Hello guys,
I bought around 30 crickets last thursday(4th of July) and by now around 45% are dead.
Any tips to help me prolong their life? I recently move them away from the carrier where my baby pacman is because I thought being next to the heat pad could be causing this. I put in a different place that will be around room temp (74-78F) and I'm feeding them fluker's orange cube.
I'm also keeping them in a small carrier with the two black tubes. The crickets are medium sized because my frog is still a baby.
In your honest opinion, are night crawlers less of a hassle to feed? Crickets seem to be dying too fast, escaping too much, and adult ones can chirp their life away and you have to gut load.
Thanks
Night crawlers are great feeders nutritional wise but some animals wont go for them. I like to have food available in the enclosures to let my frogs eat on they're own terms, crickets are great for this. I use roaches over crickets. They are much more healthier and don't die off like crickets do.
As for your crickets dying, did you spray them at all?
Thanks for the quick reply. What do you mean by spraying? I'm not...I didn't know I had to? What do I spray them with?
Where do you get roaches? Do they escape? lol
I keep my crickets in a 10 gal tank with screen top with a broken up egg carton (paper not foam) along with a tupperware container with damp cotton balls and a 1/4 head of Iceberg Lettuce and the actually last weeks.
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I bought mine from a another forum member via ebay.
You can set up a breading colony of Dubia roaches quite easily
here is a good thread to read about dubia roaches.
But I feed mostly night crawlers 1 a day at min for a 2 in packman
and what ever dubia nymphs it will eat. 3 to 4 a day.
When it gets to 4 inches I will start giving adult dubia males 1 a day alternating with the night crawlers.
As a monthly treat I stated offering 1 live pinky mouse.
I will never feed fuzzy's when it gets larger I will switch to rat pinkies that are larger.
I cant wait for my Dumpy's to get large enough to feed them Pinkies.
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My crickets died at an alarming rate as well, so I added more egg carton. Surprisingly it made a HUGE difference. I have happier more secure feeling crickets that last longer.
First stop feeding the crickets those orange cubes. Gut load them with Repashy's Bug Burger or fresh veggies. I keep mine in a ExoTerra small breeding box with a piece of egg carton. The large ones do not live long, but should be able to get a week or two before they die of old age.
Night crawlers (available at Walmart's sports section) are a good food if your frog will eat them. Ground and aquatic frogs do, but many tree frogs don't. Crickets and all food should be the sized same as distance between frog's mouth. Can cut earthworms from pointy end and they will heal. I rinse the dirt off in dechlorinated water, pat dry with paper towels, dust, and feed them to frog.
Dubias are good feeders available in pet shops or online. If using many, it's economical to culture your own. Good luck !
Remember to take care of the enclosure and it will take care of your frog !
If you were to do roaches I would go with Blatta lateralis over dubia. These guys make a great replacement for crickets and unlike dubia they wont hide 24/7. Check out http://aaronpauling.com
I agree w/Poison on the red runner roaches. It's my main feeders for the AGTF, WTF and toads that I tend to. I get mine at Red Runners (Turkish Roaches) and I've never had any issues.
Rest in peace Rosie 5-31-12
Rest in peace Rufus 2-7-14
Rest in peace Morph 8-14-15
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