Bemo
New Member
I found a surprise just now that both disgusted me and worried me a bit. I was tending to the feeder crickets as I do every night to prepare for the morning feeding. When I purchased our cham, Bemo I also picked up a cricket keeper. I store the crickets there and remove a certain amount every night and transfer them over to another container to gut load. I always peak into the tubes to get a general idea of how many crickets I have left. Today when I went to do that I immediately saw a growth of tiny maggots, right up in my face. I am so horrified.
I am new to the cham world, but I have housed crickets for other pets for years without this issue. I believe the cricket keeper design was part of the issue.
I provide the crickets in the keeper with orange cubes as well as a small amount of bug burger until they are transferred to the gutloading container for their specialized diet. I am very good about replacing the food every 24 hours. I know the maggots are fruit flies or those drain gnats because I see them around my house in the summer no matter how tidy I keep the kitchen. Nightly, I collect any dead crickets and wipe out the bottom of the container/discard old food. Weekly I do an entire cleanout that involved soaking in dish soap and being rinsed thoroughly. I am wondering if my drying technique was the problem. I hand dry the container and allow the tubes to air dry. Then I kind of shake the tubes to get out as much leftover moisture as possible. I have placed them back into the container knowing they were not 100% dry...but the crickets always seems to love sucking up the last of the moisture.
Could the crickets make my cham sick? I freed all the remaining crickets to a far away corner of my back yard. I didn't see the maggots when I peaked in last night and removed crickets for gutloading. The crickets he ate today appeared healthy.
Has anyone else had problems with a cricket keeper? I am definitely just going to use a standard container with cardboard from here on out...I don't think I can ever look into those tubes again lol.
I am new to the cham world, but I have housed crickets for other pets for years without this issue. I believe the cricket keeper design was part of the issue.
I provide the crickets in the keeper with orange cubes as well as a small amount of bug burger until they are transferred to the gutloading container for their specialized diet. I am very good about replacing the food every 24 hours. I know the maggots are fruit flies or those drain gnats because I see them around my house in the summer no matter how tidy I keep the kitchen. Nightly, I collect any dead crickets and wipe out the bottom of the container/discard old food. Weekly I do an entire cleanout that involved soaking in dish soap and being rinsed thoroughly. I am wondering if my drying technique was the problem. I hand dry the container and allow the tubes to air dry. Then I kind of shake the tubes to get out as much leftover moisture as possible. I have placed them back into the container knowing they were not 100% dry...but the crickets always seems to love sucking up the last of the moisture.
Could the crickets make my cham sick? I freed all the remaining crickets to a far away corner of my back yard. I didn't see the maggots when I peaked in last night and removed crickets for gutloading. The crickets he ate today appeared healthy.
Has anyone else had problems with a cricket keeper? I am definitely just going to use a standard container with cardboard from here on out...I don't think I can ever look into those tubes again lol.
