Questions regrading crickets for Ts?

[Benny]

Hi, I'm doing an investigation on the longevity of crickets and would like to ask some questions relating to food for feeder crickets. You can be as specific as you want.

1. What type of food do you feed them? Fruits/vegetables/legumes/etc? Which do you prefer?
2. Do you add any supplements their diet?
3. How often do you swap their food?

Thanks :biggrin:

 

[Will240393]

Make sure they're in a well ventilated enclosure and that it's warm, i use bug gel for water and bug grub for feed all of which i can buy from my local pet store but i'm in the uk so maybe you'd have to buy it online or something.

I managed to raise all my crickets to adulthood this way.

 

[Rixo]

I just recently started feeding them lettuce, which they love, supposedly a good source of water for them too so I don't usually give them gel.
It's a recent change of about a week and they seem lively, few are dead..

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Poec54]

No need for gel. They can get all their water from romaine lettuce, carrots, & potatoes. Don't overdo it with these, they don't need a lot. Avoid mushy fruits and vegetables as they make a mess and draw flies. Crickets to be be warm and dry. A humid, stuffy cage will kill them in droves. I keep mine in large clear plastic storage boxes with a couple sheets of paper towels on the bottom. NO substrate! Cricket cages need to be cleaned often, and you'll only have to keep replacing substrate. If the substrate is at all moist, it'll kill the crickets. I use a wet paper towel to clean the bottom of the cricket cage. It quickly gets full of feces, old sheds, dead crickets, & uneaten food scattered around.

Only feed them what they'll eat in a couple days, no need to 'swap' food. Few people use supplements. You do want them getting calcium (bad for inverts) an you don't know which species may be sensitive to too much of certain nutrients.

 

[nicolevins]

1. I feed mine oatmeal or bran, scattered across the bottom of the enclosure. For added nutrients and moisture/water, I always use carrots and potato. Occasionally I add an apple slice. I replace the veg every 2 days.

2. Nope.

3. I clean/change food every 5 days or so.

I keep mine housed in the tub they come in as I'm rather careless about insects and I don't mind buying more when they die out. I'm only keeping tarantulas 3 years and I have been using this care method for crickets for this length with zero ill effects. I have noticed sometimes that they will drink water from the tarantulas tank but I'd never feel the need to supply a water dish into the cricket tub, as they seem to survive fine on vegetables and crickets are rather dirty creatures anyway. Paper towels/egg cartons are best for hiding spots and they're good to climb on.

 

[Bugmom]

1. I toss cricket gel in a small bowl in the cricket tub when I notice it's empty.
2. Nope.
3. See #1.

I have 60+ fangs to feed plus the gecko. The "longevity" of my feeders is usually measured by "how hungry is the animal." They don't live long enough at my house to bother with anything but cricket gel. Heck half+ never even see the inside of the cricket tub.

 

[ZergFront]

I've given my 250+ adult crickets that I bought containers of damp substrate to lay eggs in (think I bought them in April?) and this week I have at least 3,000 pinheads in one of the XL Kritter Keepers and still have hatchings. The large plastic bins I kept the adults are too easy to escape for pinheads. They can't get a good grip on the sides of the KK. Plus this cage has great ventilation.

I have them set up in about 2" of vermiculite for substrate to absorb odor. TP/paper towel tubes, egg crates and ziplock bag boxes for hiding. I give them about 3-5 different things to munch on at a time and change it out every two days since I don't give them a water source. Way too dumb to have one. So far I've been feeding them lettuce, bread, cut cherries, potatoes, cantelope, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, thawed corn and peaches. I still get a few deaths from them getting trapped on food but not as many as when they were getting trapped underneath the paper towel I used to use for bedding.

If I want them to have supplements for my reptiles, I take out what I need and only give that colony calcium and vitamin dustings in their food.