Crickets breaking me.

I'm spending more money on crickets than I do for my dog and cat each month. Does anyone have suggestions for keeping crickets alive longer or a way to breed a replacement. What should two dragons cost a month. I have a cricket keeper but live in the northeast and i'm not sure how hot to keep them. Half are dead in two days. I can feed them the dead one but its time consuming. Its not so much the money as the constant traveling to pet store.

Simple solution: buy online. 1k crickets cost about $20 online, compared to the 11¢-15¢ I am assuming you are paying. With buying in bulk, they come out to about 2¢ a cricket!!

JessPets":2zwffjpv said:

Simple solution: buy online. 1k crickets cost about $20 online, compared to the 11¢-15¢ I am assuming you are paying. With buying in bulk, they come out to about 2¢ a cricket!!

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Who do you use, Jess?

I use dubia, which I am slowly attempting to breed. Right now I am buying them online, through a great eBay seller. I get 1k xxsmall (basically newborn) for $30 shipped!

Doesn't it have to be crickets? I bought a few hundred roaches from dubideli.com a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't lost a single one. I can't keep crickets alive longer than two or three days.

Are the roaches ok for younger dragons. I'm not sure on the age- Both about 8 inches tail to nose.
I just put an old cell phone under ones matting and set it to soft vibrate to bounce the dead crickets. Lol it worked. He just ate 3.

Jsw":1opkt801 said:

Doesn't it have to be crickets? I bought a few hundred roaches from dubideli.com a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't lost a single one. I can't keep crickets alive longer than two or three days.

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Do you mean are dubia okay as a staple? They are wonderful, MUCH better than crickets

pilfro":2kr0y1fr said:

Are the roaches ok for younger dragons. I'm not sure on the age- Both about 8 inches tail to nose.
I just put an old cell phone under ones matting and set it to soft vibrate to bounce the dead crickets. Lol it worked. He just ate 3.

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Roaches are great, just make sure to use the appropriate size- no bigger than the space between their eyes

I wouldn't feed dead crickets, they start decomposing as soon as they die. The bacteria levels would be to high. They could cause intestinal issues in your dragons.
I would not risk it!

Thanks guys- I am ordering some roaches so much cheaper!

JessPets":2ahhzx5z said:

Jsw":2ahhzx5z said:

Doesn't it have to be crickets? I bought a few hundred roaches from dubideli.com a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't lost a single one. I can't keep crickets alive longer than two or three days.

Click to expand...

Do you mean are dubia okay as a staple? They are wonderful, MUCH better than crickets

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Sorry - that was a weird autocorrect. I meant "Does it have to be..." as in, why not try roaches.

Jsw":3e9kn1ku said:

JessPets":3e9kn1ku said:

Jsw":3e9kn1ku said:

Doesn't it have to be crickets? I bought a few hundred roaches from dubideli.com a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't lost a single one. I can't keep crickets alive longer than two or three days.

Click to expand...

Do you mean are dubia okay as a staple? They are wonderful, MUCH better than crickets

Click to expand...

Sorry - that was a weird autocorrect. I meant "Does it have to be..." as in, why not try roaches.

Click to expand...

Okay, makes much more sense :lol:

Cooper Waffles ate crickets before we got him, we gave him roaches and he went onto his back legs and was like, "Woah, what are these?" Now he won't touch a cricket. They're much healthier and hardier than crickets. We buy them in bulk, usually 1000 at a time, and keep them in a spare 10 gallon tank with a CHE on it, with some egg crates and our left over fruit. They're easy to hand feed too because they're easier to catch.

pilfro":ymdqkky8 said:

I'm spending more money on crickets than I do for my dog and cat each month. Does anyone have suggestions for keeping crickets alive longer or a way to breed a replacement. What should two dragons cost a month. I have a cricket keeper but live in the northeast and i'm not sure how hot to keep them. Half are dead in two days. I can feed them the dead one but its time consuming. Its not so much the money as the constant traveling to pet store.

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Very expensive bought from pet shops.

Buy the crickets by the 800 - 1000 from a good online insect breeder and have them posted to you by express overnight post , you'll save lots this way.

Use the old tubs you bought the pet shop crickets in to keep the bulk crickets in , saves you even more as you don't need to buy a special cricket keeper (waste of $) or a special bin.

You can also buy some adult roaches and breed them in a storage bin with some carboard towel paper/toilet paper tubes standing up on their ends. If large bugs don't freak you out that is. Adult roaches are about 2" long. Every 70 days 1 female will produce something like 25-30 baby roaches. You can feed them dry dog food too and tip in the extra crums at the botom of the bag too. I recommend Dubi Deli, you can buy 10 females for $10 +$7 shipping -they ship you 15 when you buy 10 actually in case some die but I've not had any die. You can generally get away with 1 male to every 3-4 females. Also put the burlap sack they give you on the top of the toilet paper tubes and mist the burlap sack for moisture, and that's really all you need. For faster breeding stick them somewhere particularly warm, 80F-90F is recomended but you can keep them at room temperature.

Also if your dragon is over 10" long you can also feed superworms which you can keep in a box full of oatmeal - I use a mix of oatmeal and dried mashed potato flakes, just mist the top every 2-3 days for water or stick in some carrots or potatoes. I bought 350 large superworms for about $13 on amazon.