Black crickets for sale in Florida

Interesting.
If they get approval to ship nationwide it would be nice to have another feeder to offer, although it's my understanding that you have to be real careful with black crickets. They tend to bite and cannot be left in enclosure over night as they may do harm to your sleeping chameleons.
I know this is a possibility with the house crickets as well, and I do my best to not have any feeder spend the night with my cham. But I guess the black ones are meaner or hungrier, or braver.

-Brad
 
Well there is a reason that the black crickets are cheaper. They are cannabals and can harm a chameleon. Should still be able to use as a feeder but spedcial attention will have to be made so that non are left in the cage. They like to attack things while they sleep. They much prefer to start eating the eyes first too. A chameleon would not be able to do anything about it in the middle of the night.
 
I have read that European black crickets are more aggressive than the brown crickets we use as well. Europeans have access to them and use them regularly though. I have never heard or seen anything about chameleons having their eyes chewed out, but I have seen brown crickets eat each other as well. I am sure that precautions would be necessary when feeding this cricket, but the possibility of adding a new insect to our rather limited selection is always exciting to me. And, I am going to venture a guess that this cricket is not the same variety that the Europeans use since it is native to the east coast of the United States. It is more than possible that the insect doesn't have any of the characteristics of the black crickets found in Europe.

Heika

Edit: Just looked up the European black cricket. It is the Gryllus bimaculatus, and the Florida ones are Gryllus Firmus. Our common brown crickets are Acheta Domesticus.
 
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I agree Heika, and despite what I have heard about black crickets I would be interested in adding them to my feeding repetoire.
We have them here in Colorado, I used to catch them as a boy to feed my lizards. Perhaps I'll hunt for them this summer. Our patio is pesticide/fertilizer free due to fish, frogs and toads that I nurture out there and there are black crickets in the garden. Usually when I find one I toss it to a toad.

-Brad
 
I agree Heika, and despite what I have heard about black crickets I would be interested in adding them to my feeding repetoire.
We have them here in Colorado, I used to catch them as a boy to feed my lizards. Perhaps I'll hunt for them this summer. Our patio is pesticide/fertilizer free due to fish, frogs and toads that I nurture out there and there are black crickets in the garden. Usually when I find one I toss it to a toad.

-Brad

For the last couple of years I have meant to collect enough of our local grasshoppers to start a breeding colony. My chameleons love them, but they are hard to catch. :D Maybe this year I will actually do it...

Heika
 
do you guys use pillbugs? can i tell you my chameleon's love them.

i also am entering into my 2nd generation of slugs, most of my cham's love them even though they cannot catch them with their tongue, that slimy body, they have to bite them off the branches.
i started a land snail colony, they had babies but not many survived, i don't know why, i still have not fed snails to my cham's, i'm scared of the shell (all calcuim) but i have read of jackson's eating land snails. i have not actually spoken to anyone who actually fed a snail to their cham.
drew
 
do you guys use pillbugs? can i tell you my chameleon's love them.

i also am entering into my 2nd generation of slugs, most of my cham's love them even though they cannot catch them with their tongue, that slimy body, they have to bite them off the branches.
i started a land snail colony, they had babies but not many survived, i don't know why, i still have not fed snails to my cham's, i'm scared of the shell (all calcuim) but i have read of jackson's eating land snails. i have not actually spoken to anyone who actually fed a snail to their cham.
drew

The first week i got my female jackson i took her outside into the yard just to watch her cruise around - i had her crawl out of the cage on her own and in the process she spotted a little snail on the ground. I didnt even see it till it was the last second, but she snatched that thing up and ate it.. shell and all.

Anywas, i have personally witnessed what you have heard about jacksons :)
 
I dont think id buy any those things are very loud churpers besides i can catch grasshoppers instead in the spring,summer and fall.
 
I have purchased several times from this company and there crickets are AWESOME!! The adults are almost twice the size of an adult brown cricket!!
My chams are nuts for them and the males chirp alot more nice then the male brown cricket, it's very soothing at night time!!
 
I also fed my cham with the black cricks. But I fed them in an feederbowl or handfed them. The main reason why I picked the black ones is because I´ve heard they doesn´t breed that good outside their enclosure. But thats in Sweden and we don´t have the climate as in Florida :rolleyes:.
Never heard that they should be more aggressive than other cricks but then I have more reasons to keep roaches as mainfeeder, as I currently do.
 
Paluma and Monty both eat pillbugs, slugs, snails, hoppers, crix and mealworms. Never have they had ill effect with either. I say, as long as the wild insect is not brightly coloured and has not been exposed to insecticides then it's pretty good for them.
 
I also fed my cham with the black cricks. But I fed them in an feederbowl or handfed them.

I've used wild caught black crickets. They are bigger, and while I've never had a brown cricket try to bite me, the black ones sure have! While my adult panthers seem to have no issue, I dont like to offer the black ones (because of the bite / potential injury) to any chameleon that isnt an aggressive eater (crunches the prey fast).

do you guys use pillbugs? can i tell you my chameleon's love them. i also am entering into my 2nd generation of slugs, most of my cham's love them even though they cannot catch them with their tongue, that slimy body, they have to bite them off the branches. i started a land snail colony, they had babies but not many survived, i don't know why, i still have not fed snails to my cham's, i'm scared of the shell (all calcuim) but i have read of jackson's eating land snails. i have not actually spoken to anyone who actually fed a snail to their cham.
drew

Pill bugs are an excellent feeder - but you should NOT use wild caught ones. In addition to the normal parasite concerns with using wild caught insects, Terrestrial isopods are heavy metal bioaccumulators. Better to keep your own colony. How to breed pill bugs: https://www.chameleonforums.com/isopods-16457/

I believe Kenya and Brock both use snails.
I've fed a wild caught grove snail to a male chameleon, to see if he'd like it. (And yes, a fecal test has been done and another will be done in a month, as snails are known to be parasite carriers). He definately did like it. I've collected about a dozen with the idea of breeding these too. And they breed easily. However I think it will take a full year for the baby snails to be a worthwhile size. I'm not sure I'll keep up with the endeavour. But I've learned a bit, recorded in this blog entry: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/133-snails.html

edit: oh! didnt realize this was such an old thread
 
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Nice thread resurrection.

You know, this is interesting. I thought the crickets I buy look different than some of the ones I see in the wild. They don't list anything about their care. I have to wonder how these deal with the Florida heat. I can tell you, house crickets do not tolerate it well.

Looks like breeding them may be a bit taxing. They grow at a variable pace. http://entnem.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/crickets/gfirmus.html

Email sent reg temps.
 
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