1" criickets, and shipping. info needed

[Brokenwings]

Hey guys,

So my beardie is almost 4 years old, full grown and healthy. I'm starting to get pissed off with tiny crickets at my retailer. They used to sell big ones (full grown) when my beardie was a baby, but ever since he started growing up, the "large" crickets they sell at PetsMart, are pure crap. Sorry for my language, but its pathetic that I, and possibly others, pay a lot of money to feed our lizards tiny crickets (literally vary from 1/4 inch to half inch). My lizard is hungry, so i waste a good 10$ easily per night on him for crickets and he still could eat more. (i do feed him veggies yes) So i decided to say screw you PetsMart, im going to try ordering online.

I found Flukers and http://lllreptile.com/?PMKSID=sk6rbo5vm7ubqr77edfh3j6rc5 the best websites for ordering a good 1" 250 crickets for 10$ about, my question is, will they die on the way? do they put food and good padding in the boxes so they'll be okay and not thrown around everywhere?

Upon arrival, what should i keep the crickets in? i have always used a cricket box (http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753240&cp=2767037.3696666) but a bigger version...but i don't think 250 1" crickets would like to be stuffed in there.

Any info would help thank you~!

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Ive used premiumcrickets.com on and off for years now.
Any of the big companies that ship crickets have it down to a science. Your biggest concern is weather.

 

[definitions]

I ordered 500 crickets from flukers last week.. all came alive and there was way more then 500 in the box. I only found 3 dead ones. I live in california so the weather was pretty warm that week. Everything went well though. Goof Luck!

 

[Ryan75]

Your adult dragon shouldn't be eating 10 dollars worth of crickets. They shouldn't have that much protein mainly only veggies

 

[Brokenwings]

really? how much around? 75% veggie and 25% crickets? is there any reasons why it should be like this?

 

[Ryan75]

Can damage their liver. It's around 80% veggies 20% meat(protein type food) I would only be giving him around 10-15 adult crickets(if that is what you are feeding him)

 

[Brokenwings]

Even if the crickets are half inch size?

alright.
and 2 plates of veggies a day?
even though he hates his greens, (he loves his blueberries though..) im guessing he'll force himself to eat it

 

[bambichik39]

Another thing you could do is just buy the crickets and let them grow before you feed them. It is very hot in the midwest and I know I wouldn't buy any crickets offline because they would deff. die in the 110 heat index we have here. If the problem is them being too small, just use a tub, give them water gel and food and let them grow some. You could buy more at a time and not have to go to petsmart everyday either.

 

[ImABeardedDragon]

I order my crickets from Premiumcrickets.com and Flukerfarms.com and they always come alive and healthy, you should check them out

 

[Brokenwings]

These past 4 days i've only given him plates (big ones) and he eats nothing out of them except the blueberries i hand feed them.
if he shouldn't eat that many crickets i don't think i should buy some online?

also, i feed my crickets with fluker's water and powder food (by fluker's too)

I'd like to know how you guys clean the cages of your crickets when there's a lot of crickets left over? i mean, i remember sometimes i saw many crickets go cannibal, even with food in their cage, and I'm not sure if that's because of the overall poo and mess they make that is toxic or something that kills them, but yeah...I'd like to know if and how you guys clean their cage thanks!

 

[nair88]

i clean out my cricket tub by first shaking out all of the tubes and egg crates and removing them. once i'm left with just crickets in the tub, i use an index card to scoop everything into one corner. then i wait a minute or so for the live crickets to work their way out of the pile of crap. once most of them have left, i use the index card to scoop the crap out into a trash bag. only takes a few minutes to do and i do it once every 3 days.

 

[Brokenwings]

Wow. why din't i think of that. thanks ^^ !

 

[nair88]

no problem