Advice Needed: BLACK Crickets

[YankeeChops]

I just ordered 1000 black crickets online and I was wondering if anyone has any tips/suggestions for keeping them alive!! I have several large tanks I can use, so I can put them in there as soon as they arrive. I just want to make sure they don’t die as I have never had this many crickets at once!

What is a good to gut load them with? I am using salad greens, oranges and "R-Zilla Cricket Drink Gut Gut Load" for my brown crickets. Suggestions much appreciated! =)

Thanks guys!

-Morgan

[Athen]

many people say they use dog food and just about anything else that will contain the nutrients your herp needs blended up in a blender or a silver bullet and dropped in the tank and the hydro gel is a good idea too so that they dont drown i myself use a gel form cricket feed that contains the moisture they need and the gut load but try as i might i cannot seem to keep my crickets alive for long =( im gonna switch over to roaches much more hardy easy to breed and easier to handle plus they are better for your pet not as much necessity for gut loading and stuff

[froggsong]

That gut load gel you buy does NOT actually gut load the crickets. They need to be eating whatever is good for your herp. If you want to use a pre-made gut load, the fluckers powdered one is ok, but you can make your own for cheaper.

Here's what I use (I generally keep nearly all the crickets alive until they get eaten, though the ones from my local petsmart don't do as well for some reason), everything goes into a blender, food processor, or magic bullet:

I have to feed my dog a very good (and expensive) dog food because she can't have corn (NO dog should be eating corn, it is very very bad for them and they cannot digest it, but most dog food is full of it, it is a cheap source of protein), so I put one scoop of her dog food into the mix (probably a cup, cup and a half you could use as much as you think is good), I wouldn't go with one full of corn though, I don't know if it is ok for herps (most animals cannot digest corn very well). Also, make sure it is dry dog food.

I pre-ground some noodles and added that (I used the veggie noodles, the ones that are different colors).

I had some potato flakes (instant mashed potatoes) and I added those (don't put in too much of those).

Fish food went into the mix.

Rice Crispies too, I think I pre-ground them as well...

I'm pretty sure I put some dried parsley in there (parsley is really good for you, I assume it would be good for them too, hope I'm not wrong!).

I put some calcium powder in there that I have to dust the crickets with, I figure feeding them some is good too.

I also ground up a bottle of one-a-day vitamins (They recommend Centrum, but I didn't have any at the time) and put some of that in there.

I also used the rest of the jar of flukers cricket feed that I had left.

I may have put some other stuff in there, but that's all I can remember. I used a magic bullet, so I had to ground it all up in small portions and then mix it together, then I put it in a jar and put it in the fridge (you need to do that if you use dog food).

What you end up with is PLENTY of cricket feed that is going to last you, and be really good for your herp.

I put fruit in the cricket cage for them to drink, that way no drowning, and I don't have to spend so much for the cricket water (if you get it, try to get the orange one that flukers makes, but the blue on is fine too.). That cricket water (as far as I can tell) is the wame stuff they use in diapers, did you know that? if it isn't, then it is very very similar. It is a gel that comes in crystal form and you add water and it expands. They use it in gardening, diapers and sanitary napkins, home decor, and novelty items (a very fine version that looks like snow, it is very very neat, looks just like the real thing). I was looking to purchase some online for a long time, but I never actually bought any, I think because I got a huge bag of grapefruit that I knew would last me the summer (grapefruit stays good longer than oranges). I also feed them pieces of potato (also for moisture, it has little nutritional value), carrot, lettuce (water again), different fruits, dried apricots (the crickets LOVE them), raisins. Anything your dragon can eat, you should feed to the crickets. You can make up some of the "iguana salad" to feed to them too (it goes bad fast though, that's why I make a powdered feed and supplement with other things). Anything you can get that is good for the dragon that is dried, you can ground up and add to the dry feed. Cranberries would probably be a good addition, I'll have to look into it, they are very good for the urinary tract (and general health) of most mammals, I wonder if that applies to herps as well? The more nutritious the feed for the crickets, the longer they will live (and the better they will be for your herp). Crickets by themselves are basically an empty shell nutrition wise, that's why we stuff them full of stuff that our pets need.

