Crickets too big for my little veiled

[Nicole1982]

So my baby veiled is roughly somewhere between 4 and 8 weeks(I've gotten a lot of different opinions) she's been feeding on mainly fruit flies and pinheads. Was running low on pinheads so ordered some 1/8 inch ones. Most look more like 1/4 to 1/2 inch..gave her one of the smaller ones to try and she definaty struggled to get it down. Was awful to watch hopefully she can digest if ok...I guess I'll be grabbing more pinheads for now, though unfortunately I can't get any more till Tuesday. Think she will be ok with only fruit flies till then? My local pet store doesn't carry anything smaller than 1/4 inch, I'm out of pinheads and this shipment is apparently too large for her. What's the best next step up from pinheads?

 

[Kaianuanu]

As far as nutrition, the fruit flies should be fine just until Tuesday, but make sure to feed him a LOT. I know baby chams can have diporportionately large appetites and they have high metabolisms compared to adults. And obviously, fruit flies have very little substance to them.

 

[Nicole1982]

I've got plenty of fruit flies. I'll make sure to give her a lot. On an average day she eats anywhere from 15 to 25 ff/pinheads. Any recommendations where to order crickets from? Is it common to get larger crickets than what was ordered?

 

[Kaianuanu]

I can't really help you there. I have good local sources. But yeah, my guy was was eating like 25 quarter inchers a day, which are the same price as large for me. It was getting kind of ridiculous. Then I moved him up to 1/2-3/4 inchers and he only ate about 10 of those a day at the most, it got a lot easier for me to keep up with his appetite.

I just suggest you call whoever you order from and have them help you get the right size, make sure they understand that he can't eat crickets thy are actually 1/4".

 

[Nicole1982]

I figure ill just order a good amount of pinheads. I know she can handle them and I'm sure they won't grow to be much more than 1/8 inch by the time I run low. I don't see any reason why she couldn't handle 1/8 inchers..hopefully. Hopefully in a couple weeks she will have grown enough to handle the 1/4 inch ones so I can buy locally and not online!