Question about crickets......

[vtecdreamer]

I have a weird question but i have never really picked up or handled crickets and with that said do they bite or sting??? just curious. I'm still getting all my cage and supplies ready so that my new cham has a nice home to come too!

 

[Justin Carl]

no they dont bite or sting me but they are dirty. their own fecal matter will kill them so clean the cage you are keeping them in. they can chew a hole in regular porch screen. so dont use this on your cham cage.

 

[dodolah]

I just got bitten by crickets twice.
It hurts just a bit though..

 

[alchemy]

Hey bud,

Yes, they do but, but ONLY if they are hungry. They give a good pinch though . If you constantly have fresh fruit and vegetables available for them, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Good luck and share some pics of your cham and setup when you get it all together.

Jim

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

I have only been bitten one time but it was about 20 bites in all. It was due to a shipment of crickets that came without food. They were starving and attacked my hands when i scooped handfuls of them to transfer them into my Rubbermaid bin. It was like tiny little pinches to the skin.

 

[Justin Carl]

i buy about 3 dozen at a time thy last about a good week. where i get them they are already gut loaded and i feed them a hi cal powder food with a flukers hi cal jelly cube

 

[SuperRad]

i buy about 3 dozen at a time thy last about a good week. where i get them they are already gut loaded and i feed them a hi cal powder food with a flukers hi cal jelly cube

How much are you paying for your 3 dozens? Sometimes it's better to order them by the thousand. i have 2, 3 month old veileds. it's about a month feeding supply for them for about 24 dollars shipped overnight from reptilefood.com . mine will eat 3 dozen in 1 1/2 days.
and just take a rubbermaid bin and cut a hole on top and attach some screen, throw in some paper towel roll's, vegetables daily, and make sure they have watergel, and your set for a good month.

 

[Justin Carl]

i pay a dollar a dozen. do you order them as mediums because they dont live long.

 

[SuperRad]

i've orderd them as 1/16th of an inch. 1/8th of an inch. and 3/4ths of an inch. right now at 3 months old my chams are eating the 3/4ths, i usually will have about 50 or so dead by the time i'm done with the thousand. and i just leave them outside where in the day it's 90 + degree's and in the night 60 degrees.

 

[Justin Carl]

hmmmm well my weiled is a year old. so they dont eat like they do when they were younger.

 

[AaronP1977]

have any of you fed roaches?

Has anyone here used roaches for Chams. I raise roaches and have been toying with the idea of getting some chameleons. I hear theyy are difficult, but I am an experienced herp keeper and will of course do my research before purchasing any animal. Thanks for your input. Have a beautiful day!

 

[vtecdreamer]

no they dont bite or sting me but they are dirty. their own fecal matter will kill them so clean the cage you are keeping them in. they can chew a hole in regular porch screen. so dont use this on your cham cage.

so there fecal matter will kill the crickets it self or the cham,lol sorry i think im misunderstanding...and thank you so much for the reply guys and gals, I am also going to attempt to breed the crickets as well. I have a perfect spot for it cause i hear they smell pretty bad.
I will be trying this method and if i have bad luck with it i am just going to order them. http://www.skylab.org/~chugga/cricket/

 

[mrcackums]

i had no idea you could feel their bites.

question, can you just sprinkle some of the calcium powder or whatever its called in the crickets feeder cage that way they are all powdered up before you place them in the cage, or can that kill them?

 

[mrcackums]

so there fecal matter will kill the crickets it self or the cham,lol sorry i think im misunderstanding...and thank you so much for the reply guys and gals, I am also going to attempt to breed the crickets as well. I have a perfect spot for it cause i hear they smell pretty bad.
I will be trying this method and if i have bad luck with it i am just going to order them. http://www.skylab.org/~chugga/cricket/

im trying that method right now. so far, i cant see any eggs, been coming on 2 weeks now. im going to give it one more week, if nothing, just scrub it all together

 

[vtecdreamer]

im trying that method right now. so far, i cant see any eggs, been coming on 2 weeks now. im going to give it one more week, if nothing, just scrub it all together

awesome, keep us posted and if it works out for you i will definitely give it a try!!! oh and by the way, keeping the dirt were the eggs will be incubated is most important and temperature as well.

 

[Sage]

I buy 6 dozen and it last me a week. How much do you feed your veileld per day?

 

[vtecdreamer]

I buy 6 dozen and it last me a week. How much do you feed your veileld per day?

thats awesome, i have yet to get my vield home, as I am preparing his home and food before he gets here. I'm thinking of going with FL chams, because I have been hearing good things about mike and how responsible he is with his chams. I will try the "raising crickets" method and if it does not work I will just order them, buy the way what are some good websites to buy crickets from?

 

[LaserGecko]

My "Cricket Outhouse" cage design is very good at getting cricket poo away from their living quarters. Look in my gallery for some photos of the design.

BTW, mrcackums, if you are also cackums22 from eBay, please contact me.

 

[vtecdreamer]

My "Cricket Outhouse" cage design is very good at getting cricket poo away from their living quarters. Look in my gallery for some photos of the design.

BTW, mrcackums, if you are also cackums22 from eBay, please contact me.

wow beautiful but quick question... so you pretty much put screens on the bottom and have another container on the bottom of it right????I'm assuming thats how the poop goes through correct??

 

[LaserGecko]

Yup, just buy two identical containers. It's a modified version of the one at the Reptile Rooms forum (I think).

It's not particularly pretty because that box did not take well to drilling or jigsaw cutting. The thing cracked and splintered horribly even though I was using a plastic cutting blade and every speed imaginable.

It did seem to like the RotoZip rather well, though. If I had it to do over, I would use that or my Dremel router attachment exclusively to do the cutting and run them along a straight edge. Unfortunately, I don't think it's stable enough to use my Festool saw and guide rail.