Feeders during winter time?

[katelynnj072011]

Happy Friday everyone

I'm needing some help finding some feeders for Phoenix. I just ordered 500 crix off ebay & was not given an option for overnight shipping :? . They arrived yesterday...a majority of them dead even though they had a heat packet in there . I was able to bring some back to life after leaving them infront of my space heater for a few hours. But needless to say..im going to need more feeders for him. It's getting SUPER cold here in Kansas... we are looking at highs around 40 degrees...maybe, if we are lucky & the lowest at night is around 18 degrees. Petco is raping me on prices of crickets , and my car broke down yesterday, so petco isn't really an option at the moment anyways. I'm needing some feedback on places I can order crickets from w/ reasonably priced overnight shipping (I heard that's pretty much the only way to avoid dead ones in the cold?) & also some feedback on what other staple feeders I could feed him (are some more resilient to the cold than others?)..He does NOT like phoenix worms whatsoever (spoiled much? :roll

Thanks in advance

 

[BrightStar]

I can certainly relate. I'm in Kansas too, and going through my first winter with Rygel.

I order the majority of Rygel's feeders from http://www.rainbowmealworms.net

They have several shipping options, and I consider their prices pretty reasonable. I've ordered from them about three times so far, and everything arrived alive. For cold weather, you'll need to order the heat pack - it doesn't come included in shipping costs(you'll find it under "accessories"---be sure to select the activated pack). This is actually something I looked for in a feeder supplier, as I like having the option of adding more heat packs if I'm worried about temperatures(although they say one is usually enough).

They sell crickets, dubia, hornworms, etc, and I like that I can order different feeders from the same place to save on shipping.

The other feeder I feed Rygel is silkworms. I get them from https://www.coastalsilkworms.com and they're the best price I've found. They also offer a heat pack (again at an additional charge). They're totally sold out at the moment, but due back in stock on Monday.

The most commonly recommended feeders are crickets, dubias and Phoenix worms. My Rygel used to love dubia, but now won't touch them. He's a fussy eater. Silkworms are also excellent, but costly. I've just ordered some silkworm eggs, to try hatching them myself, as this is much cheaper(after the initial setup cost for an incubator). Plus, you can keep eggs in the fridge for about a month so you can buy in bulk and don't have to hatch all at once.

Another thing you can think about is trying butterworms and "spikes", which can be kept in the fridge. I'm not sure about butterworms as a staple(have read conflicting information) but I seem to recall spikes are a good staple. I ordered spikes from rainbow mealworms, and butterworms from bigapplepetsupplies.com. They're good to have around in an "emergency", and they store in the fridge for several months. Shame Rygel hates the spikes, but he does like the butterworms.

 

[katelynnj072011]

This is my first winter with my little guy too ! I'm taking this as a learning experience. I think during the summertime I'm going to attempt to raise my own crickets and maybe dubia roaches so ill have a good supply for the winter & this wont be an issue anymore. I'll definitely be looking into some of these sites, thanks for your input .

I've actually never heard of spikes? I may give them a shot . I think my main concern with Phoenix trying new foods is he wont like them and ill be out $. I really thought he would like phoenix worms so I ordered him 250....all he did was give me the stank eye and turned his nose up to it...but no sooner than I put some crickets and mealies in his dish he's all over them :| So now I have a container of phoenix worms sitting there and I have no clue what to do with them :roll: none of my friends have lizards so I really can't give them away. I tried every trick I could think of to get him to try them and he was not falling for my shenanigans :| .

I'm going to attempt to do 1 day shipping on an order of 1000 crix on Monday w/ a heat pack and hope they arrive alive. If you happen to come across anyone who has a cricket farm in Kansas please let me know ! I'm located in Topeka, but for the price and what it's worth, I'm willing to travel.

 

[BrightStar]

You're not too far from me then. I'm in Manhattan, which is about an hour away.

According to rainbow mealworms:

"Spikes are the larvae the Blue Bottle Fly and contain 20% protein and only 6% fat. They look like a small waxworm measuring between 3/8" to 1/2" in length. In the wild fly larvae are a part of the natural diet of fish, reptiles, birds, and amphibians. They are very appealing, and are eaten as readily as a waxworm and are soft bodied making them highly digestible (94%!!)."

I also brought some from a place called grubco.com. The spikes I received from them look a lot different to the spikes I got from rainbow mealworms. (Much darker). I haven't tried Rygel with them yet, and to be honest I wasn't overly impressed by their service - no tracking confirmation sent, and when I emailed them, I just got a short reply that they had been shipped - and no tracking information provided. This was my first experience with them, so I'm hoping maybe I got unlucky.

I understand your concern about buying feeders that they won't eat. I brought Rygel 250 spikes from rainbow mealworms, and he won't eat them. I keep trying to slip a few in his bowl, but he isn't having any of it. I managed to get him to eat ONE spike one time, but it took me a long time and he would only eat that one.

 

[Rankins]

Before my roach colony was established I never had any difficulty getting crickets in the winter. I just ordered them from Amazon. I did request the company hold the package at the post office for pickup though.

