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What is a normal casualty rate for feeder crix?
I bought 25 medium sized crickets two weeks ago and now they are ALL dead! I have looked over everything and have came to no reason why they aren't thriving. I keep them in a 10x7x9 critter keeper with stacked eggcrates up to the top and hamster tubes on the bottum. I feed them flukers gutload and crushed dog food, and an occasional fruit or veggie. I know they weren't fully grown, so it isnt a life span ordeal. Am I over stocking? If so, I dont think 25 crix would have perished after two weeks. Also, about half of them died in the first two days! Am I doing something wrong or could I have just bought them from a bad source?
Help Please!

>>What is a normal casualty rate for feeder crix?
>> I bought 25 medium sized crickets two weeks ago and now they are ALL dead! I have looked over everything and have came to no reason why they aren't thriving. I keep them in a 10x7x9 critter keeper with stacked eggcrates up to the top and hamster tubes on the bottum. I feed them flukers gutload and crushed dog food, and an occasional fruit or veggie. I know they weren't fully grown, so it isnt a life span ordeal. Am I over stocking? If so, I dont think 25 crix would have perished after two weeks. Also, about half of them died in the first two days! Am I doing something wrong or could I have just bought them from a bad source?
>>Help Please!

Crix live like 7 weeks. Depending on the age of the medium crix they could have died from age. Not counting the first couple days. That would be my first guess. After that unless you missed something vital....got too hot or too cold or too dried out......They will live to be big crix before they die. Did the supplier feed them or water them? That could be an issue.
I find it is easier to keep 1000 alive than a couple dozen. And I can keep 2000-3000 crix in a 15X 24 tub. So I doubt overcrowding was an issue.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

I'm guessing they died from a lack of water source, dehydration. The only water source you mentioned was "an occasional fruit or veggie."

Potatos cut in half, greens (mustard, collard, turnip) kale, romaine lettuce, and more, are good for providing crickets with needed moisture and also good for pumping them up with extra protein (gut loading).

Another thing, if the dead crickets aren't removed daily, or at least every other day, they will add to the demise of the others. Cages need to be kept clean.
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

The Flukers gutload is supposedly "solid water", meant to hydrate and feed the crix. Also, I added some apple wedges. The temperature couldn't have been off, because they were inside. They were from Petsmart, and they take good care of their crix pretty well. I am lost with this one...

My bad, I apologize.

It's been awhile since I used the "Gutload" (water crystals) and I was thinking that their feed was called Gutload instead of the water crystals.

They definitely should've lasted longer than two weeks if they were only half-grown. Search for more care sheets, compare what they say & keep looking to see if you can find anything that could've even remotely caused it.

I've had some batches die off earlier than others under the same conditions and about the only thing I could contribute it to was their condition before I got them. Too hot/cold during shipping, etc...

Sonya would know whether or not the type of dog food you used could've been bad for them. She's more up on the dyed dog food that's bad for rodents so she might could say whether or not it could be a factor.

By the way, you can get a lot more for your money if you order them online, but you want to figure what happened to those, first.

Hang in there!
HH
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

Mass ordering isn't worth it for me;I only have one tarantula so the max amount of crix I could imagine buying would be around 20 to 30. I'm buying the next batch from a different store and I'll see how their crix do. One thing I noticed about the bad batch were that alot of them died during molting. I am familiar with the process (Once again, I have a tarantula). Does anybody know if crix require a certain degree of humidity during a molt, like most other arthropods?

Yeah, mass ordering isn't for you, then. I wouldn't even fool with trying to raise any, either. I'd buy 20 or so 3/4-size crickets, keep them on the cool end of the recommended temp ragne (75 - 80 degrees?) and they'll last a fair amount longer.

I read in one of the cricket caresheets I found that babies needed more humidty, mositure, but I don't remember why.

Take care!
HH
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.