why are my crickets turning black

[whereswaldo]

ive been cutting up butternut squash green peppers and appled for them to gut load plus i hav some flukers powdered cricket food and offering fluckers cricket water plus calcium too so what am i doing wrong? i will tell you a concern they do spray our apt for bugs. nothing but moving will change that. they're in a ten gal aquriam with a screen top on it not like there crawling around on the ground. but idk should i put it on a table?? i havent had this problem till i tried a big bunch before only kept like 6 doz but those was fine only lasted a week with my hearty eater.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

They need more ventilation. Overcrowding causes them to die to quickly so that's probably why you're seeing die-offs now when you weren't before. You can keep large numbers in small cages but only if there's lots of ventilation.

Here's my advice on keeping crickets in bulk.

 

[whereswaldo]

ty i got a bin made like the one u have made so well see how it works. hopefully i got all gaps in the screen lol.

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

they are dehydrated and/or dying off. try and stay on top of fresh gutload to minimize this problem

P.S im starting to hate hate hate crickets! any michigan members in here bring me some roaches in windsor ontario?

 

[DavidBuchan]

Well, it might be dehydration..........it's more likely to be too overcrowded and humid though, if I know crickets

 

[SilverDragoness]

Huh the ones from the local reptile store for me are much darker than those from big box pet stores. But I am able to keep them for a week or two just fine with some food at home. If they are dying it is like everyone else said too crowded and not enough ventilation.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Those might be the black crickets? They're becoming more popular since they seem to live longer and get bigger than the brown crickets.

 

[JackP308]

Could be what your feeding, Ive seen crickets go dark from the diet I give them .

 

[Charger]

Ferret is Right!! Depends on the type of Crickets you get, after the Virus last year many breeders went to the Black or Jamaican Crickets. Most of the Pet stores buy from a Large company that does just browns and they are at most of the ARK shows. I have both types of crickets in the same type of encloses, food, Water, browns are soft and Brown and the Blacks are Black (when they molt out they are brown for a few days best time to feed them off).