What's up with these crickets?

[deConteville]

I usually keep about five-three crickets for my tarantula. I keep them fed with a tiny water dish and occasionally spread them, also avoiding hitting them with the mist. However; sometimes they die for no apparent reason, and on top of that, seem to vomit this odd black stuff that honestly almost look like worms. I buy them from Petsmart and not all of them die like this, though all of them die with very dark (pretty much pitch black) colouring rather than the tan they originally were.

 

[LeilaNami]

I usually keep about five-three crickets for my tarantula. I keep them fed with a tiny water dish and occasionally spread them, also avoiding hitting them with the mist. However; sometimes they die for no apparent reason, and on top of that, seem to vomit this odd black stuff that honestly almost look like worms. I buy them from Petsmart and not all of them die like this, though all of them die with very dark (pretty much pitch black) colouring rather than the tan they originally were.

Well I can at least tell you the black coloring after they die is caused by heat, humidity, and simple decomposition.

 

[skips]

I'd like to here anybody who has experience with this. I think all of us have kept our share of crickets at some point or another. They sound like very sickly crickets. Do you think they are, in fact, vomiting nematodes of some kind? I've never seen them turn that black even after alot of decomposition. If it were me id stop feeding something as sickly as that to my pets. I know everybody says this, but it would be best to start breeding roaches (I like dubia and lateralis). You'd have your own cheap supply of feeding and you would most definitely be able to gauge their quality.

That being said though, crickets from pet stores are most often kept in very bad conditions and are not very healthy animals themselves. They die all the time just out of the blue.

 

[deConteville]

The problem with breeding cockroaches is I doubt it'd be very welcome here.. It's not up to me at this time even if I myself wouldn't mind. I don't know what they're vomiting, or if they're vomiting anything at all really. I just suspect it's something odd since it's in the region of their mouths once dead. I should probably take pictures sometime.

 

[dendrobate]

Hi,
I was breeding between 250,000 and 500,000 crickets weekly for a few years and never experienced what you have described.I certainly agree with skips, pet stores are idiots with feeders.My guess would be something from the pet store contaminating them.I had a pet store call me one day and said all the crickets I delivered 2 days prior had died. I went there (1 hour away) with a replacement batch.Again about 2 weeks later they called with the same issue yet all my other customers were fine.It turned out that one of the part time kids was cleaning the bins and dishes with a cleaner that had ammonia and other crap in it.
I would suggest doing a leaching style "gut load" as soon as you get them home.Most pet stores use crap potatoes and no water.I never used potatoes, I used apples.Also crickets go crazy for "Oranges and Kiwi".Use distilled water (no chemicals like tap water) with a sponge in the dish.Wait a day or two until the crickets start pooping the color of what you feed them and they should also start to change color a bit.And most important is to clean the container every couple of days.Crickets are like rats they piss all the time and that alone can cause death.
Good luck

 

[kupo969]

Dendrobate has the right idea. I went to a show and spoke to the lady from lucky lure farm and she said the best food to feed them is cat food because of the protein in it (better than dog food). Also, use lots of ventilation, and DO NOT mist them. There are lots of water methods, I just use water crystals from www.watersorb.com.

 

[dendrobate]

Dendrobate has the right idea. I went to a show and spoke to the lady from lucky lure farm and she said the best food to feed them is cat food because of the protein in it (better than dog food). Also, use lots of ventilation, and DO NOT mist them. There are lots of water methods, I just use water crystals from www.watersorb.com.

I did leave that out ,woops. As kupo969 stated , cat food , or chick feed has lots of protein and if I remember correctly duck feed has a very high protien level.I mostly used chick feed due to cost, just remember that if the crickets are small, like pin heads you must crush the feed into a powder since juv crickets cannot break down the feed.healthy feeders = healthy pets. I also used all these feeds for my roaches, especially high protein cat food for roaches

 

[xhexdx]

Maybe I missed it, but if you are buying mature crickets, they may just be dying of old age. They only live several weeks.

 

[skips]

I did leave that out ,woops. As kupo969 stated , cat food , or chick feed has lots of protein and if I remember correctly duck feed has a very high protien level.I mostly used chick feed due to cost, just remember that if the crickets are small, like pin heads you must crush the feed into a powder since juv crickets cannot break down the feed.healthy feeders = healthy pets. I also used all these feeds for my roaches, especially high protein cat food for roaches

That's what I feed, ground cat food and corn meal. Corn meal is ridiculously cheap and cat food isnt so bad when you're mixing the two.

Dendrobate, do you keep dart frogs? I've got a few cobalts. They're definately my favorites.