 

[katelynnj072011]

I'm doing 1-day shipping and hold at post office :lol: , I'm not messin' around this is my second shipment that died . I've never had problems ordering them off ebay previously. But I've learned my lesson on ordering from them during the winter, you really have no control over the shipping (to my understanding), its up to the seller. He has enough to get him through the weekend, and I was able to run by the store and get him more collards,turnips and mustard greens. Hopefully that'll get him by until the shipment comes, which I'm hoping will be by Tuesday. My car decided to crap out at one heck of a time

 

[Rankins]

Sorry about the car.
Overnight shipping must be expensive. But if thats what it takes I guess its worth it. You could even have them sent through Delta Dash and get them within a few hrs.
Yes, I'm kidding but I just received a pair of beaded lizards from Florida to Oregon in about 6 hrs via delta.

 

[BrightStar]

I think I read somewhere that crickets are a pretty fragile feeder compared to other staples. I don't have any experience with crickets - it was the only "rule" my husband made when I said I wanted a dragon; "no crickets!" They creep me out more than any other feeder, so that was okay with me.

I reccomend looking into dubias and silkworms as alternative staples I know dubias are meant to be pretty hardy. Shame yours doesn't like Phoenix worms - they can be kept for a while in cooler temps(like in a wine cooler).

I'd eventually like to provide as much of my own feeder as possible, but Rygel has gone off dubias. I hear PWs and silkworms are both difficult to breed, although I am looking into getting silkworm eggs - 500 for $10 (plus shipping and tax) seemed like a good deal. Rygel can eat about 30 - 50 mediums a day.

I'm pretty nervous about sourcing feeders over the winter. I'm glad Rygel is only a baby once; next year it might not be such a worry if I can't get as many feeders, and I may even have my own supply by then.

 

[bandademozcas]

Ever since I got my dragon I had been buying from Dubiaroaches.com. I tried dubi deli once but I didn't like the burlap bag they come in and I had a lot of deaths.
For the incoming winter weather I just placed an order for 3000 supers from rainbowmealworms while I let my roach colony recuperate a bit.
I'm excited and their prices for the quantity were really good and I love how you can pick your own shipping preference

 

[katelynnj072011]

I think for the winter we are going to switch him to Dubias as I have also heard they are more resilient to the cold weather. And we will also make weekly trips to petco to grab some crickets for him as well, they charged me $20 for 120, which is ridiculous compared to what I was paying online ($14 for 500), but I guess just as long as they are alive then I'm willing to pay the extra cost. He's starting to like veggies a lot more too so that will help out as well. I got my car back on the road Friday, I had some crappy antifreeze in it that caused my car to overheat but luckily I turned it off in time and no damage was done . That helped out the situation tremendously! Now if he could just hurry up and shed so he'll stop being so dang grumpy that would be great :? . Thank you guys again for your input. He's roughly 4-5 months old, do you guys think its too early to have him try some silk worms? & Just out of curiousity how would I get shipments sent through delta dash, sounds like something id be interested in?

 

[BrightStar]

Rygel is four months, and about 14". I've been feeding him silkworms since he was about 11 weeks and 10.5". He's never had any problems, and he LOVES them.

If you order from https://www.coastalsilkworms.com you can choose the size (though I think they only have smalls in stock at the moment). I started Rygel on smalls, but now he eats any size quite happily. Be warned that the larger ones tend to squirt a lot when they're eaten, and can make a bit of a mess - I definitely wouldn't reccomend feeding them by hand as it can be pretty gross. But the smaller size usually aren't messy.

 

[Rankins]

I wish the cricket farm near my house wouldn't have went out of business. It was offshoot company of Rainbow Mealworms. The owner was the son-inlaw of the owner of Rainbow. I could just drive about an hour to pick them up. The owner was really cool and always sold them cheap to me. I would help at his shop on rare occasions.
But as for shipping in winter, I used VM Feeders on amazon. They heat packed them and I didn't have many dead ones on arrival. Overnight shipping has to be ridiculously expensive!!

 

[katelynnj072011]

Its about $20-25 for overnight shipping, I've been looking into a lot of places. I think the cheapest I have found, at least for crickets, is reptilefood.com it was $31 for 1000 crix and overnight shipping w/ free heat packs..plus a 72 hr guarantee. Which I guess is worth it when you see how much I'm spending at petco for less than half that amount. Its really not that bad but its really a gamble with the weather here. We literally had highs this weekend of around 45 degrees, now today its barely peaking 27 degrees. Kansas has some of the most bi-polar, inconsistent weather EVER!!!!!

 

[Rankins]

Haha...Oregon's got unipolar weather, rain 9 months outta the year.
But $30 for 1000 crickets overnight shipping is a really good deal! They can't be making much profit at those prices.

 

[springyfc]

Hey guys, www.symtonbsf.com provide free shipping over the winter, and the delivery is live guaranteed regardless of the weather conditions. BSFL is more durable to cold and it's fine for winter transportation.