Anionic Polyacrylamide

[Picasso123]

This is the stuff used to form all the feeding gels for prey items. I can't see this highly digestible by any organism other then maybe microbes? Reminds me of Olestra as a way to make chips fat free. Is there some other way to water crickets?

 

[Echoezra]

I have heard people say put a damp sponge, but then what, they're eating a sponge, lol, is that better? Most people are gutloading them with fresh vegetables anyway, so they will get moisture from that. Before gutloading day, like if you have a tank ful and are only gutloading a few at a time, for the rest, put chunks of potato in there, that's how they're shipped to our store.

 

[Ricardo]

cut an orange in halfs and put them in the bin

 

[mardithepanther]

if you wont the stink put a moist paper towel or wet piece of cotton or sponge. they dont eat it just suck. i use both dry and wet gutloads. collard greens mustard greens kale, lettuce. etc i dont buy anything commercial.

 

[melric]

You can buy some water crystals. This is what I use. You basically mix it with water.
Third item down.
http://www.tikitikireptiles.com/products.php?id=16

 

[CNorton]

Water crystals are cheap and easy to come by. At Home Depot, Lowe's, Orchard, or most nurseries you can buy a product named Soil Moist that you just add water and the crickets eat it up. I bought one $12 bag about 2 years ago and I'm still not even halfway through it.

 

[jojackson]

Is there some other way to water crickets?

yes, raw carrot. never used anything else. (for moisture)

 

[Picasso123]

Water crystals are cheap and easy to come by. At Home Depot, Lowe's, Orchard, or most nurseries you can buy a product named Soil Moist that you just add water and the crickets eat it up. I bought one $12 bag about 2 years ago and I'm still not even halfway through it.

You can buy some water crystals. This is what I use. You basically mix it with water.
Third item down.
http://www.tikitikireptiles.com/products.php?id=16

Those are all forms of Anionic Polyacrylamide.

Why don't people just use plain gelatin if they want the water to stay put? I would much rather feed carrots, celery or cucumber to crickets. They're all 90% water anyways.

Makes me wonder of over exceptance of this product may lead to a shortened life span or illness later on??

 

[CNorton]

Those are all forms of Anionic Polyacrylamide.

Why don't people just use plain gelatin if they want the water to stay put? I would much rather feed carrots, celery or cucumber to crickets. They're all 90% water anyways.

Makes me wonder of over exceptance of this product may lead to a shortened life span or illness later on??

Never had any problems and yes there are some of us that have been using "water crystals" long-term. Not sure what else to suggest, if you've already got a preferred method then use it.

 

[dlegare]

I've been using various forms of polymer gels for almost 20 years with no obvious problems. Only way I know it can hurt a reptile is if it eats some of the gel that isn't fully hydrated or worse gets ahold of a piece of dry product. Then it can cause impactions and ruptures of G.I. tract and or suffocation.

 

[Hyokenseisou]

I just use a fairly damp piece of folded up paper towel in my cricket bin (I used to use tissue paper, but paper towel holds more). I just check on it ever couple of days and moisten if needed, and it starts looking really gross (cause of poo or whatever), then I throw it out and put a new one in; works great! And I know it works because I hardly ever see any dead crickets in my bin and whenever I wet the towel again, 2 mins later I see the whole thing covered with them buggies.
And they don't eat the paper towel either.v And even if they did, I just end up throwing it away in a couple days.

Occasionally if I have extra, I throw in some chunks of carrot; they seem to really like carrots (as opposed to all the other types of fruits/veggies I've offered).