Black vs. Brown Crickets?

Anyone notice a difference between them? I've always gotten brown crickets until my last shipment, when I received black ones. My chams don't seem to care for the black ones. It seems to me that the black crickets aren't as active as the brown ones are. The black crickets seem to just hang out at the bottom of the cages and don't crawl around much. That's the way they are in the bin I keep them in too. They don't seem to be big eaters despite the food and fresh veggies and fruit I offer the crickets.
I guess I'm going to have also order brown crickets. A shame as I still have hundreds of black crickets left.

I know that black ones tend to bite a lot more.

KarmaChameleon1337 said:

I know that black ones tend to bite a lot more.

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I got bitten by one and it did catch me by surprise. I promptly fed the little so and so to my turtles.

If you don't want them there's definately people on here who do haha!

theresaintucson said:

Anyone notice a difference between them? I've always gotten brown crickets until my last shipment, when I received black ones. My chams don't seem to care for the black ones. It seems to me that the black crickets aren't as active as the brown ones are. The black crickets seem to just hang out at the bottom of the cages and don't crawl around much. That's the way they are in the bin I keep them in too. They don't seem to be big eaters despite the food and fresh veggies and fruit I offer the crickets.
I guess I'm going to have also order brown crickets. A shame as I still have hundreds of black crickets left.

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I think they are more of a meat eater I got some and tryed to gut load them with my dry gutload and greens and they didn't touch it but they would kill and eat each other no prob. So I didn't feed them to my chams but I did a test I put dog food in there and it was gone in a hour.... I will never buy or use black crickets to feed my chams ever again. thay are to mean and carnivorous.

They are definatly aggressive crickets and hide well until its dark. My chameleons enjoyed them. Ive had a veiled bitten by one in the night too. I catch all mine in my front yard. I can catch about 30 a day if i really was dedicated in the summer. I tend to only feed my larger panther and veileds them. Never any of my small chameleons or geckos have ever gotten one. I buy brown crickets and mainly feed brown. When its summer if I catch some Ill usually hand feed so I don't risk them hiding and attacking my chameleon in the night.

I'm going to try to feed them some crushed up dog food. They do hide until it's dark. I'm glad all my chams are over 18 months old---big enough to take on these demons.

That's probably not a good idea but Im not that much on nutrition other than what I feed. so Id look into that if you plan to use it regularly.

Dog food I'm talking about. When I was a kid I always caught my iguana in my dogs food bowl. Always eating the dry dog food. He lived a healthy life until I gave him away.

theresaintucson said:

I'm going to try to feed them some crushed up dog food. They do hide until it's dark. I'm glad all my chams are over 18 months old---big enough to take on these demons.

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Do not feed them dog food then feed them to you cham. That is very bad. I was just making a point that they are worthless and aggressive. I have never and will never gutload with dog food. I was just running a test on the crickets.

i hate the black crickets, givin they do live longer and are more meaty but they are nasty and can and do bite, i hate the lil bastads. HATE EM!!!!!
ya i hate them!!!! LOL

Ok...so I love them!!! At least for me they gutload like nothing else other than dubia and grow huge. I always put a carrot in the bottom of the cages so that if any are left they go down and eat the carrot instead of the cham But they breed really easy too!!! Almost as easy as dubia I bought 100 from Mulberry farms back in May and haven't bought another cricket since. Which if you have baby chams they produce pins like crazy and live at least twice as long as browns with NO die off...granted if you don't give them moisture they do eat each other

Crickets

Through my experience black crickets are genreally more hardy than brown crickets but are slower moving and do not attrack the attention of reptiles that need movement to simulate their appitite. The black crickets are also more agressive than brown ones

The black one's make me scream like a little girl.

I'm used to them now. It's best to get 3/4 size because they get way huge and as soon as they become adults they will bite you.

Back when they started appearing.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/black-crickets-52876/

I didn't feed them dog food after doing some research on it. Thanks for the information. They do seem to be very hardy crickets.

according\ to\ an\ insect\ book\ i\ bought\ the\ black\ ones\ are\ called\ king\ crickets\ and\ grow\ to\ 2.3\ inches\ in\ lengh\ for\ females\ males\ smaller.\ they\ are\ canniablistic\ and\ like\ hot\ temps\ can\ live\ up\ to\ 6months.
personally\ i\ never\ breed\ them\ i\ had\ a\ few\ wc\ before\ chams\ love\ em.

Hoj said:

i hate the black crickets, givin they do live longer and are more meaty but they are nasty and can and do bite, i hate the lil bastads. HATE EM!!!!!
ya i hate them!!!! LOL

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hate with a passion- lothe


you lothe the crikets XD

If its a competition then blacks win for me, I don't have any problem getting them to eat anything I offer them. I have more problems with locusts in that department, and my crickets hardly ever eat each other (usually only if I leave them too long in a chams bowl.......)
A black cricket bit me once, but to honest I deserved it since the cricket was about to become monitor munch. The brown ones do move around more, but that means they are more likely to get out, and they make more noise too. My chams notice black crickets easy enough, its not like they can get away from a hungry lizard for long.........
I think Clarkrw3 is right too, they seem to produce more babies than browns.
Blacks are just more convenient for me, and when my male Veiled was on a bit of a hunger strike I tried anything including brown crickets, which made zero difference so my Chams don't seem to mind which kind of crickets they get.