Why have a cricket crisis now?

[AprilMayJune]

I'm quite disturbed by this cricket crisis that's going around lately. I'm very dissapointed in my local store that sells them as well.

I have 7 little hatchlings that love to eat the crickets and I can't find any for a reasonable price.

My local reptile store in which I usually purchase my crickets and all my feeders (except my dubia I raise those at home) is out of crickets for the hatchlings. Last week 1000 1/4" crickets cost me 23.00. Now they claim they can only sell me 250 for 17.00. There's no way I'm paying that much for those few crickets. 250 crickets would only last 2 days with these little hatchlings. I don't have sucker tattooed on my forehead/

My first batch of 1000 crickets I bought from them were half dead when I brought them home. The second and third batch were the same. I haven't bought crickets in well over a year because I have a dubia colony going strong and feed my adults those mostly. On occassion I buy superworms and silkworms from the same store. Never had a problem with them until now and their crickets. I complained each time I went in about the amount of dead in my previous purchase and they say nothing except you can feed mealworms to baby beardies! No apology or anything or even throwing in a few extras to make up for it. Today was the last straw when they said to my b/f I wish people would stop b*&%*ing about the crickets. I told him to walk out and not buy anything and so he did. Customer service and making customers happy is very important to me. If there is poor customer service I will not return to a store nor would I recommend that store to anyone either. I guess their staff's attitude has just cost them a repeat customer. I guess they do well enough in their business to deter people from shopping there by their attitude today (and yes I am being sarcastic). And I won't feed mealworms to any beardie let alone a baby even with this cricket crisis in the city.

I'm on the hunt for 1/4" in crickets in Ontario (Canada), generally in the Hamilton area if anyone knows of a place to purchase for a reasonable price. I'm looking for at least 1000-2000 per week for a few more weeks. For now the hatchlings are feeding on baby dubia but they don't like those as much as the crickets and I am not overly comfortable leaving the roaches to wander in the tanks but I am keeping a very close eye on possible escapee's.

I'd even be willing to breed my own crickets right now if I knew how and if it would be worth my while. I only need the crickets for a few more weeks and then the babies will be gone to their forever homes. Help me if you can please...

 

[Reakaleak]

I get my crix through lllreptile.com, they have a great choice in sizes and shipping is free (unless you overnight). Of course it does depend on the tempature up their. IDK if they ship free to Canada tho? But their worth a try. Just try to order on monday before midnight or you'll have to wait till next week for your order to be processed (again unless you overnight).
I can't believe that pet store tho! Their rediculis!!! If i had some dead crix in the boxs i bought (when i bought locally) they would give me a discount on my next box. Good luck thou hope i helped!

 

[mickeysmomma]

What's going on with the crickets?

 

[AprilMayJune]

I was told there was some kind of virus infecting the crickets, other than that I just know they are hard to get.

Thanks reakaleak for suggesting lllreptile but I'm not wanting to pay custom fees along with delivery fees for silly crickets. The cost would be equal (probably) to what the store wants to rip me off for.

I have however found a local supplier and they deliver. Only problem is delivery is saturday only and orders have to be in by Wednesday evening for saturday delivery. I called and left a message of Friday afternoon and they called me back before 8pm the same day. I didn't expect to hear from them until Monday at the earliest since their delivery is Saturdays. They happened to have had an extra 500 crickets for me and could deliver them in the morning on Saturday for me. Since they were coming I asked them to purchase some superworms (for our adults) as well to make it more worth their while. I was quite impressed with their customer service especially since they didn't have to go out of their way and sell me the few extras they had. I think they went above and beyond what they could have done and was treated quite nicely as opposed to the poor service from my local shop where I used to buy my feeders.

So on Saturday I left my 14 year old son here as I had to go keep an eye on my brother-in-law for the day (he's sick and on a weekend pass from the hospital and an adult has to be with him at all times). Delivery was indeed during the specified time and they didn't give my son a hard time and were pleasant to him. He signed for the bugs and called and said the crickets had arrived. My b/f ran up to the house and got the crickets all situated in their tank. When I got home I was quite impressed with the crickets. They were nice looking crickets. It looked like way more than 500 in the cricket tank which is always great. The superworms looked plump and juicy. I was quite impressed with their service and I already have my order in for next week and their prices are amazing as well. It's too bad they only deliver in my general area and not all over the province. I'm sure if they did they would have many more customers.

