ummmm.. that cant be good

curly

New Member
i bought 120 small to medium crickets at the pets store and most of em are dead...I only had em' for about a week and a half...only 2 remain and i have to get more very quick for my little cham....whats wrong with them
 
Little crickets just die off rather quickly. As you get to the bigger crickets you should have less of a problem with them doing that crap. Every once and awhile I still have the adults doing mass suicide. Do not know if there is really much to do about it. Making sure that the crickets are feed, warm and hydrated is about all you can do.
 
I order mine from premium crickets and they come fat and healthy!
You have to continue to gut load and water them.
The last ones I got are still around and that was over a month ago.
I wouldn't buy them from the pet store, unless it was an emergency and I went to a specialty reptile shop.
By the way ....cheaper online too. About 2.5 cents a cricket including shipping and they always send extras!

-Brad
 
Cricket care

How are you keeping them when you get home?

Size of container? Ventilation?
How often do you clean the container? Daily?
Type of food?
Water source?
Light/heat source? How warm/cold do you keep the container?
Where do you keep the container?

Most of the web sites that sell crickets give instruction on how to keep them as well. I find first time keepers of crickets have the biggest problem with heat, ventilation/hygeine and water sources.

Smaller crickets are less forgiving to these issues and like to die, but they are fairly easily overcome.
 
I keep my crickets in a big rubbermaid storage tub with holes cut in the sides for ventilation. The holes have aluminum screen duct taped over them.
I ball up two fresh paper towels and get them quite wet and replace the old ones every other day.
I clean the enclosure and put in new food (see my site for recipe) every other day as well.
One side of the tub is stacked with eggcrate, toilet paper and paper towel tubes, and other various scraps of cardboard to create more surface area and places to hide, which I change out every other week.
This way I can keep 500 - 1000 at a time just as easily as 50 - 100.
My greatest fear is to be out of crickets.
Here's my best hint....
When cleaning the "cricket city" do it in the bathtub. That way if any escape they are easily collected.

-Brad
 
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