What's a cheaper food source than crickets?

[Curb71]

My 4 bufo boreas toads are about golf ball size or bigger and love to eat and soak. they can literally eat more food per day than myself dollar for dollar. They are big enough to eat large crickets now and I've been buying crickets by the 500 and noticing about 50-100 seem to die within a week. Is there something I can give them that will cost me less money? They will eat about $5/day if I give it to them in crickets. What about buying and chopping up some giant worms or beetles or anything else that will save me a few bucks?

[Squirp]

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.

[Wormwood]

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.

[Kurt]

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

[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 !!!

[kueluck]

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!!

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 !!!

[Mentat]

...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.