crickets keep dying!!

[dale14]

ok so this has been happening to me every time I buy crickets. I bring them home, put them in this little container I have for them. Then i put some of this jelly stuff for crickets that gives them calcium, but next i see them and half of them are dead! how do i manage to keep the crickets alive because I hate having to pay for them when they're just gonna die the next day.

 

[SeanMcCormack]

Maybe your buying to many crickets for that size cage, or they might not be getting water

 

[saintgeorge]

You have to gutload crickets with stuff like raw potato/apple and kibble. Otherwise they all starve. I get mine from this site - http://www.flukerfarms.com/50countcrickettube.aspx - in a 50 count tube so they're manageable.

 

[Okiemavis]

The gel only works for the water part, you've gotta give them food too. I use fish flakes, kibble, anything like that. I also use the Fluker's orange cubes, which are water & food in one. At work we use the orange cubes and rat pellets.

If the food fails, you're probably getting crickets that are already half dead from the store, are there a lot of dead crickets in the container at the store?

 

[pudden318]

i get 1000 crickets at a time keep them in a 10gal fish tank with screen lid use the yellow gel and feed them the same greens i give my dragons they have empty egg crates for them to hide and i have no problem maybe lose 10 15 crickets in about a week and a half if that i use hungrylizard.com get them the next day with normally no dead loss

 

[beardiesdad]

Try a larger container, and keep it in a warm place like a closet, or use a heat source around 75 to 80. Start with 100 and see how you do. They need food too. There are great care sheets online that goes into more detail about keeping them.

 

[dale14]

thanks that helps a lot

 

[meds081603]

Lots of ventilation is very important, a small closed container will not work. I personally do not like the orange cubes one bit. I have had crickets starve to death before eating them. We prefer a dry commercial mix of various grains. We supplement this with dry cat food and various fruit and vegetable scraps. In our experience dry cat food and collard greens are favorites of the crickets. For water we use a small dish (lids from butter or sour cream containers work well) with either wet sponges (expensive) or damp paper towels. I prefer paper towels and just replace them every day or every other day. Potato and apples work well also and provide both food and water.

 

[kristy55303]

in addition to whats already been mentioned, make sure you have hiding places for them such as egg carton and paper towel rolls. ventilation is a must. i use rubbermaid bins with the tops cut out and screen hot glued on. if there is no hiding place they may canabalize eachother for food. i feed a dry gutload and also carrots and potatoes. for water there are two options. small deli cups with tiny holes punched in, i pull yarn through and tie off in a knot so there are pieces hanging down into the water, the lid keeps the crix from from drowning and the yarn wicks up the water. replace as needed. or water crystals are a good cheap route as well for water. Just my experience. clean out the dead crix as often as you can as it will help as well.

kristy

 

[saintgeorge]

I recently had a cricket nightmare. I was staying at a relative's house where we were keeping the crix and beardie in a sunporch that had only a slightly open screen door separating outdoors from in. The crix were in a tank with ventilation. That morning, I'd gotten sick of trying to hunt for the crix so I took the egg carton out. That night, these awful red and black ants swarmed in through the ventilation holes and ate/killed all but two crix. I evacuated those two and fed 'em to the beardie, but some ants hitchhiked and I ended up getting bitten on the ear (I had pushed my hair behind my ear), which is still red, inflamed and itchy , and a couple latched on to the lizard's foot. I ended up having to evacuate/clean out both beardie and cricket tanks. Moral of the story? Never keep crickets in a place that is reachable by critters outside.
My beardie lived on baby food and strawberries for the rest of the trip. We're all glad to be back...