Calcium, containers, crickets

[tignish99]

Hello.

I am wondering if a mixture of hornworms, silkworms (I breed my own so have an almost endless supply), butterworms (she is not too keen on these), and superworms with gutloading the superworms is enough calcium for an adult veiled female who does lay eggs, or is it still best to give her some dusted crickets? When she came to us a few weeks ago, there were obvious signs of neglect, but since then she has been getting better.

If possible, I am trying to get away from crickets. They smell and are just generally yucky. Has anyone else also noticed that when you take care of the crickets, tell them they are pretty crickets and good crickets (Star Trek TNG fans will know where this comes from), and you feed, water and clean them properly they seem to die in droves? When one gets loose in the house, it seems to survive and chirp for weeks!

If I still need to keep crickets for the dusting, I am wondering if anyone has a decent container they can suggest. She came with one of those very tall see-through plastic containers. It looks like a big see-through yogurt container or something a deli would put in a family size portion of cole slaw. The evil crickets are getting out and the odd one has gotten out of her enclosure. This does give my cats endless hours of entertainment , but then there are the ones that get away and chirp and chirp.

Thank you

 

[CLP]

Females need calcium supplements dusted on their food to ensure they have enough to support the creation of the eggs. It is all but impossible, even with good gutloading, that you will be giving her enough. That being said, you can dust the worms too - just drop them in a cup with a bit of calcium powder and spin them around. You just need a light coating.

The generally accepted supplementation schedule for chamemeons is plain calcium with each feeding, calcium with D3 twice a month and multivitamins twice a month. I wouldn't try to stray very far from this, especially the calcium.

As for the crickets, I understand where you're coming from. I HATE them! Dirty, noisy, stinky little buggers! That's why I'm in the process of getting a dubia roach colony going. They are awesome so far! Can't climb the sides of the bin, don't make any noise and don't smell. Why don't you consider using them in place of the crickets. They are also very easy to gutload.

 

[camimom]

You can stop feeding crickets, switch to roaches.

I did, and it was the best ever.


As CLP said, no smell, no climbing, and they breed freaking fast!

but you will still have to gutload and dust with calcium.

 

[nick barta]

To contain the crickets in the feeding cup better you might do a DIY plastic jug with screen glued to the inside back. The crickets climb the back screen, and you don't tend to have so many escape into the cage.
Use the search button, you can see several made out of plastic milk jugs and Sunny Delight plastic jugs.

This will limit, but not stop all crickets from escaping.

Make sure you always latch the bottom screen after cleaning the cage, and that there are no other escape routes in your cage.

The house cricket does not jump as high as the banded crickets, so they stay in the cup better.

Nick

 

[tignish99]

I would love to switch to roaches, but they are illegal in Canada.

Ok, I will dust the supers. I just always worry, because the supers seem to have this Teflon-like covering, that she is not getting enough.

I did adjust the container a bit, so I will see if that makes a difference. Maybe I will feed those to her before all the yummy worms, so that she just eats them up quickly and they do not have a chance to escape.

She does have a healthy appetite, which is encouraging.

 

[tignish99]

To contain the crickets in the feeding cup better you might do a DIY plastic jug with screen glued to the inside back. The crickets climb the back screen, and you don't tend to have so many escape into the cage.
Use the search button, you can see several made out of plastic milk jugs and Sunny Delight plastic jugs.

This will limit, but not stop all crickets from escaping.

Make sure you always latch the bottom screen after cleaning the cage, and that there are no other escape routes in your cage.

The house cricket does not jump as high as the banded crickets, so they stay in the cup better.

Nick

Thank you for the advice. I will search for it.

I found that my reptiles do not care for the banded crickets as much as house crickets.