Crickets in cat liter

[julianfremaint]

I have a medium sized clear plastic bin from walmart that I keep my crickets for my panther chameleon. I only keep about 20-25 at a time. The smell is unbearable. I never thought just a couple dozen would smell so bad. So I have been cleaning the cage very often. When I open the lid I am shot down by the stink. Anyway, I just got 20 crickets today. I decided to put a layer of kitty litter at the bottom as bedding. Is it safe?

 

[Lazy Boy]

Is your bin well vented? I think the litter is a bad idea but maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Cat litter has a lot of chemicals in it. You bet the crickets will be eating, and thus so will your cham. I would not use it.

 

[julianfremaint]

Ok. That makes sense. Now that I already put the 20 crickets or so onto the litter do I have to get rid of them? If not I will just feed him these crickets and once they are gone just get rid of the litter. Is that fine? I probably won't be able go out again today to get more.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

You should remove the litter now so the crickets don't continue to eat them. Feed them fresh veggies to help flush out any litter in the gut and then you can potentially feed them off. If your crickets stinks then there's not enough ventilation. I keep crickets by 1-2 thousand and if they have adequate ventilation they don't die as much and they definitely don't stink as much. Here's how I keep mine: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/511-keeping-crickets.html

 

[BKFritz]

This is just an idea, but something I've been thinking about doing with my breeder crickets....

I have a tall tote that I keep them in. I could clean it every day and they'd still smell. I'm thinking...I will cut a hole in the top and fastened some sort of strainer to the underside and fill it with an Oder nutrilizer such as activated charcoal. As long as the crickets can't get to it and nibble on it would this be safe?

Not trying to hijack your post but it seems like this might be a solution for both of us