and ziplock bag in the fridge. If it gets slimey, I chuck it out. I also keep the gel crystals hydrated, as it's pretty dry here at the moment, and the crickets do like to drink! That surprised me at first, as I thought the veg would be enough, but it isn't.
Mu dubias love sweet potato, yam, carrot, but they don't need water, which is easier. Plus, they don't smell either. They also enjoy Weetabix, as do I, and any plain cereal eg. Puffed wheat. I tried light steaming the veg first as was suggested, but it just seemed to make the veg go bad faster, so i stopped that, and just offer it raw now. I'm so mean!

 

[Psychobunny]

My crickets LOVE cricket crack, roaches like it to.
But I use it as my dry gut load. I use veggies and fruit chopped up, no need for water, or water gels, because the fruit has plenty of water in it.

They dont much like collards or kale, but they do like Romain.

When I just throw different things in the bin, they will only eat what they like, and everything else will go to waste.
The way to get them to eat what YOU want them to eat is to chop everything up so fine that they cant just pick out what they like.

You can just throw everything in a food processor and chop it all up.
Save a portion in the fridge , and freeze the rest.

The green do go bad in the fridge, and they wilt really fast. So I just make a big batch of gutload while everything is fresh. Chop it all up in the food processor, and freeze the bulk of it.

I use those small "snack" zip lock bags, put a few tablespoons of the gutload in them, stick them in the freezer.
When I need one, I just take it out of the freezer, and cut the top of the bag off and put it in the bin.

Oh, I use Repashy Bug Burger also. I know it has everything in it that they need, so I make sure all my feeders get a fresh chunk of it daily

 

[DirtyDubbz]

Good info bunny

 

[broderp]

Good info bunny

Ditto.

When cutting up fruits, how fine do they need to be chopped? smaller is messy but can be spread around farther. Larger pieces are easier to clean but I am afraid not all crickets will get thier share.

 

[xraygirl]

Some folks make a wet gut load blended up and frozen in ice cube trays, and pop out what they need. Some nutrients are depleted from it, but it'll help with the wasting part. I only have one chameleon, so buying stuff is tricky cause so much of it can go to waste.

 

[Psychobunny]

The fruits that contain a lot of water, like orange, I dont need to chop up, because I know they like those, and if I added that to the food processor, I would end up with a sloppy wet mess

So I chop up the stuff that they dont go for, like the collards, kale, and other greens, and try to add something to the mix that I know the cricks like, like yellow squash and carrots, to attract them.

I alternate the chopped up stuff with steamed acorn squash, carrots and sweet potatoes, stuff that is too hard and solid when it's raw, and they will eat it that way.