Reptile & Amphibian Forums

OK You know how you have crickets for feeding tour bearded dragons..... You know how some died..... can you feed your dragon a cricket that is not fully alive?? or like 25-50% alive or will that kill your dragon????? ok thanks

Don't think it would kill it, but I would advise against it. when they die bacteria can start to grow and that could cause sickness in the dragon. Better off just getting rid of the dead ones. Crickets that are dieing are not that nutritious anyway, and you never know why they are dieing.
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Mystical Dragons

yea right good thing i did not try it........LOL

can you feed your dragon a cricket that is not fully alive?? or like 25-50% alive or will that kill your dragon????? ok thanks

Hmmmmmmm I feed all my dragons pre killed crix. My 5 year old daughter is afraid of crix, so I freeze all mine when they arrive. Then I take some out, let them thaw and feed....... hasn't harmed my dragons
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www.BeginnersBasics.com

I believe they were talking about the dead ones that are dieing in thier cricket supply. Different then putting some in the freezer. Freezer would slow down any decomposition that would take place after it dies, and not alow bacteria to grow on them. I wouldn't feed dead crickets that died in your cricket bin. Decomposition starts really fast as well as the growth of bacteria and other things shortly after death.
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Mystical Dragons

>>I believe they were talking about the dead ones that are dieing in thier cricket supply. Different then putting some in the freezer. Freezer would slow down any decomposition that would take place after it dies, and not alow bacteria to grow on them. I wouldn't feed dead crickets that died in your cricket bin. Decomposition starts really fast as well as the growth of bacteria and other things shortly after death.
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>>Mystical Dragons

True
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www.BeginnersBasics.com

will my dragon eat can crickets??

My adults started to eat them. When they were younger they needed food that moved to be interested in it, and would not touch them. With the canned crickets I dust them a little with calcium and just push them around a bit in front of the dragons face, and they gobble them up. I would say to give it a try, but if your dragons need that movement to stimulate feeding they may not be interested. I would go with the moister crickets, and that would be zoo-med can o crickets. The freeze dried are dried out and don't offer to much in the moisture department. Try it out and see if they like them. After opening them keep them in the fridge, and take out what your going to feed and let it warm to room temperature. They sell two sizes of crickets the large ones are the size of adults and the small are about 1/2 inch. They also sell a grasshopper in a can but these are really really large with a harder shell, I made the mistake of buying those. Good Luck
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Mystical Dragons

I am having a hard time keeping crickets I buy 48at a time to do a week or so but they died and I have one baby dragons and 3 anoles what is the best way to keep crickets???? need help!!!!

Best thing to do is mail order 500 or 1000 1/4 to half inch crickets. Feed the larger ones (as long as they are not bigger than the space between the eyes) to the bearded dragons and the smaller ones to your anoles. Once you get the crickets, put them into a large rubbermaid container with broken egg carton inside of it. (you can buy the egg carton flats from poultry farm suppliers, or get them from a restaurant, just have to ask the owner/cook nicely to hold some for you. Just go back every day for about a week and you have a good supply by then. IT's what I did at a small cafe near work).

You can feed the crickets several things. The easiest (though more expensive in the long run) is the rep cal (I think it's repcal that makes it, black box with green lettering) insect Gut Load. Pour it into a shallow lid (lid off Hagan Daaz icecream, the Half litre ones) work great for this, or any shadow dish will do. For moisture you can use sliced orange (change regularly as it gets mouldy after a couple days), potatoe or carrots. You can use that jellow water stuff but I find it is is just an expensive gimick that can be more harmful than good. It's not that hard to slice an orange or cut up a carrot for moisture.

Instead of buying the gut load, you can make your own using the following incrediants (taken from borderview dragons website..Bill Mears is the owner I think): 4 cups rolled oaks, 2 cups powdered skim milk, 2 cups crushed low fat catfood and teaspoon mulit vitamine. (may be off the measurements, I would check borderview's website (google search for borderview will bring up the site). Mix it all up and store in an airtight container. Makes alot and lasts alot longer than the $7 Cdn storebought gutload.

What I use in addition to the dry meal, is the same greens t give my dragon. It doubles as providing fresher food for the crickets and additional moisture. My crickets seem to thrive on this diet and the few deaths I have are usually adult crickets dying of old age (or just unhealthy crickets from the local petstore).

You just have to clean the bin every week or so to ensure it doens't start to get smelly. The simplest way to do this is buy two rubbermaid containers, alternating between them so when one is dirty, you can put all the crickets into the new one, then clean the old one to be ready for next week. To move the crickets from one container to the other, just shake the egg cartons into the new container (or you can put them into a large bag, this way there is less chance of crickets jumping off the egg carton while moving from one container to the other). Just put in clean egg carton into the new box and toss out the old ones. Wash and refill the food containers as well so everything is clean.

For the lid, there are two things you can do. Cut big holes in the lids and cover with fine screen (better ventilation but more work) or go crazy with a drill or rotary tool (ie dremal tool) to drill a bunch of 1/16th of an inch big holes. Note that this makes a huge mess and can be a bit dangerous (don't place the lid on your lap, just lay it on the floor, making sure not to push the drill in too deep cause you don't want to drill holes into the floor). In the end you will have a whole bunch of little bits of coiled plastic all over...but this is easy to sweep up.

Sorry for the lengthy reply but this should cover everything you need to take care of crickets. Raising crickets is a whole different thing and from what I have heard, it really isn't worth the trouble, unless you plan to sell alot or use up a huge amount. (as in thousands a week)

ok I finded a farm that sells crickets.... Ok i buy them for 5.00 for 48 and online i can buy 100 for $5.00 and 1000 for $9.00 LOL .........