 

[dmglakewood]

I'm forced to buy my crickets at the local petsmart =/

I usually pick up 200 at a time and it costs me close to 30$ a week. Their prices were 10 cents for large crickets but they raised that a few months ago to 11 cents. Everytime I go in there I swear to myself that I will start breeding them myself but I just never do.

My girlfriend always tells me that lizard costs more then the dog, and at this point I think I have to agree.

 

[mark83]

I was in the same spot as you dmglakewood except it was petco instead of petsmart.

I just ordered dubia to start a colony so i can stop getting ripped off by high cricket prices. Also I'm trying not to make petco or petsmart any money since they have such poor reputations for treatment of reptiles. You should see the reptile cages at my local pet stores, the care card with the herps name on it will say it needs temps in the xx range and humidity in xx range and the cage is always WAY off. If it says right under the damn cage whats your excuse for not having it right?

 

[dmglakewood]

I was in the same spot as you dmglakewood except it was petco instead of petsmart.

I just ordered dubia to start a colony so i can stop getting ripped off by high cricket prices. Also I'm trying not to make petco or petsmart any money since they have such poor reputations for treatment of reptiles. You should see the reptile cages at my local pet stores, the care card with the herps name on it will say it needs temps in the xx range and humidity in xx range and the cage is always WAY off. If it says right under the damn cage whats your excuse for not having it right?

I actually just made my roach purchase today too. I had to talk my soon to be wife into it though. She still isn't 100% but I think she will be okay once the savings starts to add up.

Our local petsmart has 11 baby dragons in 1 5 gallon tank. They have 1 stick and 1 tree. Their temps are 85 degrees and they have no uvb bulb. They are on calcium sand and have no water in the tank. They also have no vegies. They feed them baby meal worms and some veggie alternatives (looks like trix cereal). They have a card on the tank that says something like "Take me home today I'm easy to take care of. I just require a light to bask in, sand to live on a worms to eat."

It makes me sick to my stomach. Although I bought my beardie at a petstore and they told me the same BS. I didn't know better so I went along with it. When he started having seizures I found this site and felt so bad. I don't see how places like petsmart can legally sell these things.

 

[mark83]

I think they should get some massive fines for that kinda thing. Once they start losing money I'm betting they'd start hiring actual experts to supervise the care of their animals.

 

[the4campbells]

I have been purchasing my crickets at our local Petsmart and they seem to be out of both sizes all the time, so I have had to drive clear across town to buy crickets. And since I am a new BD owner I thought that was just the way it was, I didn't realize there's a crisis!!

I just placed my first cricket order online from Ghann's crickets, but I haven't received them yet, hopefully I'll get them in a decent time and they won't all be dead. I'll have to look at lllreptile to compare prices.

I have been reading about dubias roaches and worms and such. What is the best live feeder to feed? I just do the crickets, but now I wonder if I should try other live feeders?

Christina

 

[dmglakewood]

I have been purchasing my crickets at our local Petsmart and they seem to be out of both sizes all the time, so I have had to drive clear across town to buy crickets. And since I am a new BD owner I thought that was just the way it was, I didn't realize there's a crisis!!

I just placed my first cricket order online from Ghann's crickets, but I haven't received them yet, hopefully I'll get them in a decent time and they won't all be dead. I'll have to look at lllreptile to compare prices.

I have been reading about dubias roaches and worms and such. What is the best live feeder to feed? I just do the crickets, but now I wonder if I should try other live feeders?

Christina

From everything I've been reading the answer is, your choice haha.

I have yet to see anyone complain about dubia roaches. They don't smell, they are easy to breed, they don't jump or climb (smooth surfaces) and they are jam packed with nutrients. They are a little more expensive then crickets but once you get a colony going you will never need to buy live feeders again. Also it's nice during the night to be able to sleep without hearing chirping all the time.

Crickets on the other hand are loud, smell terrible, jump, climb, escape and have poor nutritional value. You have to powder crickets with calcium once a day 5 days a week just to bring their nutrients up to what it should be. With that being said they are cheap and easy to breed also. However their lifespan is a lot shorter then roaches so if you don't use them fast they will die off.

I personally will never go back to crickets once my colony is running smoothly. My experience with roaches so far has been nothing but positive. Not to mention that my beardie will jump off his basking platform and run clear across the viv to get a roach he loves them that much. I had to pretty much force him to eat crickets.