TLDR; Long story, for question skip to the BOLD

Happy to say I found a reasonable place for all types of feeders in my town.

I'm not saying online is bad, it's just hard for my life to accommodate some of the restrictions put on the ordering. Such as being home when the crickets come. Well that's not always, and usually not possible for me. I have a random schedule and never know what's going to happen.

But the other day I stumbled upon a pet store that was a bit cheaper than the big stores around. At PetSmart and other chain stores it usually ran me 10$/100 crickets or so, when they weren't out of stock. Always a big issue. Then I had to sub with various worms, which were much more expensive, and The Dude didn't seem to respond to as well.

So I started paying $5/100 here, they haven't ran out thus far either. Well I started making a regular appearance in there, and they said "Do you have a card?" Well no I didn't, and didn't know what they were. I figured it to be like a pet perks card, that really doesn't do anything at all for you. But I was wrong. They keep track of your feeder buying on index cards, as well as let you put money down. So if you're not sure you'll have 10$ next week, but do have it this week. Well you're covered for next week, without having to try and keep crickets alive. In addition they give you bonus crickets, semi randomly. They sometimes say for being a loyal customer they threw a few extra in. I've counted as many as 50 extra.

I just like it when I find things I can do in my hometown, that not only make me happy, but hometown people as well. They seem to breed their own feeders, and have tons of different kinds. Worms, pinkies, crickets, larvae etc. so thought I'd share my joy with the community.

As for my question, my Chinese Water Dragon seems to attract more to crickets dusted with the calcium powder. And I'm convinced it's just because of the lighter coloring, contrasts so heavily around the environment. The calcium dust is white of course, and the MultiV dust is very much the same color as the crickets. I was curious if mixing a bit of flour in with the MultiV would be ok, or if there was anything else that would give it a lighter coloring and just let The Dude eat more efficiently. I know that giving too much calcium powder is bad, so I haven't even thought of extra dustings with that. If flour is deemed inappropriate, and there is no alternative. Not a big deal. I just figured anything to make his life easier is worth doing.

I solved my not being home for the cricket delivery, by putting a cooler out on the front porch with a note on it. I put an ice block in it to keep the critters cool and it worked great. In the winter, I'll put a hot water bottle in it instead.

Unlike you, I don't have a great place to purchase bugs. The few places I do have, it seems like I lose 50% of them to death. This batch I got online is nice and healthy.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

We have the same situation here. Our local herp shop lets you "pre order" crickets and just marks them off the card when you come get them. I pay $40for 1000 on the card. Makes things much simpler.

Your observation on the white colored crickets being more visible to the dragon is correct. That is why albino animals don't generally last long in the wild.
I wouldn't worry about coloring the crickets. Sounds like he is doing just fine.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I'm glad you found such a great solution to your problem. I have a little pet store here, but they're really awful. I wish we had one like yours here.

I'd check with a vet before using flour. I don't know that it would be a good thing for the water dragon to have on a daily basis, but I'm definitely no expert. I would say I agree with Merlin, though. The white is more visible, but he'll find and catch the darker colored crickets too. You don't need to lighten them up.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.