I dont like crickets

[julianfremaint]

My panther chameleon is 7 months old. I am currently feeding crickets from the local petsmart and Petco. I have grown to become fascinated with chameleons. Anyway, it's simple as this. I hate crickets. They smell, they are noisy and I find them all over my house. I find at least 5 each week loose in my house, and as much of a bug lunatic my mother is, she is not okay either. I don't get freaked out by them but when you wake up to a cricket on your face it does give you the chills. Anyway, cutting to the chase, I am thinking about getting a pair of panthers adding to my collection. I definitely want to get rid of these damn crickets. What feeder can I use as a stable diet? I consider dubia roaches but are there any other alternatives?

 

[BKFritz]

My panther chameleon is 7 months old. I am currently feeding crickets from the local petsmart and Petco. I have grown to become fascinated with chameleons. Anyway, it's simple as this. I hate crickets. They smell, they are noisy and I find them all over my house. I find at least 5 each week loose in my house, and as much of a bug lunatic my mother is, she is not okay either. I don't get freaked out by them but when you wake up to a cricket on your face it does give you the chills. Anyway, cutting to the chase, I am thinking about getting a pair of panthers adding to my collection. I definitely want to get rid of these damn crickets. What feeder can I use as a stable diet? I consider dubia roaches but are there any other alternatives?

I'd go with Dubia beetles! Really they're Dubia roaches, but roaches creep me out so I am unofficially changing their name They live a long time, they don't make noise, they don't smell and I hear their poo is good plant fertilizer! I think they cost a bit more than crickets but from what I understand they are fairly easy to breed.

 

[Devokid]

I hate crickets as well and have loved using Dubia's. My chameleons love them, they are healthier than crickets, they don't smell, die off, and they are very easy to breed. The switch to dubia's was the best move I ever made.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I suggest you don't have a staple at all, but rather a wide variety of feeder prey.
Roaches, silkworms, butterworms, blue bottle flies, soldier fly maggots (calci worms / phoenix worms), terrestrial isopods, indian walking sticks, grasshoppers/locust, termites, superworms, etc.

Crickets could be a small part of that variety. If you only buy ten at a time, kept only overnight to gutload, you wont have smell. Use scissors to remove wings from males or buy younger crickets and you'll have no noise. Why are there so many crickets escaping? Perhaps try bowl feeding and/or removing one of the hind jumping legs from the crickets you offer.

 

[BKFritz]

I agree with Sandra! My adults smell awful! No matter how often I clean their tub! My feeders don't smell much at all! I feed them greens and fruits mixed with Bug Burger so I mostly smell that. If you get 1/2" crickets you won't have any noise. If they are escaping the bin either get a taller one or you can run clear packaging tape around the inside and they won't be able to climb past it. If they are escaping the cage, you may have a small hole. I just use a glue gun and glue over any I find. I found that they were also jumping out of the enclosure right after I put them in, before I could get the door shut. If you swirl them around in the cup then put them in it stuns them long enough to get the door shut without them escaping.

 

[gman82]

I have just ordered me some dubia's I can't wait to start my breeding so I can get rid of the smelle crickets

 

[Psychobunny]

Only dead cricks smell bad.
Also, before Ghann's switched to the brown banded cricks, their cricks had a bad smell, and I kept them in my basement.
Now, they have no smell. I am even able to keep them in my dinning room.

 

[xraygirl]

Start yourself a dubia colony and save yourself some money I've had my colony since January and I have tons of nymphs!! My guy tears them up...

 

[gman82]

That is what I I'm doing I hate crickets I can wait until colony gets started

 

[julianfremaint]

Start yourself a dubia colony and save yourself some money I've had my colony since January and I have tons of nymphs!! My guy tears them up...

I would love to start a colony! Can you give me some details about your colony and breeding? Can I let the dubias loose in my chams cage or just hand feed the whole time? The one thing I am concerned about is their tendency to breed. What i'm trying to say is if one roach gets loose, could they lay eggs all over the house? Also, are they fast and do they try to escape grip?

 

[pigglett79]

I would love to start a colony! Can you give me some details about your colony and breeding? Can I let the dubias loose in my chams cage or just hand feed the whole time? The one thing I am concerned about is their tendency to breed. What i'm trying to say is if one roach gets loose, could they lay eggs all over the house? Also, are they fast and do they try to escape grip?

I have my care and set up on my blog.

http://feederinsectbreeding.blogspot.com

I hand feed mine but I know others that cup feed them. If you don't live in a tropical climate they really can't infest. They don't lay eggs but are live bearing. They also don't fly and cannot climb smooth surfaces.

 

[xraygirl]

I would love to start a colony! Can you give me some details about your colony and breeding? Can I let the dubias loose in my chams cage or just hand feed the whole time? The one thing I am concerned about is their tendency to breed. What i'm trying to say is if one roach gets loose, could they lay eggs all over the house? Also, are they fast and do they try to escape grip?

Pigglett has an awesome blog on many different types of feeders. I keep mine in a plastic ikea box on a warm mat. Feed those guys some oranges and it's like magic!

 

[JosieJobo]

silk worms

Im currently feeding mostly silkworms then (gutloaded) locusts, some crickets sometimes a few meal worms and occasionally some waxworms or a bluebottle I can catch. He aslo ate a snail in the garden once? trying to start a silkworm breeding program lol some are terning into moths as I type... I hope!