Crickets keep dying..

[David42]

So every 5 days or so I get my little guy about 4 dozen crickets from the pet store. I keep them in a plastic container, yes with holes, as well as the egg cartons they give you in the store, and lastly fluckers orange cubes which I'll replace every 2-3 days. The problem is about 1 dozen crickets or more always seem to die. Any suggestions on preventing this?

 

[brittani299]

I get a 1000 crickets a week and they just die off. I haven't found a way to keep them all alive. What helps a giving them food everyday and making sure you take all the dead ones out. In my last week I only lost about 100 crickets so that pretty good odds.

 

[David42]

I've tried to clean out dead ones everyday, I was thinking it could be temperature but I wasn't sure. At least I'm not the only one!

 

[brittani299]

Yea they die really easy. I dont know if there is any best way to keep them alive.

 

[burt1016]

I had this problem when I still used crickets (switch to Dubia, you won't regret it).

I bought in batches of 1000, and some weeks all 1000 would live (to be fed to my dragons ) while other times 900 of them would die within a week, for no apparent reason. It might sound like I'm exaggerating, but I've honestly experienced those two extremes!

I don't think there's anything you can do, maybe try switching out the egg cartons with egg cartons you buy or get yourself, keeping a clean enclosure, and replacing food daily.

Good luck

 

[David42]

Yes that's what I was also looking into! I was thinking about starting a colony, but I'm not sure ill have a whole lot of time for it yet. And how much do dubias usually go for at the smallest size?

 

[unkempt1]

Best things you can do:

1. Remove carcasses, but remember, some may just be molts. Do they feel lighter than they look? If so they may be fresh molts.

2. Clean the cage every few days - very important!

3. Offer them greens every day, removing anything that remains the next morning. I have found that those orange cubes work as a supplement, but suck when used alone.

Following these three tips has kept my cricket survival rate pretty high, whereas in the past I would have large die-offs as well. I don't buy in as high quantities, but these three things are what you have control over the most.

Oh, and I second the idea of breeding dubia. :twisted: Check out the for sale section here if you want to try out some baby nymphs to make sure your dragon will like them (my dragon loves them).

 

[arman]

i would get 1000 and i took really good care of them, but still i would have maby 30-50 a day die.
but now i use supers and butterworms!! im all done with crickets they are a waist of my time.

 

[David42]

He's only about 7 inches, is he ready for any of those worms yet or is he still too small for them?

 

[arman]

no your dragon needs to be over 16 inch long to eat supers or he will get impacted( constapated) butterworms are fine but are a little expensive so mine only gets a couple a day.
also you should seriously look into getting larger shipments.. petstore cricket could run you 12cent a cricket. online i can get them shipped to my door for( this is a copy and paste)

crickets
500= 28.83=.057per cricket
1000=36.74=.036

supers
500=28.83=.057per super
1000=40.13=.040 per super

and i just read this fourm for care and just went from there...

 

[David42]

I will defiantly look into shipments! My only worry is them dying off fast, but it's too cold to have them shipped right now so I will wait a bit before I do that.

 

[arman]

it depends on where you live and whoyou order from.. im in southern ontario so yea its cold but a lot of companys will charge you a extra buck or to for heat pads.. heck they may not charge you at all for them..

where are you located?

 

[David42]

Michigan... And I will be looking into getting them in bulk

 

[DeltaElite121]

I ordered a batch of 1000 and I've had about 50 die total at the very most. This was my first batch of 1,000. Here's what I find works for me (because my first small batch of 200 I lost HALF of them):

- Tank size is critical I noticed the first time around. For 1000 crickets, I have them split up in two ten gallon containers (so ~500 each tank).
- crawling space is absolutely essential. Make sure they have tons of stuff to crawl on or they will smother eachother and kill eachother on accident since they'll all huddle in the same spots.
- drop fresh feeder food every day (I've noticed the fresh feeder smell attracts hungry ones instantly). I also use a syringe with water and drop droplets in the cage in random spots. This keeps them from smothering eachother, and there's still the condensed water gelatins for them to go to if they want it. This I've noticed works very well and they respond well to drinking water in this fashion.. Just make sure you don't pool the water up or they could somehow manage to drown themselves since they aren't.. the brightest insects in the world.
- make sure your supplier actually gives you good crickets. Sometimes crickets die off because they just aren't healthy or weren't raised so they have good vitals for feeding purposes.

 

[David42]

Thank you! More than likely ill be able to come up with everything. I think my biggest problem was space, I didn't realize that they needed more space.