What's a cheaper food source than crickets?

Cheapest would be earthworms, all you'd have to do is go outside and turn over some dirt.
I never cut them up, my toads like their worms fresh and lively, so they have something to wrestle with, it keeps them in shape.

Pill bugs/isopods/woodlice/rolypoly are also very cheap, go out into the woods and kick and old dead log.
woodlice are also a very easy culture to raise, they eat rotten vegetables, just get a container, dirt, maybe some crumpled cardboard for coverage, and keep one spot damp. They are also a rather meticulous and clean creature, not to mention the extra calcium is their shell will make them an ideal snack for your toads.

considering your climate, assuming you are still in your Fahrenheit's sixties an interesting trick would be to lay down a wet loose newspaper in a shaded spot. return the following day and see what kind of selection of creatures you see fit to sentence to death.

You can keep crickets alive longer by supplying them with cut up potatos for water and dried cat food for feed. My boxes live a long time without canibalization.

I would add carrots, as they are another good food to include into the crickets' diet.

I'm in the same boat as you , after alittle bit of research , it looks like crickets are an old school feeder , perhaps that's why they are almost $30-1000 shipped now. I've also discovered that you can get 1000 turkish or dubia roaches for about $20 , looks like the mortality rate is very low compared to crickets . It looks like the majority of the folks that keep insectivores have gone to roaches . I think I'm going to convert !!!

I care for 2 toads & 2 grey tree frogs and I'm done with the crickets. All have taken to the dubia & turkish roaches and yes, the mortality rate is much better than crickets. Plus the roaches don't bit your amphibians like crickets do. I never thougth I would say this.......but I love the roaches!!

Originally Posted by Reggie

I'm in the same boat as you , after alittle bit of research , it looks like crickets are an old school feeder , perhaps that's why they are almost $30-1000 shipped now. I've also discovered that you can get 1000 turkish or dubia roaches for about $20 , looks like the mortality rate is very low compared to crickets . It looks like the majority of the folks that keep insectivores have gone to roaches . I think I'm going to convert !!!

I have sugar gliders at home and they love to eat meal worms and it is very easy to start a meal worm farm i mean so EASY! All you do is buy a container at the petstore and put them in a little plastic box with a lid and bran meal u can get from a mill for 25 cents a lb and let them turn into larva they will look durasic in this stage and barely move then place the larva in a small container untill the turn into beetles then let the beetle mate in a seperate container in about two months u will start to see the bran move around with tiny little meal worms n they keep growing n growing n transforming. Very easy u literally leave them n a few months u have a boat load of mealworms you wont have enough to feed to your frogs; i feed some of mine to the birds outside...lol!

Originally Posted by leahburk

I have sugar gliders at home and they love to eat meal worms and it is very easy to start a meal worm farm i mean so EASY! All you do is buy a container at the petstore and put them in a little plastic box with a lid and bran meal u can get from a mill for 25 cents a lb and let them turn into larva they will look durasic in this stage and barely move then place the larva in a small container untill the turn into beetles then let the beetle mate in a seperate container in about two months u will start to see the bran move around with tiny little meal worms n they keep growing n growing n transforming. Very easy u literally leave them n a few months u have a boat load of mealworms you wont have enough to feed to your frogs; i feed some of mine to the birds outside...lol!

Mealworms are not a good staple. The chitin that their exoskeleton is made from is very difficult for frogs and toads to digest. They can cause imaction and death if fed in large numbers. The same goes for super worms which are a giant mealworm. I hear dubia roaches are the way to go and earthworms/night crawlers. They live longer and are a much more nutritious food source.

Originally Posted by Reggie

...I've also discovered that you can get 1000 turkish or dubia roaches for about $20...

Hell of a deal! Can get 1K crickets for $20 or 500 large Canadian night crawlers for $60; but adult Dubias are very expensive locally. Plan to mail order a starter colony for $60 and raise my own roaches soon.

Reggie,
I just got my shipment of 2,000 turkish roaches shipped from TX to NC for $33 which also included a heat pack. There were no DOA in the entire batch. I only have 2 grey tree frogs & 2 toads to feed, these will last me forever.

Gail ,
PM me with the companies name and info. I would love to take a look at what a local would have . Thanks a million !

The roaches sound like a better idea. except since my toads live on about 3-4" of coco fiber bark, wouldnt the roaches just dig down and be gone? the crickets are dumb enough to just walk around the surface until they get spotted and ambushed.

Originally Posted by kueluck

Reggie,
I just got my shipment of 2,000 turkish roaches shipped from TX to NC for $33 which also included a heat pack. There were no DOA in the entire batch. I only have 2 grey tree frogs & 2 toads to feed, these will last me forever.

could you PM me the info too? sounds like a good idea!

Dubia roaches all the way.
I use them for toads and tarantulas.
They are easy to breed, easy to gutload, not smelling, and SLOW moving(very important feature in roaches)
You can breed them at room temp in a large storage box. just eggcrates and dubias.
Feed them fruit, vegs, catfood, pigfood, or any dry protein rich pellets.

I sent the info to ya. The Turkish roaches don't dig down and bury themselves like the dubia do. They do run and hide but come out when it's dark and the toads & frogs enjoy hunting them. But I serve mine to the toads in a glass dish sunk into the ground and they seem to know where to find them, but then I always have wanderers so they can hunt them down. My frogs I hand feed since I haven't seen them ever go to the glass dish, but I keep some in there just in case they they get hunger during the night when I'm not up. For me it's easier to just order some instead of raising them since I'm feeding 4 amphibians.

Originally Posted by Curb71

The roaches sound like a better idea. except since my toads live on about 3-4" of coco fiber bark, wouldnt the roaches just dig down and be gone? the crickets are dumb enough to just walk around the surface until they get spotted and ambushed.




could you PM me the info too? sounds like a good idea!

Here's a pic of Rufus ready for "roach down in glass", get it, roach down in glass like pheasant under glass. I crack myself up!!

I've been trying to find a good alternate to crickets for my toad since all my crickets keep dying. I am rather interested in these roaches. What stores sell them? And how many do you feed a day to a small sized toad?

most "stores" don't sell them. you can call the local smaller pet stores in your area and ask if they can special order them for you but they are rather expensive. Other option is finding them online like Gail above mentioned.
As far as how many, toads will stop eating when they are full. when you say small I remember the old fruit fly days so not sure without something to compare it to.

I get mine from Welcome to Gulf Coast Crickets - I love this place and my toads love the roaches also. I put them in a bowl and let them eat what they want to. I change out the roaches each night so they have fresh ones. And roaches are sooo much easier to take care of, don't smell, and don't die off like crickets do.

I breed my own lobster roaches and dubia roaches. They are extremely easy to culture. Water + Heat + Food = Unlimited numbers of roaches.

I've heard turkish roaches (red runners) can breed at room temperature, which makes them a possible threat for infestation if they got loose in your house.

Lobster roaches and dubia have to be hot to breed, so escapees are much less likely to reproduce.

I'd be happy to ship you several thousand lobster roaches to get a colony started for super cheap, PM me if you're interested. I don't have any dubia to spare (they breed much slower than the lobsters)

Originally Posted by Curb71

The roaches sound like a better idea. except since my toads live on about 3-4" of coco fiber bark, wouldnt the roaches just dig down and be gone? the crickets are dumb enough to just walk around the surface until they get spotted and ambushed.

Yes, they will burrow. I feed all of my animals with forceps. This way I don't have to worry about escapee roaches, plus I get to bond with my animals a little more than I would by dumping the food in and leaving.