Every time I come back from the pet store and carefully prepare my crickets with a clean, well-fed home with water the next day at least 4 or 5 are dead. I don't know if the others are eating them before I can feed my lizard or what is happening here. And, I always only by about 30 at a time and end up with only 20 good ones to feed my lizard. Their wings appear to be eaten at and their legs are sometimes eaten at....YUCK! I have cardboard and the gutload food and everything in there.

I hate having to go to buy crickets every few days. What is everyone else doing that seems to be working? Has anyone had their crickets delivered via online purchases? Thanks!

I go through the same thing. I buy mine in 500 lots and always by the next day there's 30-40 dead.

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "

Crickets have often been in the pet shop for a few days by the time you buy them, and pet shops rarely if ever gutload them. This coupled with the short lifespan of crickets mean that a few will die off. Also, they are cannibalistic so they will eat each other, to reduce this provide them with fruit and veg, which will gutload them, and give them a larger container with places to climb and hide to get away from each other.

We buy online, however we are in the UK so can't speak for over there, but the crickets that arrive are often much healthier and live longer. We put them in a large plastic box, with egg cartons to climb on and hide in, and feed them on pro-grub and various veg like squash and greens. They live well at room temp (70-80f) and are fine for over a week, although most of them die within a few days from being fed to the animals ofcourse

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

Same here too, I always have quite a few that die, think they must have a coronary or something due to decent grub, as the petshops never gutload....

Your beared dragons are adorable! Your website is so cute.

I had caught me one (beared dragon) back in 1984 while I was living in Australia and we tamed him. Of course it was devistating when I left four months later and had to leave him.

Thankyou very much,

I buy mine in bulk also. I have 14 geckos so its a lot cheaper than buying them at the pet store. I could just picture the persons face a the pet store if I asked the for 500 crickets . I have a ten gallon tank with an under tank heater. Just put a couple egg cartons on one side and cover them with a papertowel and the veggies and cricket food in a dish on the other side. I spray the papertowel everyday to keep the tank humid. I've found out from experience that they need moisture, otherwise I end up with half of them dead by the next day. and they need warmth. if you get really ambitious you can raise your own. i've started doing that.

That's interesting, I have found the opposite, and in my experience too much moisture kills them. We are always careful to keep the fruit and veg away from the pro-grub that we feed them, as when it has mixed in the past the dampness has caused the crickets to die off. Same with the amonia - if we leave the boxes properly shut the crickets' wee causes them to die, presumably from the moisture it causes. We now leave the lid half off so that plenty of fresh air can get into the box.

I have also read that crickets do better in warmer temps, but over summer last year most of ours died off due to the hot weather. When we put them in the cellar, where it was quite cool, they slowed down and lived longer. They do brilliantly in our house now, which is around 70f on average at the moment. Good luck with the cricket raising by the way, keep wanting to have a go but haven't got round to it yet. I'm too busy catching all the ones that escape!

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

What jody forgot to say was the 10g tank has a screened lid, so theres lots of air transfer and it being winter the humidity in the air is rather low. But think of where these rotten boogers hide, dark damp places.

Jody has on a number of occasions tried to prrove me wrong by not putting the wet papertowels in the tank mostly with disasterous results.

Someday she'll realize I'm always right LMAO.

And ecapeees are a constant thing, I dont even try to catch them, the dog eats them lol

LOL,,,,,my dogs do the same !!!!

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "