Crickets....

[genious_gr]

Hi. I just got my first crickets yesterday. Itried to give them some
of my dog's food but after 5 minutes the whole room was smellin like
it so I gave up the idea.... Would it work if I gave them some flour
with sugar and canary vitamin????
Any other non-smelling ideas are welcome....

 

[Vys]

Whatever vegetables and/or fruits you can find, I suppose. Mine didn't seem to dig black grapes, in fact they died, but that might have been pesticides on them or something else .
Other than that, they do like lettuce and cereal. As someone said before, i'ts neat hearing them crunch cornflakes,

 

[steve055]

Go to a feed store and get some non medicated chicken feed, and grind it up. You can also add calcuim and types of supplements to the mix. Thats pretty much the same stuff they sell as cricket feed at the pet store.

 

[Marc_C]

It's just an idea , but you could get some vanilla or vanilla sugar and mix it in with the food to mask the smell a bit. I've dont it befroe and it worked for me.
Marcus-Sparkus

 

[genious_gr]

thanks. I think I'll go get some corn flour and blend in anything nutricius I've got home...

 

[bwhatch2]

Originally posted by genious_gr
Itried to give them some of my dog's food but after 5 minutes the whole room was smellin like it so I gave up the idea.... Would

ummm, hey if your dog food is "smelling up" a whole room there is definately something wrong with the dog food. if the very small amount needed to feed crickets smells that bad i sure wouldnt feed it to your dog. anyway...... as far as what to feed them, well.....ummmm....huh? dog food and and an occasional piece of fruit is all i ever use.

bryan

 

[genious_gr]

I had made it dust-like confused: whats the word....) and it smelled quite a bit but I quess it was the crickets as well that gave my room that great parfum.....
Little stinckers...... They are now dying one after another.... I don't know whats wrong....I took some of the biggest and more active ones in anther smaller tank to watch them more carefully but I keep finding dead ones in the bigger one... any ideas of what could be wrong??????

 

[bwhatch2]

Originally posted by genious_gr
I had made it dust-like confused: whats the word....) and it smelled quite a bit but I quess it was the crickets as well that gave my room that great parfum.....
Little stinckers...... They are now dying one after another.... I don't know whats wrong....I took some of the biggest and more active ones in anther smaller tank to watch them more carefully but I keep finding dead ones in the bigger one... any ideas of what could be wrong??????

hey genious, dust-like seems to be a good word. most likely as you said it was the crickets that smelled, they tend to do that. i have been trying to raise my own crickets for awhile. while i can easily get plenty of pinners i seem to have the most trouble keeping them alive until they are old enough to lay eggs. 3 things i have noticed that seem to cause them to die off quickly are
1> not using a substrate. it seems that crickets kept without substrate die much quicker than those on a substrate. i have tried many different substrates with different moisture levels, from bone dry to soaking wet, and none seem to be any better than another. so one possiblity could be that your not using a substrate.
2> lack of moisture (not to be confused with humidity) anytime ive let my crickets go for more than a couple of days without either a water dish or fruit for moisture (i prefer fruit) they died right off.
3> tempature. it seems like <75f and they die quick, >80f and they live a lot longer.

these certainly arent hard facts, just a few things i have noticed over the last year trying to raise my own, im sure others have had different results.

hope this helped a little

bryan

 

[genious_gr]

Hmmmmm, I always have a slice of fruit in there, and the temperature is usually high cause I keep them next to the ....
( what's the word....) RADIATOR
What substrate would you suggest????

 

[Vys]

Hmm, I have a pair of crickos that my were bought as big ones sometime in november. They've had temperatures around 72 F most of the time. Although they were 5 from the beginning, they weren't very peaceful with eachother

These are black field-crickets though, if that matters.

 

[bwhatch2]

Originally posted by genious_gr
Hmmmmm, I always have a slice of fruit in there, and the temperature is usually high cause I keep them next to the ....
( what's the word....) RADIATOR
What substrate would you suggest????

i use a 30/70 peat/vermiculite mix. as somebody else pointed out the age and type of cricket could be a factor to. if your crickets are allready chirping when you get them they are about to die anyway. and im sure different types of cickets require different care. i dont know about where you at, but here crickets are pretty cheap, if they are cheap there to about the best i can tell you is just keep experimenting with different methods until you find one that works for you..

bryan

 

[WolfMemnoch]

Sometimes it also helps to pop an old 'T.P. tube' or equivalent in there so they aren't "running over" one another.

Otherwise, I've observed pretty much the same as what you described bwjunk2, a combo of temp, moisture, and substrate. Somewhere within is the key. Crazy little buggers...

 

[atavuss]

I keep my crickets in the garage, if you don't keep the enclosure clean they will stink no matter what you feed them. I use no substrate for ease of cleaning. I use the cheapest fish food I can find. for water I use the "jell" type cricket water that I buy dry in bulk and hydrate as needed. I use egg crates for them to hide in.
Ed

 

[Valael]

Ventilation makes a *LOT* of difference, too. If you don't give them any, they die. Give them a lot and they'll live a lot longer.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Flukers makes a cricket feed, for gut loading but I don't know if anybody has posted that. It's dry and hard, so I can't imagine it stinking. It's high in calcium, and up's the vitamin/mineral content (gut loading) before a feeding and usually comes in 10.5 oz, 5lb, 25lb. They also make Cricket-Chow but the smallest it comes in is 5lb

Flukers cricket food Product

You'd have to check and see if they ship international

 

[genious_gr]

Good idea... I won't have to order that. There's a pet store that if i can remember right imports fluker's goods....