How do you keep your crickets alive?

[LizardLover17]

I got crickets 3 days ago and i went to feed Zelda today and saw that they were all dead, yesterday i saw that some were dead but there was still enough to feed her but not today. they all died lol. so how can i keep my crickets alive?

 

[Gail]

Are you feeding and watering the crickets? Do the have egg crate to climb on? There is a cricket virus and its possible they are dieing from that.

 

[ChuckA]

A s for me i always feed the crickets i always put a little bit of carrot in there bag and believe me they are eating it big time, and always make sure you open the bag and give them fresh air and then reclose the bag, but yes there are always going to be some dead ones

 

[Gail]

You really shouldn't keep them in the bag, get a small kritter keeper instead and you will have less die.

 

[MrWhite]

I get my crickets 1000 at a time and put them in a sterilite bin. I use cricket food and water gel in the bins and supply them with chopped up raw potatos to eat as well. Most usually last a couple of weeks. I was getting some die off using just one bin, so I split my latest shipment into 2 bins and see if they last longer. I usually only get 2 weeks between feeding 50+ a day and die offs.

 

[danab]

I was raising my own crickets for awhile (before they made me crazy being all noisy and stinky and I hated cleaning their bins). I used water crystals and a chow I make myself with fresh veggies thrown in sometimes. Worked well to keep them alive from eggs to adults. Just have to watch to make sure the humidity doesnt get too high and mold starts up. Not a problem in my plastic bins but happened sometimes in my glass tanks. I never had good luck keeping them alive for long periods of time in the cricket keeper. So I ended up taking the tubes out and putting them in my plastic bins. That way I could still use them to get crickets for dusting and feeding. Do not use gutloader as a food staple since the calcium content is too high.

My experience with large shipments from cricket sellers was mixed. Some shipments would keep for a long time (especially if I got really small ones) and others would bite the big one all at one time. I attributed the massive die offs to possibly being caused by the cricket virus and thats when I started growing my own from adults that I grew from babies in one shipment that had great viability. Started with fresh bins etc. to avoid contamination.

Cricket colony got stinky/noisy so I only raised them to the point where my dubia colony could be fed off of.

 

[MrWhite]

Do not use gutloader as a food staple since the calcium content is too high.

is there a problem with this? I use a calcium fortified water gel. Would this cause cricket die-off? I do have standard water crystals that I can use.

thanks

 

[danab]

Do not use gutloader as a food staple since the calcium content is too high.

is there a problem with this? I use a calcium fortified water gel. Would this cause cricket die-off? I do have standard water crystals that I can use.

thanks

I would play it safe and use the non-calcium ones because according to what I read too much clacium makes their exo's too hard and they can't molt out of them. So depending on how much calcium is in their staple food + the calcium in the crystals might make the combined amount a bit too much.

 

[MrWhite]

Do not use gutloader as a food staple since the calcium content is too high.

is there a problem with this? I use a calcium fortified water gel. Would this cause cricket die-off? I do have standard water crystals that I can use.

thanks

I would play it safe and use the non-calcium ones because according to what I read too much clacium makes their exo's too hard and they can't molt out of them. So depending on how much calcium is in their staple food + the calcium in the crystals might make the combined amount a bit too much.

ahh, I never thought of that, thanks

 

[z71]

I'm new at this but I'm on my second box of 1000 crickets and I've done a decent job of keeping them alive so far.

The first thing I will say is the crickets definitely need water. If you don't believe me, put a drip of water on the floor of your cricket cage and watch them swarm to drink it up. I've been using water gel from crystals I bought at Lowes (Soil Moist). I also wet down the kale and carrots before giving them to the crickets. I also put some potato in.

This past order was from Ghans and I ordered some of their "Cricket Chow". I can't believe how much of this stuff they eat and they love it. Ghan's says this is the only food they feed their crickets.

So far, my watered and fed crickets seem much happier and much more active than my first order.

 

[Rud3Bwoy]

i placed an order for 1000 crickets i put them in a plastic bin cut hole on top for air

drop random veges in it every day,2 times a week id mist the entire bin and they seem to be doing well with no issues