Having Cricket Issues - Anyone else?

[Dez and Delilah]

Having the same problem where I am too. The past few times we've bought our supply of crickets they've seemed to die off before we can even get through 1/4 of them. Bought 100 on Monday and as of yesterday there were only 3 alive.

At first I had been thinking it was something I was doing wrong, but I guess there isn't much I can do. For the time being, what's another good staple I can use for my 4.5 month old panther? We're picking up some small silks today but I'd like to offer some variety.

 

[SpinyFranky]

Having the same problem where I am too. The past few times we've bought our supply of crickets they've seemed to die off before we can even get through 1/4 of them. Bought 100 on Monday and as of yesterday there were only 3 alive.

At first I had been thinking it was something I was doing wrong, but I guess there isn't much I can do. For the time being, what's another good staple I can use for my 4.5 month old panther? We're picking up some small silks today but I'd like to offer some variety.

Silkies are great

you could try Dubia as well.

Super Worms perhaps? not too many too often though or impaction becomes a risk.

Crickets aren't very nutritious anyways... thats why u need to pack them up with so much gutload.

Silkies full of mulberry chow are very healthy for your cham though. Easy to digest as well

 

[jamncristian]

Silkies are great

Silkies full of mulberry chow are very healthy for your cham though. Easy to digest as well

but silkies fed mulberry fresh leaves are even more nutritous and cheaper to mantain

so i suggest try finding a mulberry tree around you if you try silkies

 

[KYchamguy]

Anyone aroud Kentucky can get crickets from Henderson cricket Farm 502-859-792-6760. Awesome price at $11.00 for 1000 and healthy crickets too.

 

[warpdrive]

Not to argue with anyone, but silkies are no more nutritionally of value then crickets.
They even have more or less the same cal/phos ratio.

While you can force silkies to eat kale or collad greens, I still think its easyer to gutload crickets with far more variety.

Sorry for not posting links to nutrition of feeders, I'm just on my cell phone right now.

Harry

 

[summoner12]

Not to argue with anyone, but silkies are no more nutritionally of value then crickets.
They even have more or less the same cal/phos ratio.

While you can force silkies to eat kale or collad greens, I still think its easyer to gutload crickets with far more variety.

Sorry for not posting links to nutrition of feeders, I'm just on my cell phone right now.

Harry

I don't think your right about that....

Link

Not about silks vs. crickets... but interesting;

If you scroll down to about half way of this page there is a ratio given for silks; Ca

 

[Elizadolots]

I just had my first "no crickets" experience...they did, however have a small shipment of small crickets coming in later that afternoon, so I went back for a bunch of those. I've ordered some phoenix worms in bulk (which I never do because I just have 2 chameleons) to help get us through this.

 

[warpdrive]

I don't think your right about that....

Link

Not about silks vs. crickets... but interesting;

If you scroll down to about half way of this page there is a ratio given for silks; Ca

Hey, thanks for posting a link. Sadly I'm still not sure how to do it with my new blackberry yet.

While I agree that silkworms (using your link) has slightly better Ca/P ratio, you'll notice that silkies are still far from a 1/1 ratio, never mind a 2/1 ratio.
So if silkies are all you feed they still may need to be dusted just like crickets.
On top of that, even if fed mulberry leafs they will in no way be as nutritionally sound as a well gutloaded cricket.

I know what I'm saying goes against everything that is normally said about silkies.
But remember that the charts from any site is based off of UN-gutloaded feeders.
Once you start gutloading Crickets properly with a wide range of foods, you almost don't even need to dust to get the proper Ca/P ratio.

So again, while I feel silkies are great, I don' want people to think that they are TONS better then crickets when it comes to nutrition. Because in my mind (based off of your link) they are not.

Harry

 

[summoner12]

Hey, thanks for posting a link. Sadly I'm still not sure how to do it with my new blackberry yet.

While I agree that silkworms (using your link) has slightly better Ca/P ratio, you'll notice that silkies are still far from a 1/1 ratio, never mind a 2/1 ratio.
So if silkies are all you feed they still may need to be dusted just like crickets.
On top of that, even if fed mulberry leafs they will in no way be as nutritionally sound as a well gutloaded cricket.

