Can't get the right size cricket

[BeardieMommy85]

Hi Everyone.....I have a 6 month old beardie, and someone at a pet store told me he was old enough to eat large crickets so I got him some large crickets and he ended up getting a bit constipated so I gave him a warm water bath and he pooped right away in the bath. Basically my problem is I have to get his crickets at Petsmart and they only sell either small or large no medium. The small ones are TOO small for him, they are for the tiny babies and he won't even pay attention to them, but the large ones he likes a lot but im just afraid he will get backed up again. I would order my crickets online but I can't because the packages get sent to the apartment complex office and technically they don't allow reptiles here so they would freak if they found out I had crickets in here. It sucks. I don't know if I should just try to make him eat small crickets or continue to feed him larger crickets and just bathe him more? I was going to another store in my area that had what looked like bigger crickets than the small ones at petsmart but I stopped going to them because #1, they were ripping me off and not giving me what I asked for, and #2, they have a bearded dragon there and refuse to listen to me on how to take care of it because they have absolutely no basking light for it whatsoever and the UVB light is over a screen so that is pretty ineffective and I don't support them if they won't take care of the animal the right way. Petsmart has its problems too but not as bad as this place. Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions on what I should do I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Jdsbeardie]

I have found with the small crickets from PetSmart, yes they are too small but once I gut load them, within a few days they are a more suitable size for my baby beardie.

Another option, can you have orders shipped to a friend's address? Or request the package be held at the post office? I know I've seen that option.

Side note: my baby beardie is really loving Phoenix worms & way less maintenance than crickets. Hope you find something that works.

 

[BeardieMommy85]

Thanks so much for responding! I have thought about getting them sent to someone's house, but the problem is, the few friends that I do have all live in apartments and the only person that lives near me that could possibly do it would be my Mom, but the problem with that is since it is winter, if she is not home when the crickets are delivered than the crickets will obviously die. It's a tough one. I actually had to get more crickets today so I bought a mixture of small and larger crickets. Someone else told me that as long as I keep an eye on my Baby, then once I notice he is not pooping I can do all the things like warm water soaks and prune baby food. I don't want to even get into the situation where he gets backed up because a few months ago he got backed up and got really sick and almost died and I am worried all the time because he doesn't poop on a regular basis anyways, so I get so nervous when a few days goes by and nothing happens. Luckily this time I knew he was backed up by his signs because he poops in a certain spot in his tank and he would go to that spot and I could tell he was trying to go but nothing happened so I gave him a warm soak and massaged his belly and in about 1 second he pooped in the bath. I am glad there are home remedies you can do to help your beardie get better, but the last time he got sick I had to bring him to the vet 3 times in one week and because its the christmas season I don't have the extra money right now to bring him to the vet. When I went to Petsmart today I told them my situation and they asked me how big my beardie was and showed me other lizards and I compared my beardie to one of theirs and they said at that size he should be able to take larger crickets(Petsmart large crickets are not full grown anyways) so I wasn't quite sure what to do so again I bought a mixture of small and large. I guess I'll just have to keep a close eye on him...