DAILY NEWS (Halifax, Nova Scotia) 12 January 08 Cricket drought over for now, but geckos may go hungry again (Skana Gee)
Gecko owners are chirping happily after a holiday cricket crisis ended yesterday.
Local pet stores have been dealing with a shortage of the insects - a troubling situation for geckos, bearded dragons, tarantulas and scorpions, which eat them - since before Christmas.
"There was a lot of anger," said Aimee Watson, manager at Petsters in Dartmouth. She said the cricket shortage is an annual occurrence caused by Air Canada's ban on shipping live cargo between Dec. 18 and Jan. 7.
The problem may arise again, however, because the airline has decided to extend that prohibition through spring, Watson said.
In fact, Mirdo Importations - the company that supplies Petsters and other local pet-supply stores - was forced to hire a truck to deliver a cricket shipment that arrived Thursday night.
"They can't guarantee shipment dates," Watson said from the Portland Street store, while ringing in a customer's cricket purchase.
"They're only going to ship if there's enough people in the area, so it's not too much of a cost to them, which makes sense."
Petsters sells between 500 and 1,000 crickets per day. They cost 13 cents each, or 10 cents on orders of more than 20.
Neil Meister, president of the Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society, said there are usually alternatives for feeding geckos. Some eat fruit, baby food or specialty food.
"Usually, you feed them about every second day," said Meister, who breeds the lizards.
"This time of year it's less ... some species can go for quite a while, and that's perfectly normal if they're in good health. It's a concern for people who have babies, or younger ones, that are still growing."
While Meister gets most of his crickets from a small local breeder, he also orders them from an online outfit called East Coast Feeders.
Although that company relies on air travel to receive its crickets - which it then ships out by Canada Post - Meister yesterday received a shipment he'd ordered.
"I wouldn't panic just yet, until it's clear what's going on," he said.
An Air Canada representative said she could not confirm the live-cargo embargo extension.
Cricket drought over for now, but geckos may go hungry again