How often do you change Aquaload cricket hydration cubes?

Hi everyone,
Sorry if this is a big newbie question, this is my first post. I have a 17 week old beardie and I'm feeding him crickets (and veg). I am storing one box of crickets in a small cricket keeper, and trying to keep them healthy for the approx. one week it'll take to use them up. I have beardie friendly veg and Aquaload hydration cubes in the cricket keeper.

The Aquaload doesn't have any directions on the container or website. How often do I need to replace the cubes?

Also, it is ok to just keep adding more veg over the week for the crickets? I can't seem to get the old veg out without crickets escaping. I am hoping to just clean out the whole thing after a week. Hope this is ok??

Thanks for any help

I'm not crazy about the cubes due to the chemicals used in them but I would keep them as fresh as possible. Same for the veges. I prefer using fresh veges like squash to hydrate (and gutload) bugs. If you have a taller bin for them it might make it easier to change the food without them escaping. You just need to change the food frequently enough so it doesn't start to mold which is probably every day or two unless it's a very dry environment.

Thanks, I ended up putting the cricket keeper in the fridge until they just stopped moving. Then put the cricket keeper in a bucket, inside the laundry sink, to switch out the food and Aquaload hydration cubes. I didn't lose any crickets, but it sure is tricky with a small cricket keeper, and just opening the window at the top. I wouldn't recommend getting the small cricket keeper to anyone. I can probably keep this up every second day. I have given the crickets some chopped up pumpkin, as well as the Aquaload. Crickets seem a lot happier and less aggressive towards each other now.

Throw them in the bin , they are poisoning your pet dragon and can cause cancers and impactions.

Best stuff by far to use to provide a water source to your crickets is to give them chunks of raw carrot and fresh leafy greens (my fav is buk and puk choi).

I use these to keep my bulk orders of crickets in (I order 1000 crickets at a time) and each tub takes up to 100 crickets very easily. Yes I used to buy my crickets in these tubs from local pet shops (EXPENSIVE !!!) , I kept all the empty tubs and cleaned them , I now reuse them continuously , until the lids split or the crickets chew holes in the lids and start escaping the tubs (showing up in the bottom of the 30L plastic archive box).

In goes a dozen or so Repcal adult bearded dragon pellets (to give them dry food and vitamins) and a chunk of carrot (to provide moisture and food) , and I add fresh buk choi greens the 2 or 3 days before using crickets.

I put my 10 - 12 tubs into a 30L archive box, this double as the tub I dump the crickets into to collect the ones I want to use as feeders , and when i'm "cleaning the small keeper tubs.
i buy 1000x medium size crickest once every 3 or 4 weeks , and check my crickets every 3 or 4 days in the cooler seasons and every other day in summer.

How are the Crickets poisoning their dragon and how is throwing them in a bin going to avoid the poisoning ?

BossMamaQ":39kdk9wi said:

How are the Crickets poisoning their dragon and how is throwing them in a bin going to avoid the poisoning ?

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I think that was a language mixup - if you're from the US like me, you're probably taking "bin" as container like the one kingofnobbys puts the crickets in. I believe he's from Australia, where (same as in UK?) "bin" is the trash. I'm pretty sure he was saying trash the cubes (because of the additives in them - that's the "poison" mentioned) and use hydrating veggies instead. ^_^