Crickets don't appear to be eating.....

[ZiggyStardust]

Hi guys, just a quick query. I have a year old male Veiled and a three month old Blue Bar Ambilobe Panther.

My Veiled won't touch crickets at all, never has, so he gets a mixture of locust, Silkworms, Calci-worms and an occasional couple of Wax Worms as a treat each week.

However, I have only had my Panther for a week, so I got some small crickets and he does eat them. Only trouble is, the food that I put into the keeper tank for the crickets doesn't appear to have been touched at all.

They've got:-

A mixture of oatmeal and dried fruit on the bottom
Calabrese leaves (dark green leafy veg, a bit like savoy cabbage)
Romaine lettuce leaves
Half a fresh tomato
Half a fresh orange

They also have collard greens, courgette, peppers and blueberries and grapes occasionally.

They hide all the time in the bottoms of egg boxes and never seem interested in the food.

The locust on the other hand eat absolutely everything that I put in and I put fresh food in each tank every day. I am concerned that I am giving my juvenile Panther cham food that doesn't have any gutload.

What am I doing wrong??

 

[Psychobunny]

How many crickets do you have in there?

If only a few dozen, you likely will not see food missing until it's time to replace it.
If you have a few hundred, you should.

I have never heard of using tomato as a gutload. I would check on that.
The tomato plant its self contains toxins.

 

[ZiggyStardust]

oh blimey about the tomato - seriously??

I have been giving the locust tomato for a few months now and Ziggy (the veiled) doesn't show any sign of ill health.

They don't get loads of tomato - just half a one each week.

Thanks for the advice Psychobunny.

 

[ZiggyStardust]

okay - no more tomatoes! Have scared myself silly now!

thanks so much for the advice.

 

[Psychobunny]

oh blimey about the tomato - seriously??

I have been giving the locust tomato for a few months now and Ziggy (the veiled) doesn't show any sign of ill health.

They don't get loads of tomato - just half a one each week.

Thanks for the advice Psychobunny.

I know that it is not advised to feed your cham hornworms (AKA, tomato worms) if the worms had eaten tomatoe plant due to the toxin.
I dont know if the toxin is actually in the tomato fruit or not, but I would not use them.

 

[ZiggyStardust]

Absolutely concur and I won't be feeding it again.

To answer your other question tho about the number of crickets, I would say that I have about perhaps a hundred in the keeping tank?

 

[Bush baby]

What are your temps in the cricket cage? Maybe it's too cool so they're not as active, thus not eating as much.

Crickets are eating machines, so they should be eating something.

And, no no on the tomatoes;they are high in oxalates which interfere with calcium absorption.