How do you all manage to feed your many pets?

[Snapdragon]

I'm just wondering how everyone does it. Do you breed your own crickets, buy in bulk...? When I had a bearded dragon, I was going to the pet store every second day and buying 6 or 7 dozen crickets, at $2.50 a dozen (Canadian). When I moved from my big house to a little apartment, I had to sell my dragon because I had no room for her 75g tank, so now I'm just buying 1 dozen crickets 3 times a week for my leopard gecko, and my baby tarantulas and scorpion are no trouble.

However, I'm going to the CRBE in September, and I'm hoping to come home with a few new reptiles and amphibians, but I'm trying to think about how feeding them will be. Now, I still live with my parents and have to keep all my pets in my room, and there's no garage or anything to keep feeders in, so I'm really curious as to how all of you with many frogs and things deal with your feeders. Any suggestions for how I may be able to feed my pets are welcome as well!

[Kurt]

I buy crickets by the case load and a I culture, fruit flies, bean weevils, and waxworms. I have also cultured meal worms in the past as well.

[bshmerlie]

A case load? How many comes in a case? Eeewww....just a thought... how bad does it smell?

[John]

I buy nightcrawlers from walmart, occasionally some waxworms from a few places, and I culture my own fruit flies.

[pixiefrogman]

I buy crickets from bait shops, they are very cheap there. I get 1,000 adult crickets for $10.00 (US dollars). Although crickets are very easy to breed, if you can handle the smell. I breed mice for my male pyxie and my adult leopard geckos. I also breed mealworms.

[Greatballzofire]

I raise both domestic crickets and black field crickets for my toads. I raise mice for my snakes, and the toads get pinks as an occasional treat. I trade off my surplus crickets and mice for rodent block and other supplies, and sell mice to other snake keepers for cash. So my hobby doesn't cost much, just a little time tending to the critters, mostly.

[bshmerlie]

.....thousands of crickets.....mice....I'm sorry I still can't get past the smell. I'd buy one cricket at a time if it were practical.....Did I mention they... SMELL.
"crickets"

[Ebony]

I breed Locusts and Mealworms. I also have a fly trap. I never run out of food.

Oh...Locusts don't smell. Lol

[Snapdragon]

Thanks everyone, I'm not going to do the fruit flies but I did just read over the cricket culturing guide and am planning on trying that. I can keep them in the shed with some heating and it should be fine. I think the crickets will be enough for most of my feedings since I'll have all sizes, and the occasional mouse, earth worm, or other feeder worm I have to buy should be no problem. I hope all goes well with the crickets, and I hope it saves me a lot of money every week once they're all established!

[Rat The Unloved]

IMO, if a cricket tub is more pungent than a recently worn shoe there's something wrong.

I used to put a few drops of orange or lemon oil (the kind used to make candy) on a cloth and wipe it across the metal screen over the cricket tank. It kept any cricket odor in check, and the room had a fresh, citrus, scent.

[Greatballzofire]

.....thousands of crickets.....mice....I'm sorry I still can't get past the smell. I'd buy one cricket at a time if it were practical.....Did I mention they... SMELL.
"crickets"

LOL! I forgot to mention the mice have a little heated barn in the winter (a converted RV) and a screen tent in the shade in the summer. I keep their tubs clean. The crickets just don't seem to stink; I use vermiculite for them to walk on, and change their vermiculite often enough so wastes don't build up. Anything will stink if it has to live in it's own wastes.