Frozen Crickets - YUM!

[Gail]

Well, I'm just all in the mood for trying new things this weekend I've been thinking about the fact that my T's will eat thawed mice, so why not thawed crickets? (In fact I seem to remember someone here saying something about frozen crix a while back.) I mean, if I can just buy my crix, toss em in the freezer then seperate them into nice little freezer containers and only take out what I need just imagine it - NO MORE STINKY CRICKETS. And if I can do that with all my roaches too - NO MORE TUBS AND TUBS OF ROACHES. So I devised a little test. I froze some nice fat crix, pre-killed some crix and roaches and went about feeding my clan. They ate with relish - in fact, several of them seemed happier with the dead stuff! I decided to try this after reading in one of the new books I got from the ATS that tarantulas are seen to feed on road kills in South America. Now, I'll need to keep a few live crix and waxworms / moths for my frogs and aboreal T's but as of tonight I am through with all the damn tubs of crix and roaches! I look at it this way - I will now have more time to spend with the spiders since I won't have to spend all that time on cleaning and feeding their food! I am one happy camper here. And as for the slings - the pigs were happier to take a thawed and totally motionless crix that was 3 times their size than to try to jump on a crix half their size with it's head pinched that still had some life in it. Just thought I'd share for all of those who may hate crix stink as much as I do
Another bonus is that I'll never have to worry about a crix attack my spiders again, he he he.

Gail

 

[MrT]

Your the one Gail,

I'm going to give it a try too.
Crickets are the bane of this hobby.

Ernie

 

[Botar]

I recently purchase some of the new cricket buckets from LLL Reptile Supply that seem to work great. For those of you who haven't seen them, they are a small bucket with a cardboard tube through a hole in the top. There are also ventilation holes in the top as well. The outside of the tube is slick and the crickets can't climb it, but they climb up inside. When you want some crickets, you just pull out the tube and shake it over a cup and the crickets drop in for dispensing. It works great for the adults and pinheads. I put them on dry topsoil with a milk jug lid of food and another one with CM's water crystals. I've had very little die-off and as long as you remove any dead (only two in two weeks) there is no odor. Word of warning the large buckets are really small, so I would imagine the "smalls" would be completely useless. That being said, I've put about 3 dozen adult crickets in the bucket with tremendous success.

Now I've got crickets, meal worms, and lobster roaches going for a variety of food items for my T's. I'm hoping to be self reliant before long.

Botar

 

[Gail]

I should have continued reading in my Marshall manuel from the ATS. After he mentions the spiders eating at road kills he went on the say that perhaps freezing crickets for later use would be a good idea. Hey, if the ATS promotes it, it must be good
I froze up most of my roaches and crix last night and put them up into handy little snack packs which I then put into heavy plastic snap top freezer storage containers. I figure they should keep at least as long as pinkies. And let me tell you - those roaches and crix were taking up a whole heck of a lot of room! Now I have more space for my spiders - he he he

Gail

 

[Vayu Son]

><

Part of the joys of this hobby for me is watching the T's hunt/kill their prey. But otherwise i think its a good idea, better than smushing their heads with tweezers... Picture perfect scenario is sending your date or friend to get icecream from the freezer, and then watching their expression as thousands of frozen roaches and little inverts stare out at them with reproachful glares.


-V

 

[conipto]

Hey Gail,

They just ate the dead crickets without having to make them look active or anything? I mean, you didn't have to play marionettes with the cricket corpses or anything? did you let em warm up first, or just toss cricketsicles in the cages?

Bill

 

[Vayu Son]

><

Tarantulas have pretty amazing chem-receptors that aid them in determining whats edible or not. The only success ive had when ive dangled something in front of my T's is a very pissy spider. They will almost always take dead prey.


-V

 

[Gail]

Vayu is right - they can "smell" what is good to eat and what's not. (One reason I always wash my hands very well before handling any spider if I've been handling food items or another spider.) I put the frozen crix onto a paper towel and sit it on my desk under my hologen desklamp for a few minutes until they are thawed and slightly warm. I just fed my slings a few minutes ago and I cut the head / leg section of off a full grown lobster roach and offered the fat 1" long bum section to a 1/2" pink zebra beauty sling. The sling grabbed it and was trying to drag it into it's hole LOL - it reminded me of a comedy skit I saw once about an ant walking up onto the hand of a sleeping man and laughing manacially as it said "THIS HAND IS MINE".

Gail

 

[JacenBeers]

When i still lived with my parents in high school we had a lizard named ITchy and we never bought crickets for it. My mom would pay my sister and I to go out in a field and gather hundreds of grasshoppers in a bucket. If we filled a bucket she would give us 40 dollars and that only took like two hours of running around catching those vile little beasts. After we did three or four buckets she would put them in the deep freeze and muder them. Then whenever she needed food over the winter she would just open up a bucket and throw in a handful of frozen grasshoppers and Itchy would feast.

 

[Al Muoio]

Dead crix

Hi Gail, after reading your post I felt I had to try feeding dead crix. My G. rosea was 1/4 way out of her burrow(with egg sac) so I dropped a dead crix by the entrance. I left for a while and when I got back she had helped herself to an easy snack. I will be trying this method of feeding for all of my T's except for the Avic. I guess it wouldnt work for HIM. Yes, I knoticed he now has mateing claws. Surprise surprise!

 

[Botar]

Re: Dead crix

Originally posted by Al Muoio
I guess it wouldnt work for HIM. Yes, I knoticed he now has mateing claws. Surprise surprise!

Time to send him on "The Love Tour"... I wish I had a mature female for him.

Botar

 

[galeogirl]

I tried this with pinheads for my really small ts and it worked great! No more trying to wrangle tiny crickets from a large container into a small vial or deli cup.

I have to give Immortal_sin credit, she's the one who suggested it to me.

 

[Gail]

Re: Re: Dead crix

Originally posted by Botar
Time to send him on "The Love Tour"... I wish I had a mature female for him.

Botar

That's a good one Botar - had me cracking up.

Gail

 

[kreuz]

sorry for digging out such an old thread! but I was wondering if anyone has experience with feeding dead cricktes to tree dwelling species, since I mainly own treedwellers. does it not work at all? I would be especially interested in Avi and Poecis!

 

[Alice]

i prekill most prey for my arboreal slings as well. it works fine, but only as long as you have a place in their web where you can deposit a dead prey item. most often they shoot out of their tubes and grab it immediately. they often don't find it on the ground however.

and it gets more difficult with adults, so i mostly feed them live prey.