Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This was a post over @ sSnakeSs.com on the Crested forum.........read the last post. This is ridiculous.

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16041

forgive me since i'm not mike, but why argue that? if someone dosnt get it, well what else can you do? i hope they learn some sence, and strighten up a little. freezing crickets??????????? what????????????? whatever!!!!!!!!! stupid people shouldent be allowed to keep pets. and where do they get off on freezing rodents is bed? keeping snakes in plastic tubs is fine. i have those plastic dresser racks from wal mart. they do great. i keep my leopards in them, and my pictus in them. they are great. sorry for rambling on. freezing crickets. HA!

Yeah, stupid people pi$$ me off. I have no patience for them, lol. Its not just that the person is stupid, but they are trying to pass their ignorance off as fact!

yeah, I don't see the point either. If your going to do that, might as well feed the CGD or a supplemented baby food mix and not bother with the crix.
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

Gee such aggression over such a minor thing. Though I don't really understand why snake owners fed pre-killed rodents to their snakes...what's wrong with live rodents? I keep my own crickets to feed my bearded dragon, I don't breed crickets though as there isn't any point for one reptile. Crickets only make noise when adult and well, adult crickets are a little big for crested geckos in my understanding. The only smelly crickets I have encountered are the ones I get from the petstore...and that's probably because they don't keep their crickets very well. Once I get them home and move them into the container I have for crickets, they lose that stinky smell within a day.

My bearded dragon really gets excited when I come with wiggling jumping lively crickets and seems to enjoy chasing them. IN fact having him run a bit to catch his crickets is one way to stop him from gobbling them all up really fast..so fast that I worry he will choke on them. When he just has one to grab he tends to chew it a bit more.

Now that I bought some silkworms to try, I think I may stick to them, they are just so cool to watch and the food (the powered mulberry leaves) has such a nice smell when cooked, an almost minty leafy smell. THough these would be a bit too big to feed to a crested, except when really young.

"Though I don't really understand why snake owners fed pre-killed rodents to their snakes...what's wrong with live rodents?"

- Thought I would reply to your question: Feeding frozen rodents takes away some of the associated risks of harm to the animal. Just as crickets can chew on a lizard, rodents will do the same. It is nice to feed frozen/thawed knowing that there is not any chance of the rodent attacking your animal if left unattended. Especially nice if you are not set up to house several rodents or have large collections of snakes. Hope this helps.

R/
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Galen Clark
www.captivescience.com

That does explain things. Forgot mice and rats can give nasty bites when cornered. Also they can be messy and smelly to house alot of them for alot of snakes. I gather it is also alot easier to ship 500 frozen mice than 500 live mice.

Well yeah that is absolutely pointless. Most carnivorous reptiles hunt by sight; movement is what triggers their feeding response. There are a few exceptions such as varanids and tegus that have an extremely well developed sense of smell (but movement also further excites them) just like snakes. Feeding these animals pre-killed prey (mice, rats) cannot only be done but it is preferable. Remember mice and rats have teeth and they will try to defend themselves when fed live, possibly injuring and sometimes even killing the snake. This really is not something you have to worry about with crix. The only way it can happen is if the animal is already sick and there are too many crix in the cage. Resulting in chewed toes or tails, but that’s extremely rare. The more likely case is if two many are roaming the cage the animal will just become stressed and possibly feed less. To prevent just put in a few crix at a time or use bowls, duh…hehe.

So yeah no reason to freeze. I never understood this whole thing with people trying so hard to avoid live prey or insects. If you keep lizards your mostly likely going to have to keep live insects. It just part of the hobby, reptiles and bugs go together. Otherwise look into getting a tort…lol.
-Mike

alright alright,
people are SOOOOO touchy. that post from ssnakess.com was a simple response to someones question; Can I gutload crickets, freeze them and feed them to cresties (as he said he does with his leopards). The simple answer is yes, there is nothing 'technically' wrong, and if it what works go with it. Some may say putting crix in a bowl doesn;t give the cresties exercise but if that's what works best for you use it!
Bottom line is there is no reason why he should feed frozen crickets. A crested in a 20 gallon tank is NOT having the same life as in a huge forest AND they are getting as much exercise as you would living in a bedroom.
The catch 22 of geckos is as follows:
1. geckos are the coolest animals ever
2. crickets are the spawn of hell

other people on the ssnakess forum really made some insulting replys and made rich_19 feel like a stupid irresponsible owner which he clearly is not. A burmese python eating frozen rats in a rubbermaid is NOT natural, neither is frozen insects to a gecko
but remember folks NOTHING about their lives is natural, if you think a live cricket makes their rubbermaid seem like a rainforest think again.

sorry this post is so long,but I rarely post. I tried to defend rich and got totally blasted which is why I don;t post.
you;d think if we all keep the same genus we'd be more inclined to be friends and colleagues, but I guess everyone want to be the expert.

your (hopefully) friend
jay
ps ask allen repashy if crickets should be elinated from the diet, i thought he was an expert hahaha

1. geckos are the coolest animals ever
2. crickets are the spawn of hell

I laughed when I read that. It's true, crickets are EVILLLLl. I feed my Fire-Bellied toads frozen (but thawed) crickets out of necessity. The crickets are put on the land part of the tank and BAM the crickets jump into the water. Hand feeding my toads also makes them very tame so they never get stressed when I go into the tank (they are jumping all over me, so cute!). I make sure that my toads get enough stimulation from feeding by wiggling the cricket as far away from them, it's cute to watch them stalk their prey. As for when I get my crested geckos, I think I'm going to do a mixture of live feeding and frozen. I already have a bunch of frozen crickets on-hand for my FBTs but it's not a big deal for me to keep live crickets around if it will make my crested gecko happier. Sure it *is* easier to feed them frozen food, but feeding them live prey is more naturalistic so I'll make sure to do it when I can.

It is really hard to say if crested geckos really need live prey, it's hard to ask a gecko what it wants. You just have to watch their behaviour and go from there.

It is amusing that you think crickets are evil....nothing evil about them at all. Heck, the Chinese consider having a cricket good luck. Cricket chirping isn't all that bad, kind of gives that outdoor feeling at night. However I would rather hear the crickets faintly, as in, a few thick walls between me and the crickets but I never would consider them evil.

Cockroaches are more a nuisance than crickets...

i hate crickets period! see, i still live with mother and father (only 17) so i have to keep all animals, and feeders in my room. crickets smell, they are so loud if i order adults which i sometimes have to do, pluse i order all my feeders in the thousands. well what ever gets the job done. actually now that i thought about it, freezing crickets isnt too far from what i used to do. my mothers friend told me that when she was a little girl that her daddy would put crickets in the fridg for fishing. why? well, it wiuld slow them down, no noise, stop smell, and above all not kill them. so i would put all my crickets in the fridg so they would do just that, slow down. i guess you could care for them almost the same as one would care for millies. put them in a "warmer" part of the fridg, take them out for about 5 or 6 hours every other day and feed and water them. then right back into the fridg. try it, just might work for you. i would start off with only a few at a time until you mastered it, you know just incase you do something wrong and this weeks crickets all die. now i feel dumb for who ever it was that pointed it out in a very nice way that some of us were just over reacting, thanks. well laters dude.