potatoes for cricket hydration

[ollygatorsnapper]

i was wondering any thoughts or comments on supplementing potatos for cricket hydration. i have used sponges, water pillows, water cubes, and now potato's. i've been using potato's for at least 6 months now and i have had far less crickets die off. i just slice'em up and put them on a tuppaware lid and replace every 2 days. i found sponges to get nasty real quick not to mention that crickets start ingesting the sponge also. water cubes were kinda expensive and i still had problems with large number dieing off, and pillows would be completely destroyed in a matter of weeks and thats like 8 bucks for 6 of them. but potatos have been cheap, easy, and my number of cricket deaths have gone down alot.

so anyone else use potatos too? good idea bad idea, let me know

 

[carol5208]

i have seen potatoes used in the pet stores. I use orange slices! they seem to like it.

 

[pbnstevo]

I use apple slices and a wet paper towel, it works great.

 

[Ellron]

Orange or lemon slices work great, they keep them hydrated, and they gutload them with lots of valuable Vit. C.

 

[Michael Ryan]

I also use orange slices they seem work very well, but ive never used lemon slices, i wouldnt have thought crickets would like the acidity

 

[JJC]

Fruits and veggies are the best. Potatoes have very little nutritional value. What your crickets eat gets passed onto your Cham.

 

[PedroANDAshley]

I like the potatoes the best.

Even if you change your orange every day I swear they start to mold within like the first 10 hours :/

The potatoe last like the full 2 days without a hint of mold.

 

[nick barta]

For $10.00 you can make your own crystals, and you will get 16 Gallons of cubes. Cheaper than potatoes, and they dry up in high temperatures, and last all week for 70 degrees or so.

Nick

 

[Cainschams]

I would not use potatoes very much. They do work great to maintain cricket colonies but you want to make sure the crickets have a full belly of something else before feeding them off. High protein diets can result in cases of gout. If I run out of veggies and am using only a dry gut load like cricket crack (not flukers from pet stores because there is next to nothing in them) then I use wet paper towels for hydration.

 

[hondataeg6]

I have been using carrots, I keep using the peeler to make thin slices and this works great for me and they eat the whole thing (a couple slices). I slice 2 carrots and this last me two weeks, I use this for crickets and for my supers.

Another thing that reduced the death of my crickets was my cricket container. I took a rubbermaid container and cut off half of two sides and added screen. I also cut almost the whole top off and added screen. This allows alot of air circulation.

 

[Metric]

I find that purchasing the concentrated water crystals and making my own to be the best.

Like mentioned earlier, you don't want your crickets filling themselves up on potatoes rather than a high quality gut load.

Another easy method that's also cheap is to get a container, like a standard margarine or cream cheese container, fill it with a wet cloth, like a shamwow or similar, and cut a rectangular opening near the base of the container, the key is to make sure the wet cloth is jammed packed into the container, and also not wet enough that water is pouring out. Containers with twist on lids work best. With this method you're never having to buy more of it, you just wet the cloth, and the crickets don't defecate all over the cloth, so it stays fairly clean.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Fruits and veggies are the best. Potatoes have very little nutritional value. What your crickets eat gets passed onto your Cham.

Ditto this.
Potatoes are pointless. Use fruits and veggies that provide nutritional value to the chameleon (oranges, carrots, dandelion greens, mustard greens, squash,...). crickets dont need a water source if you use fruits and veg.