Another thing for crickets is they need LOTS of room to crawl around without walking all over each other. I have read that they have acid on their feet, so walking over one another is actually harmful to them. They will also et one another if they are piled on top of each other. I see people buying crickets at my LPS without getting egg crate in the bag. In fact, you have to tell them to put it in there. They should be doing it no matter what though, because half of the crickets in a bag with no egg crate are going to die, maybe not before you get them home, but in the next few days. Older crickets are also more hardy than smaller crickets, the only thing is, if the herp is not big enough to eat such a large cricket it can lead to impaction, and of course less big bugs is not as nutritious as more small bugs. However, if you decide to buy breeding stock, go with the larger ones, they will lay eggs sooner and live longer.

Hope that helps!

One more thing, where did you get black crickets? I thought house crickets were house crickets? Be aware that generally the darker ones are more chitinous. (I'm assuming the black ones would be more like the ones you find outside).

Ok, I guess that wasn't "one more thing", lol, I think I have more to say.

Herps cannot digest the entire cricket, and if you happen to be lucky enough to have one that will hand feed, it would be a good idea to remove the heads of the crickets (if it doesn't gross you out...) If you ever look at the feces from your dragon, it will have cricket heads in it. It will usually also have the wings in it, if you fed crickets that were mature enough to have them. You should be able to remove the wings on a cricket even for a herp that will not hand feed.

Oh yeah, you can also feed the crickets wet dog food, but again, I would make sure that it is quality dog food. Many dog food companies include rendered, euthanized companion animals (read processed cats and dogs, you might check the wiki on cPanel®). If you do feed wet dog food, I would do it in addition to the dry feed.

I think I'm done now! Hope that helps!

Also, I don't have any idea what you paid for your crickets, but the cheapest I have found online is from: Crix-n-Wiggles Feeders

[froggsong]

I also feed the crickets celery, they seem to eat it faster than anything else.

[alex1976]

I so understand about the dog food. My lab was raised on a quality dog food (high in chicken protein) but it was pretty tough finding one that didn't have a majority of corn based protein. I was really surprised to find a majority of the big brand dog foods just don't contain good protein sources. Even the ones that were "High Protein" were at inadequate levels and a majority being provided from Corn!

Anyway, here's a simple cricket recipe I got online from somewhere that works really well for me.
I take powdered milk and shred it finer in a food processor. Then I mix it into crushed cat food (it generally has a higher protein level than most dog foods with the exception to a few). I don't really measure the amounts but it's roughly 1 to 1.
For food and water dishes I took two cake icing containers and cut them down (my wife loves me to bake cakes) and velcro'd them down. For water I place enough pebbles in it to keep them from drowning.
They've plenty of egg crate to hide in but I keep a 1" pvc pipe at the top to make harvesting easier. I get my egg crate from a local restaurant.
That's my 2 cents worth.

[froggsong]

Yeah, any type of tubing works great. I used to do the thing with pebbles too, but since I give them fruit regardless, I stopped putting it in there, takes up too much space for what I have them in. I thought about trying the powdered milk, I'll have to add some to my recipe.

[froggsong]

As people are learning how damaging corn is to dogs, there are more and more high protein NO corn foods available. If you want a really high protein source for your crickets, there is a food called orijen that is very high in high quality protein (no grains, no corn). I'm planning on getting some for my dog and seeing how she does, if I do, I'll likely use it in the cricket feed as well. I just looked to see if they sell a trial size bag, and they do, so I may buy the trial size just for the crickets.

If you do make a recipe using dog food, just please make sure that it is a good quality food with good quality ingredients. There are many things in mainstream dog food that is very bad for dogs, and would likely be even worse for herps.

[alex1976]

I tried the fruit thing with my crickets for a water source but the fruit flies was more than I wanted to deal with. I just took a cat bowl reservoir and put pebbles in it. Works well and I have to rarely mess with it plus no fruit flies. : )

[froggsong]

I've never had a problem with fruit flies in the cricket cage, but I have had a problem with them in the kitchen! They seem to like bread as well as fruit. I had a loaf of bread that we forgot about on top of the fridge once, and I could NOT tell where the FF's were coming from until I discovered the loaf of bread. I'm not sure why they never get into the cricket cage, I never even thought about it until now, it certainly has enough ventilation in the lid for them to get in there.

[YankeeChops]

I purchased the black crickets from cricketsdirect: Crickets Direct | Buy Crickets and worms for your animals cheap!

As I recall, the "black field crickets" are silent. I can't wait until they arive! =) If I can't get locusts here, at least I can get these big boys!