crickets from bait store

Is it OK to feed my veiled full size crickets from a bait shop. they are usually huge and very cheap. I gut load them first.

As long as they are the correct crickets, I dont see why not. A lot of bait shops use black crickets, whcih is a big "no no" for your chameleons.

Jake

are black crickets a no no because they are biters or for some other reason?

Because from what ive heard...

1. They are more agressive.
2. I believe someone may have mentioned that they have for chitin???


Either way, i dont recomend it. I think chameleons are worth the old "better to be safe then sorry" saying, dont you?LOL

Jake

there same as pet store, just a lot bigger and much cheaper. Our pet stores sell quarter inch only. This may hack off a few goecko lovers, but our front porch has about forty ghost goecko's out every night and I feed my veiled a few of these every week. The babies. Their about a half inch long

Nice...I wish I could feed my guy some geckos. Also...how do you tell a "black cricket"... is it just black... cuz I got some that look darker than normal...bought from two different stores this time and dont kno if thye're different species or just different batches...

Black crickets

I have only seen Black crickets in the wild. jThey are common in louisiana. Completly solid black and very robust. I wouldn't feed them to my cham either. I used to feed them to a pac man frog my daughter has. The last one i fed it, it was dead the next day. I think the large and rigid stinger (don't know what else to call it) may have punctured it internally. It wasn't caught in it's throat.

I have fed my chams black crickets with no problems!! The only difference is that the black crickets have more prickly back legs. I can tell you that they get much larger than the african brown cricket!! Here is a link to a company that sells them!! http://nativecrickets.com/

dectr6 said:

I have only seen Black crickets in the wild. jThey are common in louisiana. Completly solid black and very robust. I wouldn't feed them to my cham either. I used to feed them to a pac man frog my daughter has. The last one i fed it, it was dead the next day. I think the large and rigid stinger (don't know what else to call it) may have punctured it internally. It wasn't caught in it's throat.

Click to expand...

maybe you can just pull off its prickly legs b4 feeding

When i order a batch of crickets 1000 crickets every couple of weeks there are always a few black crickets in there. Are those the black crickets ya'll are talking about? There really fast and jump higher than the regular brown crick's

I'm not sure. the wild black crickets are much larger, stronger and very robust. Crickets on steroids. Can't believe there not in your area. They are very common in the south.

I'm not sure. the wild black crickets are much larger, stronger and very robust. Crickets on steroids. Can't believe there not in your area. They are very common in the south.

Black Crickets

Perhaps the following will help with your question. The following information is taken from the book "Chameleons: their care and breeding" by Linda J. Davison. In it she describes her experience with feeding her chameleons black crickets:

"We have found that most animals will run across the room to get one of these. When our Parson's chameleons tire of eating a diet of the normal brown house crickets, we offer some of these black crickets instead and the response and change in the animals is amazing to behold. Europeans have used these larger species of crickets for years and we have been told many times by European friends that they are more nutritious for animals to eat. Apparently the larger black species contain more fat storage bodies than the desert species such as the common brown cricket. We are sure of one thing - animals that we have tried these crickets on really prefer them over brown house crickets (P. 53)."

Hopefully this offers some insight as to feeding black crickets to your Cham.

I'm sure they are much better for my cham. My only concern is the females have a very large, rigid and sharp ovadepositor. I'm positive that's not the correct term but it's something like that. Looks like a stinger on the tail end and is used for laying it's eggs. I'm almost positive that my little girls pac man frog died from being internally punctured by this. I'll just start cutting it off and would recommend everyone else do the same just to be safe. If they get loose in your house you'll tear it apart trying to find it. Their chirping will rattle the walls. Thanks for your input. David