Store-bought feed warning!

[stinkysmommy]

Hi guys! So, on the topic of store-bought feed; I'm sure that the majority of you, besides those that need to feed multiple beardies/a reptile colony or those of you that breed your own live feed, buy your crickets and worms from your local chain store (Petsmart, Petco for those of you in the U.S.) What you may not know though is that these store-bought crix and worms can also come with some pretty nasty surprises, not unlike the reptiles that these stores keep in unpleasant conditions. For example, today, after a month of inexplicably smelly diarrhea and loss of appetite, my big boy Stink tested positive for pinworms that my veterinarian reckons he'd contracted from his crix. Pinworms, although annoying, are relatively harmless compared to the other freeloaders that your beardie's bugs could be carrying- in fact, I'm sure that a lot of you have parasite horror stories of your own (feel free to share them below!)
As of tonight, my reptile family is being switched over to live feed bought online from professional bug breeders. Most often, I've read, these insects are gut-loaded and most breeders test each batch for parasites, which is awesome- it's likely won't need to worry about blowing $140.50 ( ) at the veterinarians for smear tests and syringes full of fluids that your beardie will hate you for :lol:

Please share your own experiences below, including your favourite online feed stores and your experience with buying bugs in bulk! I'll be documenting my own experiences with boxed bugs as well.

 

[Rankins]

Cricket breeders do sometimes test for parasites. I have never heard of them testing enough to claim every cricket is clean. The pet stores order their crickets from most of the places we all do.

 

[stinkysmommy]

Cricket breeders do sometimes test for parasites. I have never heard of them testing enough to claim every cricket is clean. The pet stores order their crickets from most of the places we all do.

No one can claim that every cricket is clean, but testing in batches is better than testing none at all because it's likely that if one cricket in a batch has them, it's spread to the rest . That's how parasites work . Besides, regardless of where they order, if crickets in transit are kept in the same distribution centers and conditions that the rest of their animals are kept in, I wouldn't trust them. Have you seen the illnesses that their rodents and reps come home with? Personally, I wouldn't feed my animals the same nasties that I'd quarantine them from anymore. I've learned my lesson.

 

[Rankins]

I know how parasites work, I have been a nurse for 25 years. The way you worded that seems argumentive.
It sounds like you have strong beliefs in your opinion, and I don't feel like getting into a debate. I'll just say your entitled to your opinion.

 

[Rankins]

I should mention I use to volunteer work at Sunshine Mealworms in Silverton, Oregon. It was an offshoot of Rainbow Mealworms. The owner Mark (Mitchell?) use to give me huge discounts because I would help him sometimes. One time he gave me enough crickets to fill a 50 gallon trash can full of egg crates. I had so many I was giving them away for free. He gave me about 50 hissing roaches because he didn't want to breed them. He said they creeped him out I think they were given to him by his father in-law (owner of Rainbow Mealworms)
I was bummed when they went out of business.

 

[stinkysmommy]

I should mention I use to volunteer work at Sunshine Mealworms in Silverton, Oregon. It was an offshoot of Rainbow Mealworms. The owner Mark (Mitchell?) use to give me huge discounts because I would help him sometimes. One time he gave me enough crickets to fill a 50 gallon trash can full of egg crates. I had so many I was giving them away for free. He gave me about 50 hissing roaches because he didn't want to breed them. He said they creeped him out I think they were given to him by his father in-law (owner of Rainbow Mealworms)
I was bummed when they went out of business.

Sorry, hadn't meant to sound argumentative. I'm very set on this idea, though :lol:. I didn't even have the money for the vet bill that he'd racked up from these blasted pinworms. Luckily I have a very generous boyfriend. Not everyone is so fortunate though, there are a lot of kids who's parents leave the care of these beardies completely up to their children who certainly couldn't afford to dish out what my boyfriend payed, and their poor babies just get sicker and sicker like my Stink did... we watched him wasting away. Besides, while we're on the topic of money, in the long run it's much more economic to invest in large boxes of crix that could potentially breed. Heck, I hadn't even bought many at a time before but I still found tiny baby crix while changing the moss in my crested geckos terrarium today :lol:. Even if they don't breed, we're looking at 14 cents a cricket at the pet store, that averages to about $6.50 for a bag of 50 for the week (if you have one adult beardie- you need more for juveniles) and $26 a month at least for a total of 200 CRIX- if you consider possible store discounts. On the other hand, a box of 1000 from a breeder comes out to $30 on average, which can last you ~20 weeks depending on your crix care. That's about $1.50 a week for the same amount of crix pretty much, and you'll have leftover money to spare for your own parasite tests and whatever else you'll need. Saving money and potentially saving an animals' health is enough in my book to make the switch over to boxed crix.

 

[Rankins]

I may have totally misunderstood your post. I forgot about this thread until you responded. I do understand its expensive to buy a reptile, care for them , and feed them. Most of my reptiles are worth over $1000, one is worth about $2500. I have 14 of them so my expense to buy them was enormous. Then frozen rats per month was costing me about $200/mo. So I started breeding them to cut that expense in half. I have only had to take one to the vet. He got bit bad during breeding season. Could have been worst, they bite so hard (I know firsthand) it could have amputated his arm. That was a fairly cheap vet visit. Most other issues I can treat with farm store antibiotics, anti flagellets, and dewormers. I do not recommend doing it unless you are sure you know what you are doing. Medications are great, but they can also kill an animal unless you can do conversions from horse to reptile weight correctly for dosage.
But I do think you are being overly optimistic about eliminating risk by ordering crickets from farms. They may claim they test, they may only test every few months or not at all. If your interested ask them to send the last parasite test results with your cricket order. If they are frequntly testing they should have a current report.
But farms produce so many crickets that the chances are very high that there are parasites in their farms. Even if they test and they come back positive for parasites, I doubt they would throw out many thousands of crickets. When the cricket virus was destroying all the common house crickets the farms tried to ship them all out before they died. Many farms went out of business because it wiped out entire stock.
I do commend you on trying to eliminate risks to your dragons. It probably lessening your risk some. But not enough to guarantee your crickets don't have parasites.
If you really want to grow your own crickets see my post under "feeders" section. It will give you a few thousand crickets if you have about 200 large crickets laying eggs. It works great.
Don't forget to ask your cricket farm about parasite test results. Please let us all know how that works out
But the pet stores do order their crickets from the exact same places we all do. So whether you buy them at a pet shop or from the mail, its all the same...except pet stores rip you off.