I order 1000 every month and rarely lose any.

I have a rubbermaid container with lots of cardboard egg cartons. A 40 watt bulb on them on a timer for 12 hours on, and I feed lots of fresh veggies and some cat kibble. I also have fresh water for them. I clean the container once a month in between shipments with a 1-10 bleach solution. I have no top on the container, since the sides are slippery and they can't get up. This provides good airflow. They need good airflow.

You might have a bad supplier. There is one store in town I used to get crickets from and half would be dead by the time I got home, much less in a week.

Now I have so many mouths to feed, I bulk order. its $30 for 1000 crickets overnighted and with the heat right now, you need to overnight them. That's 3 cents a cricket.

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

There's another option as well. If you don't want to order large quantities, and you're sure that your supplier isn't the problem, you could try a cricket keeper. It's a small little plastic thing that holds the crickets and has places for them to hide. They can't escape, and nothing can get it. These are very helpful. I use it and have never had a problem.

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Once you turn Mac, you never look back.

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.” -- Ayn Rand

I use something similar, just without the tubes. In fact, I think it's called medium critter keeper. It has a vented top and a clear plastic hatch type door. I use a few pieces of egg crate for hides and a small tupperware dish for the gel water stuff and a milk jug lid for the cricket food. I get 140-150 every 2 weeks for all my froggy buddies. Works great for me.

Also, very important, DO NOT feed them calcium if you want to keep them any longer than 24 hours. I never feed my crickets any artificial foods or anything. When I need the extra vitamins for my frogs I dust with powder. Calcium WILL KILL crickets.

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

i only tried feeding crickets calcium once... and they lived longer then the rest of them... lol wierd...

wow I got more crickets and decieded not to give them food and water... and they have lived longer that the ones I fed...

maby the food I have is bad...

who knows lol, the crickets havnt eaten scince I got them a while ago and none of them have died... that and I kept them in the bag they came in instead of the little cage I cept them in...

this is kinda wierd...