I know what I'm saying goes against everything that is normally said about silkies.
But remember that the charts from any site is based off of UN-gutloaded feeders.
Once you start gutloading Crickets properly with a wide range of foods, you almost don't even need to dust to get the proper Ca/P ratio.

So again, while I feel silkies are great, I don' want people to think that they are TONS better then crickets when it comes to nutrition. Because in my mind (based off of your link) they are not.

Harry

I find it hard to imagine many people properly gut-load crickets. I also find it hard to believe people provide a strict silkworm diet.

A diligent keeper will serve up a mix of feeder bugs to their animal(s) and most likely do a good job of gut loading.

I do agree, a well gut-loaded cricket is a good feeder item. I just don't think everyone does it.

 

[warpdrive]

My point of my original reply is because some people in this thread are posting that silkworms are more healthy then crickets.
When in fact I think we both agree that is NOT the case.

Also remember that in this thread people are asking what they should use as a replacement to crickets during this time when they can't use crickets.
That tells me at least that the monthly diet for their cham(s) is limited at best and possibly crickets are the norm or "staple".
So sadly I disagree with you that there are owners who still think you can get away with a limited diet of bugs.

As for gutloading, if they can't do a good enough job with crickets, they clearly won't do anything past silk chow or leaves for silkworms.

My point is I don't want people to start thinking that silkworms are better then crickets nutritionally as stated in this thread.

Harry

 

[summoner12]

if you take a cricket and a silkworm in 'stock' form... as in, didn't do anything to it. The silkworm would be better to eat than the cricket. Neither is ideal without modification.... we both agree on that.

Feeding just silkworms would be a bad idea. the cham needs a hard bodied food item every now and then IMO.

If you couldn't get crickets... and ideal situation would be gut-loading dubia and super worms and then dusting them. I would also feed silks and horn worms. These can be dusted as well... but isn't REALLY needed if your dusting the other food items.

 

[reptimanny]

Should i not feed my cham the crickets from the current distributors? or are we worried about the scarcity of the feeders?

 

[summoner12]

Should i not feed my cham the crickets from the current distributors? or are we worried about the scarcity of the feeders?

I think you are OK... I've been feeding my animals crickets from Rainbow. Which is a huge supplier to many places... I haven't had any issues with my chams eating them.

 

[reptimanny]

Cool i just didnt know wether to feed them to my cham or not cause i just bought some and the guy told me about the virus and that most of his crickets are large cause the mediums are dying out.

 

[Lizardlover]

Perhaps the tropical banded cricket will become more available now, or even the african field cricket. Tropical banded crickets are just like A.domestica but dont have the bite of the african field cricket. If anyone hears more about the import of different cricket species please let me know about it. I also purchased some ethiopian crickets just incase, even though I have not had any problems with crickets down here.

 

[tkilgour]

This is an interesting post. As I to have run into the sudden die off of my crickets. I ordered 5,000 and it seemed a quarter of the colony died off in a couple days. I ordered another 5,000 and bam the same problem. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I keep everything clean and sterile as I always have but so many are dying off. Therefore, this virus mentioned seems to be the issue. I hope they figure this issue out.

 

[jadeaudio]

Over the winter my Chams besides my Mt Meru Jackson stopped eating crickets period. They just stopped eating them, so luckily my Dubia colony that started out at only 20 adults are well beyond 500 now. I've been feeding them and they only need to eat a couple every other day. I used to have this guy that I met at a local show call me every two weeks to ask if I needed any crickets because he bought them from Top Hat in Michigan, but I haven't heard from him in a while, so I wonder if they were hit by the issues also. The last batch I bought was really small. I usually get 500 of the size right before they begin to make noise. And these buggers were tiny as hell and did not live long at all. I've been sticking with Dubias and superworms. Both never ever die for me. The superworms are from last September and I haven't had a single one die before they were eaten.

 

[jeanjacket812]

Yes Tophat got hit hard. I kept ordering from them and having to get reships which just continued to die. They would come here paralyzed or twichting. I thought it was the weather but now I know...

 

[BocaJan]

I get 5000 crickets every 7-10 days from Ghanns, 1/2" and 3/4". I have had no trouble with them at all.

 

[tkilgour]

I get 5000 crickets every 7-10 days from Ghanns, 1/2" and 3/4". I have had no trouble with them at all.

Agreed, I have bought my last 4 orders from ghann's and have had no issues. So I don't know what is going on.