What's going on with my crickets?

[Charms]

Hi everyone,

I've got a 2-year-old male veiled chameleon who loooves munching on crickets. But I keep running into the same problem with them.
I buy about 25 crickets at a time from the pet store, take them home, and put them in a decently sized enclosure with those little black tubes that the crickets can hide in, and that can be removed and poured into a cup for feeding.

I keep a paper towel at the bottom of the enclosure, and I put mustard greens (or collard greens, depending on what's available at the grocery store), and carrot shavings in there for gut-loading.
I used to also include a small piece of wet sponge for the crickets to hydrate, but the crickets kept dying and turning black / turning almost gooey, so I figured they were hydrating too much.

Now that I've removed the sponge, the crickets have plenty of food to munch on (and plenty of water in the food to hydrate), but they keep dying still. They become immobilized and just sort of go into a coma or something and move in slow motion or don't move at all.

Also, they are increasingly showing this weird issue with their legs, where the legs look bent backwards at the knee, so the crickets cant really walk around well, or climb.

I wash the veggies before I put them in the cage, and I keep the cage in a safe, ventilated place away from too much direct light. I wash it every 2 days and ensure the crickets have an excellent quality of life while they await to be devoured by a hideous tree-monster.

What the hell is going on with my crickets?

 

[Beman]

They have to have air circulation and space. They also do not like being too hot or too cold. They also have to have a better gutload. Buy bug burger. Mix it as directed and put it into a little container in your fridge. Cut out a cube at a time and rotate the food each day so your taking out the old and putting in fresh.

 

[Charms]

I've got Bug Burger and I haven't been able to get the crickets to eat it. Not sure what the issue is; I follow the instructions

 

[Beman]

I've got Bug Burger and I haven't been able to get the crickets to eat it. Not sure what the issue is; I follow the instructions

And it is mixed so it is moist and a gelatin type texture?

 

[Charms]

Yessir

 

[MissSkittles]

The cricket keeper is a fantastic little bug bin, but not so much for crickets. Get a bin like this and add ventilation areas at the red, to give chimney effect ventilation.

I believe that is a 19 quart bin, which would be a decent enough size for a couple hundred crickets (using egg flats for more surface area). I have two bins and every 2-3 days, I move the crickets from their dirty bin to the other which is clean. I do use paper towel on the floor of the bin so their icky little feet have some traction.
Most of the pet stores sell domestic crickets, which are foul in so many ways. They stink so much worse than banded crickets and they die off so very easily. With the limited ventilation of the crickets keeper, the gases from their poops are quickly building up to toxic levels and they die.
I buy 1/2” banded crickets every 4-6 weeks. Near that time they have reached full size and are dying off (old age?). I do order more than I need to take into account natural die off as well as needing to feed more when they are smaller.
I feed them the same fresh organic produce I give my bearded dragons - varied greens and veggies with just a hint of fruit. I also supplement at times with Repashy Bug Burger. The only feeding issues I have is when I overfeed them. It’s much easier and more pleasant to add more food than have to remove uneaten food.
I hope this helps.