29 cents a cricket, Fair?

[Ty13]

I was thinking on getting a beardie, did tons of research and all that, but when I went to the Pet store today I found out they want 29 cents for each cricket and that'll add up quick. Is this a fair price for the crickets or way to expensive? Theres only one pet store in my area.

 

[beardie parents]

I get most of my crickets on line. There are several places to get them if you are in the US.
Reptile food does crickets and supers and some mealworms.

 

[Ty13]

I'm in Canada...
I'd rather avoid buying online but i might have too.

 

[xebix]

Yeah, that is going to get really expensive quick. Before my beardie got big enough to eat the larger crickets, I was going through 40-50 a day. Now I am feeding him the big ones and only need about 20 a day and he is full.

When I first started buying them, I was getting them at Petsmart for 9 cents each. Now I order them online and it comes out to only 2 cents.

 

[Chubz]

wow thats a rip off 29cents?? i was paying like 5-6 cents before, but now i order online. you should think about starting a roach colony if crickets are that expensive for you. It would save you lots of $$$$$

 

[beardie]

Holy cow! That is REALLY expensive. I thought $0.10 a cricket at the local shops here was a bit much. When I was feeding crickets, I switched to a supplier that would email them in bulk (about 500 at a time), which would last me 1-2 weeks if I cared for them properly. It is WAY more affordable, and not too hard to keep them. I'm not sure about online bulk suppliers for Canada, but I used LLLReptile (but they're based here in California).

As the last poster mentioned, I just went with starting my own roach colony. I had too many cricket escapees, which gets quite annoying (even if the cats like having mobile toys in the house). I went with dubias as they can't crawl glass, can't fly, and don't smell. Not one escapee!

-Alex

 

[Ty13]

Yeah i figured it was a major rip. How would I go about starting a roach colony? Like how many do I start off with and will I have to buy anymore once the first ones are bought?

 

[xebix]

There is some pretty good information in various threads already. Just do a search for dubia and I'm sure you will come up with a wealth of information.

 

[patrickb]

There is some pretty good information in various threads already. Just do a search for dubia and I'm sure you will come up with a wealth of information.

^^^ This! Search for dubia in the forums and you will get your answers. My biggest suggestion aside from that is looking at starting your colony right now, as opposed to waiting for your dragon. That way the colony will be established and you can feed from it.

0.29 cents a cricket? Ouch. Juveniles eat between 50-100 crickets a day, that's $14.50-$29.00 a day in feeders for a dragon! Yikes!

 

[Ty13]

I'll be getting him/her at christmas, so is 2 months enough to establish a colony? I'm thinking on starting with about 250.

 

[patrickb]

Its going to depend on how many adult females you get with that 250. If it is a mixed lot, then it could be 4-8months before you are producing enough nymphs to safely feed from the colony. My magic number is to estimate 15 nymphs from each adult female per a month. With that in mind, you will need 100 adult females to support a baby eating 50 of them a day, 200 adults if he is eating 100 nymphs a day. So it will take some time. You could still order them and get them going, then consider using another roach species like Lobsters or Turkestans in the meantime as the food source. My preference is the Turkestans as they do not climb which means less hassle, but either will work fine, are about the same price as crickets when bought by the 1000, and will reproduce fast enough.

I do see mention of people from Canada having problems finding a source for roaches that will ship there, but look around some. Hopefully one of your fellow mates will pop in and be able to mention a source to obtain these roaches from for you. If all else fails, you could suck it up and deal with the crickets for a few months if you absolutely had to, eww.

 

[frog]

ya, at my pet store, crickets are 10 cents a cricket. trust me, thats a rip off

 

[NegativeCreep]

Yup, I order online, and crickets, including shipping come out to about 8-9 cents each.
29 is insane.

 

[kevindeeley12]

I agree, $0.29 cents is a CRAP load. And guys, I have a juve and he prob eats 10 a day on a good day, I would never have dreamed about 100 a day, holy crap.

 

[NegativeCreep]

I agree, $0.29 cents is a CRAP load. And guys, I have a juve and he prob eats 10 a day on a good day, I would never have dreamed about 100 a day, holy crap.

Yeah, I've heard of beardies eating that much.. my baby doesn't. She is maybe 3-4 months old now. She obviously eats more of the smaller ones (we order them smaller than we need, so they can grown while we keep them), but at an appropriate size, she eats about 2 dozen a day, about 8-10 phoenix worms, plus a few veggies..