crickets dying

Discussion in 'Feeder Forum' started by lizardgurl87, Jun 26, 2011.

  1. lizardgurl87

    lizardgurl87 HOTM Winner April

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    so, i got 24 crickets a few days ago and i've only fed my lizard prob 6 of them so far, but there's only 2 left and it's because the rest died. How can u keep them alive, i have the special gel stuff for them 2 eat, but it started 2 leak and i think the drowned in it? so, i wiped up all the liquid so they wouldn't drown and 2day there are 5 dead, but it's not liquidy at all-they just died. It could be the container i'm keeping them in cause i couldn't afford a cricket keeper yet, so i just have them in a plastic container with holes in the top(the same container they gave me 2 take my anole home in)
    my friend has them in a plastic container, but with an upside-down egg carton, should i use that?
     
  2. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  3. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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    Crickets are fairly simple to keep alive and maintain once you have a good setup and routine, but they are a more fragile feeder species. Ideally, you want the following things for cricket keeping:

    -Something to house them in. This can be a plastic bin, kritter keeper, aquarium, etc. I always recommend plastic storage bins such as those made by rubbermaid and sterlite due to cost and their light weight. A 10 gallon bin or aquarium will house at least 1000 adult crickets, so you can adjust the size accordingly based on your needs.

    -Hides. You crickets will feel secure if they have something they can grip on and hide in. Egg flats are the universal feeder insect hide (those derived from pulp/cardboard like). You can also use TP/paper towel rolls or something to that nature.

    -Food. You will need a dry feed source for your crickets to both keep them alive and to pack them full of nutrients when feeding your herp (called "gutloading"). Dry feeds can be anything from baby cereal with no sugar added, to cat and dog food, fish flakes, and chicken starter.

    -Moisture. You don't need to buy the expensive gel at pet stores, in fact, much of this is useless and can contain ingrediants that in my experience kill crickets more than actually keep them alive. All feeder insects need for moisture is plant matter: this can be typical vegetables and dark leafy greens. These will double up in acting as a moisture/food source for the insect while still being a good gutload to benefit the herp.
     
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  4. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  5. spaceboy

    spaceboy Well-Known Member

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    Well I'm no expert but three things you need to keep crickets alive are food, moisture and shelter. egg cartons are great,because they can hide underneath them. You can also put in empty toilet rolls or crumbled together news paper. I think that they get very stressed if they have nowhere to hide and can actually die from that!
    As a source of moisture for my crix I use a bit of toilet paper that I keep moist with a spray-thingy (im tired, lol). And when it comes to food I use gutload and veggies.

    I usually buy 150 crix at once, they survive for several weeks and at the end maybe 20-30 are dead. When I'm not gonna feed my reptiles for a couple of days I keep them in the fridge so they sleep, to make them "last longer".

    I hope someone else has something to chip in with, I shared a bit of my knowledge but i'm positive a lot more ppl here know more about crick-keeping than me :)
     
  6. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  7. spaceboy

    spaceboy Well-Known Member

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    well.. there you go haha :D!
     
  8. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  9. lizardgurl87

    lizardgurl87 HOTM Winner April

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    thanks, it turns out 4 my bday, my friend got me a kricket-keeper 2day lol(she got me mostly suppies 4 my lizard), i put the "gut-loading gel" in 2 little containers it came with, so it wont get all over and they hide in the tubes it has. They wouldn't all come off of the egg-carton in the container they came in, so i left those ones in the container 2 see how tht works out 2
     
  10. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  11. Hannimal

    Hannimal New Member

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    I have a leopard gecko who eats crickets and mine also kept dying. Now they are thriving and also multiplying. I feed them apple bits and lettuce. I keep them in a simple "cricket keeper" with card board bits for flooring and egg cartons for housing. Before I put them in the cricket keeper, i put a small amount of water in it and the card board and egg cartons soak the water up so it it moist in the keeper. How I got them to multiply was very simple. I kept the cricket keeper close to my gecko's heating lamp and put the egg cartons on the side of the container that faces the lamp, because the cricket eggs hatch when they are in a warm place, so now they are doing great.
     
  12. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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    That's interesting, Hannimal. Where do the crickets lay their eggs? I've kept tens of thousands of these guys and could never encourage reproduction without soil or some substrate somewhere in the enclosure for the females to lay eggs with their ovipositors...and even still it was a hassle getting them to hatch in the enclosure without males digging up the eggs and eating them (and keeping them moist enough). I really never had that great of an interest in breeding them, but made a couple of attempts just for the heck of it. Does the moistened egg flats and cardboard make for a decent laying ground?

    Also, I'd be careful allowing water to soak into your cardboard, etc that the crickets live on. This can be a breeding ground for bacteria and can encourage mold growth unless it dries out fairly quickly (as yours likely does with the aid of a heat lamp). If you only let a small, controllable area become damp that shouldn't be a problem, but I wanted to clarify for anyone else reading: Don't want people dumping water all over their crickets lol ;)
     
  13. Hannimal

    Hannimal New Member

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    Mine have made little piles of cardboard to lay eggs in and some have laid eggs in the egg things. I don't get the cardboard too wet but when it is wet it dries up within a day or two:D
     
  14. lizardgurl87

    lizardgurl87 HOTM Winner April

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    Hannimal, I'll try that, since I have a cricket keeper now anyways and it would be much easier if they reproduced so I wouldn't have 2 go out and buy some every week!
     
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  15. jakewevers

    jakewevers New Member

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    Crickets need water, but too much moisture in the air will kill them. They need places to hide also, but if they get over crowded they will eat each other. If you can't afford a cricket keeper, you can use any container, just make sure it has enough ventilation for air to easily pass through and enough hiding space. Using oatmeal as a substrate helps too. It hides the odor but more importantly keeps the crickets from scurrying around in their feces and eating them.
     
  16. lizardgurl87

    lizardgurl87 HOTM Winner April

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    Well, I have a cricket keeper and put their food in containers, not as many die as much at all than when I posted this. The main problem now is that it's getting colder and I think the temp might be affecting them.
     

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