winter food

[landoflor]

hi guys, i was looking for some advice. i have been ordering through ghanns for my crixs. and now its getting really really cold here. last night it was 11 below at warmest. i'm looking for a company thats backs there crixs warmer for the winter. any sugestions?

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Most Live feeder companies will insist that you use the overnight shipping (which is rather expensive) and you can pay for extra heat packs. I had bad luck with Ghann (and it wasn't that cold yet-50's) so I now longer use them. Here are a couple others you can look into:
http://www.reevescricketranch.com
http://www.flukers.com
http://www.premiumcrickets.com
Many live feeder companies won't even ship when night time temps hit below a certain degree.
You may want to look into dubia roaches, have the vendor box them with a couple 72 hour heat packs, and pay a little extra for the overnight shipping. Dubias can withstand colder temps than crickets, but, having said that, any feeder is subject freezing to death if the temps are too low and shipping takes too long. Watch your local weather for the week ahead forcasts, and try to arrange for shipping on the warmest days possible. Something you can do in a pinch though, is to feed chicken baby food. Or even the dried crickets in the can (http://www.petmountain.com has them), however, they are not nearly as nutritious as live feeders and lack a lot of the moisture that live crickets have. If your temps come up enough, order the largest quantities that you can, and set up rubbermaid totes/bins to house them so you don't have to order as frequently. Also, if you manage to get a large quantity of crickets, do some research on breeding them (not quite as easy as the dubias, but can be done relatively inexpensively).

Good luck.