500 crickets in a week.... Cautionary tale!

[Kessed]

Lol.

We went camping for a week and hired DD1's friend (who is 9 - and was supervised by her mother) to feed our animals while we were gone. She heaped love on our pets. I have never come home and had my cats seem happy rather than desperate for human companionship.

I got a new order of crickets before we left. 500 shinny 1/2" ones. I set them up with a bunch of veggies so she wouldn't have to do anything with them except for feed. I showed her how to put in a little container, tap the egg carton on it so a bunch fall into it and then pull that out (generally ~10 fall in). Told her to go ahead and feed Zaxxi as much as she would eat in 10/15 min. (Also to add some meal worms to the salad).

Came home yesterday to like 6 lonely crickets hopping around in their 20 gallon tank. They didn't escape because there is really no way they could. (The tank is taller than they can jump and has a lid). And my cat with cricket radar but ZERO kill instinct hasn't shown the slightest hint that there may be some on the loose.

When I paid her I casually asked how many she was feeding and she said "Well, I would put them into the container, dust them and feed her and she would eat them all. So I would do it again! She really likes to eat!"

From what the girl said, I think Zaxxi may have eaten 50+ crickets a day. :shock:

Looking at her measurements she gained a solid 25grams this week. And I had to go buy more crickets...

 

[GizmosGrammie]

Too cute. Lol!

:lol:

 

[Kessed]

And it's a growth spurt. She ate 14 large crickets this morning for breakfast and 15 just now for supper. These crickets are all 3/4"+ Now she's resting saying "Yum"

 

[SukiLove]

Haha, the same thing happened when I was out of the country! I left enough dubia for 2 weeks for BOTH Nero and Soleil, I come home to find about 200 dubia left.... :shock: And Soleil was eating around 150-200 dubia a day at that point! When I asked what happened to them, I was told that since she was too afraid of the dubia touching her she just dumped a whole bunch in there and never really counted. My guess is she probably fed them both around 150 dubia per meal if not more. :lol:
They ate good that week!

 

[SukiLove]

Haha, the same thing happened when I was out of the country! I left enough dubia for 2 weeks for BOTH Nero and Soleil, I come home to find about 200 dubia left.... :shock: And Soleil was eating around 150-200 dubia a day at that point! When I asked what happened to them, I was told that since she was too afraid of the dubia touching her she just dumped a whole bunch in there and never really counted. My guess is she probably fed them both around 150 dubia per meal if not more. :lol:
They ate good that week!

Forgot to say, I was only gone for 7 days!