Crickets: What's the Secret?

[Critter]

Okay I have had my Beardie for two days now, very first one and I am having trouble feeding him crickets. I'm not scared of the crickets or anything, but I just find it hard to get them from the container they come in to the tank that my Beardie lives in. When I open the container (over the tank) they just sort of run everywhere, I've tried picking up induvidual ones but they are too fast, and often some will just jump out and land in the tank on their own but I don't want to many to do that as I'd rather control how many he eats. So what exactly is the best and most simple way of getting those crickets to my Beardie?

 

[sirenique]

Most pet supply places sell something called a cricket keeper: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753240&lmdn=Product+Type

I own both sizes of the cricket keeper linked to above, and they're great -- easy to clean, and when my beardie was a small hatchling it was an easy way to transport him between locations when not being used to house crickets. If you wanted a simpler, cheaper version, you can also just transport the crickets from container to vivarium using a paper towel roll :lol:

 

[Critter]

Aw man I didn't get anything like that! No wonder I've been having so much trouble with them, I've got them in a type of take-out food container thing. I might need to buy one of those cricket keepers online.

 

[wckdbtch]

I also don't have one of the cricket keepers, but I've replaced the egg cartons with pieces of clear plastic tube. Instead of all the crickets sitting on the egg boxes, they crawl into the tubes. We also have one of those termite hill feeders, so it is easy to transfer the "tubed" crickets into the feeder. Once the feeder is in the viv, it isn't too difficult to count how many crawl out as they normally only come out one at a time. Once your beardie has had enough, remove the feeder, open it up over your normal cricket box and spill the rest out.

 

[definitions]

also you could take your beardie out of his enclosure and feed him is one of those plastic sterilite tubs. that way the crickets can't hide from him and you.

 

[ziggy23]

use toilet paper rolls, small pieces of egg carton or other things small enough to fit in whatever bag you use to dust the crickets with. then just pick the whole thing up put in the bag and shake them off. Repeat until you have enough.

 

[Critter]

Thanks for all the suggestions. At the moment I am just sort of flicking them in one by one, but I would like a more simple method. So I'll try some of the things mentioned here.

 

[HeatherSullivan]

I keep my crix in a 10 gallon fish aquarium with several papertowel, toilet paper rolls, and egg cartons. I use a laundry detergant cap put my vitamins/calcium in the bottom. Take the tp roll with crix inside and put the cap under it then flick the tp roll till they fall in the cup. I then put my hand over the top of cup and shake. Any time Brodie sees that little blue cap he goes CRAZY! Good Luck.