Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We recently sold one of our large veiled breeders to someone locally here, he just had to have him. In less than a month he was dead. We took him to the Vet last night and he passed this morning. He died from pin worms that were passed on to him via the crickets he was fed. The crickets came from a local pet store. Pet stores usually don't take the time to properly care for their feeder insects, so if you must buy from them, please allow your feeder crickets several days to rid their systems of anything that may be harmful to your chams. There is no guarantee that anything will get rid of any harmful bacteria crickets may be carrying plus they really don't have the proper gut load from the pet stores anyway. One real good way to make sure your crickets have passed any feces they may have eaten is to feed them carrots. Its real obvious when the carrots have passed through the cricket. It was stated in an earlier post by someone else, but its worth repeating. IF you free range crickets give them something to eat or they will eat cham feces if there is nothing else or chew on your cham while its sleeping.

This didn't need to happen. I know its been said many times here, if your chams starts acting differently do something about it. If you wait two to three weeks chances are you will not get the cham to return to a healthy condition.

Buying crickets from suppliers may not be much better if they haven't supplied the crickets something to eat when they boxed them up to ship them to your home.

This is indeed a sad day for us as he was a special guy.

Yosemite & Morgana

How sad - and frustrating(!) for you. I buy crix from the feed store within a couple days of delivery and I know they get them from Flukers (not that that is any sort of guarantee!). I didn't know that about the carrots - how can you be sure? is feces orange? I guess I never looked...

>>We recently sold one of our large veiled breeders to someone locally here, he just had to have him. In less than a month he was dead. We took him to the Vet last night and he passed this morning. He died from pin worms that were passed on to him via the crickets he was fed. The crickets came from a local pet store. Pet stores usually don't take the time to properly care for their feeder insects, so if you must buy from them, please allow your feeder crickets several days to rid their systems of anything that may be harmful to your chams. There is no guarantee that anything will get rid of any harmful bacteria crickets may be carrying plus they really don't have the proper gut load from the pet stores anyway. One real good way to make sure your crickets have passed any feces they may have eaten is to feed them carrots. Its real obvious when the carrots have passed through the cricket. It was stated in an earlier post by someone else, but its worth repeating. IF you free range crickets give them something to eat or they will eat cham feces if there is nothing else or chew on your cham while its sleeping.
>>
>>This didn't need to happen. I know its been said many times here, if your chams starts acting differently do something about it. If you wait two to three weeks chances are you will not get the cham to return to a healthy condition.
>>
>>Buying crickets from suppliers may not be much better if they haven't supplied the crickets something to eat when they boxed them up to ship them to your home.
>>
>>This is indeed a sad day for us as he was a special guy.
>>
>>Yosemite & Morgana
-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & no name
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & no name

np
-----
---------------------------
Gabriel - Montreal
---------------------------

I always seem to have a large die off whenever I get crix from online vendors. No matter where I get them from, I usually start out minus 50 or so from shipping and end up with maybe 100 or so more dying within a few days of receipt (I usually order 1000). I keep mine in an 18g rubbermaid container with the screen on the lid. I feed them the nature zone total cricket bites. I use the egg carton dividers that come with them and everything.

I have tried the gutloads from other places with no better sucess. Maybe thats normal?
-----
Raf

1.2 Jacksons Adults (Frank, Patty, Lucille)
0.0.1 Jackson's baby (George, R.I.P. 11/17/2003)
1.1 Nosy Be's - No Names Yet
1.1 Veiled - No Names Yet
0.1 Adult Sulcatta (POOPIE,I bought it from Victor at Kobey's in SD)
0.0.2 Baby Sulcattas (frick and frack)
1.0 Home's Hingeback Tortoise (SPEEDY, From Victor as well)
1.2 Red ear slider babies (Hingis, Dingis and Dorkus)
0.0.1 3 toed box turtle
0.0.1 Gulf Coast Box Turtle
1.0 Red Siberian Husky (Harley)
0.1 Black Lab (Krissy)
0.1 English Bulldog (Alice)
0.1 Blue Merle Great Dane (Wednesday)
Saltwater Fish and Inverts too

One of my friends' brothers lost his first beardie (he was a few years old) recently b/c he got a bad batch of crix from a store where he had gotten crickets many a time before. He put some in right after he got them, and when he got home from work his dragon and all the crix were dead.
Leaving crickets for a few days before feeding not only cleans their systems, but lets them die off if they have any diseases in them. If you get a batch of crix and most of them die ina day or two DO NOT feed the ones that are left to your cham!!! Contact the supplier and let them know...

I feel a bit stupid, but my last order of 500 from *********.com had a HUGE die off - like 200 (at least)! I always separate some out 24 hours before feeding so I could do heavy gutloading -and some of them would die, too! Now you've got me worried! I don't know why I didn't get more concerned I was thinking more about not using the supplier again - ugh! Well, this has prompted me to get a fecal and checkup done just in case. I am slowly switching her to silkies and roaches and will be glad when the cricket becomes the occasional treat!

thanks!
lele

>>One of my friends' brothers lost his first beardie (he was a few years old) recently b/c he got a bad batch of crix from a store where he had gotten crickets many a time before. He put some in right after he got them, and when he got home from work his dragon and all the crix were dead.
>>Leaving crickets for a few days before feeding not only cleans their systems, but lets them die off if they have any diseases in them. If you get a batch of crix and most of them die ina day or two DO NOT feed the ones that are left to your cham!!! Contact the supplier and let them know...
-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & no name
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & no name

It scares me too! Those crix were from the same store I get mine from. It's the only store in twon that sells them. I just make sure that they are mostly alive after afew days before I use them.
Out of 5000 200 probably isn't enough to be extreemly worried, though I do thinks its' a good idea to get a fecal done. I think all but one or two of scots died, of the batch that killed his dragon. Actually, a fecal exam is probably one of those things that should be done every six month or anually anyway. that said.. I need to get one don b/c I haven't as of yet. I'm going to take orion for a check up after she lays (IF she EVER does!!)
~Lindsay

Lindsay - it was out of 500 not 5000 LOL!! Luna's piggy, but not THAT piggy!!

>>It scares me too! Those crix were from the same store I get mine from. It's the only store in twon that sells them. I just make sure that they are mostly alive after afew days before I use them.
>>Out of 5000 200 probably isn't enough to be extreemly worried, though I do thinks its' a good idea to get a fecal done. I think all but one or two of scots died, of the batch that killed his dragon. Actually, a fecal exam is probably one of those things that should be done every six month or anually anyway. that said.. I need to get one don b/c I haven't as of yet. I'm going to take orion for a check up after she lays (IF she EVER does!!)
>>~Lindsay

-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & no name
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & no name

Don't forget that sometimes die offs can result from a shipping delay in a cold or hot place. It may not always be from disease, but I still don't want to feed a dying insect to a healthy cham. Dying insects may suffer a bloom of parasites and bacteria in the gut. I NEVER feed crix to my chams until they've been in my care for a few days. I then know what they have in their gut, junk gutloads are gone, any dying ones have been cleaned out, and if the batch has anything wrong with it I will know.