Finleythebeardie":2zut2tc9 said:
Finley loves the freeze dried crickets already so feeding wouldn’t be a problem. Please keep in mind that I am not an adult and even tho I can legally get a job now, there are complications in my life that make it impossible for me to get a a job until I can drive myself and I can’t do that until I’m 16. My parents are buying Finley’s food for me and they refuse to keep any feeders but crickets in our house. I live in a vary small town and the only local pet store is a small petco and the crickets there are 15 cents per cricket. Even the small ones from there have half of them die in the tank with proper care. Finley is a year and 3 months old and he eats about 75 crickets per week and my parents keep telling me I spend too much in my pets. They’re going through a hard financial time currently and I really need to use the cheapest option. I used to babysit and I got twenty dollars a week I would use to buy his crickets but now the home group I did childcare for doesn't need childcare so I have no source of money for myself. If I can’t feed freeze dried can someone please tell me the cheapest option?
Cheapest option is to breed your own insects such crickets , roaches , and even silkworms if you have access to a mulberry tree ( the silkworms will eat the fresh leaves ).
Lots of people have cricket or roach colonies and never have to buy insects for their lizards.
I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction for your " colony starter " batch of chosen insects or can point at a local supplier of silkworm eggs (by far the cheapest way to start off with silkworm is buy a 200 - 400 eggs , hatch them , raise the to a good size to feed to your pet lizard but let maybe 30 or 50 become cocoons , the moths will emerge and mate and lay eggs ( about 300 per female ) ,and you can then chill most the eggs in seal ziplock bags and hatch a few hundred at a time .
You can even make pocket money selling surplus eggs, worms, cocoons and mulberry leaves if you have enough on Ebay , Craigs List or by fliers at the local shops and use that money to buy other insects ( or if you have friend who have their own colonies of crickets or roaches, you could swap some silkworms + mulberry leaves or silkworm eggs or silkworm cocoons for a starter colony or for regular "free" roaches or crickets if they are breeding more than they need.
If Dubias breed as prodigiously as Woodies do , you'll only need 100 dubias to end with thousands in a few months time.
Crickets are little trickier but if they and their eggs and younger offspring are looked after properly they build up as a colony petty quickly too , just be aware the adults churp lots.