Cricket free hatchlings
Day 2 after hatching we start offering very finely chopped greens (About dime sized) with moist rep cal pellets on top. We like to use the small cheap paper plates you can get from any discount store such as Walmart, Family dollar, etc. The babies will probably not eat from this plate for another day or so, but they are curious and will venture over to see what it is. We like to use the paper plates because this places the food at eye level and it can be seen from anywhere in the rearing cage. We also like to drop a few soaked pellets (one at a time) into the food dish, usually they will bounce and roll just enough to catch the hatching’s eye. This is usually just enough movement to make them pounce. Once they eat one or two pellets this way, they figure out that the “non moving” stuff on the plate is also food. If you still have a few hatchlings that are not responding to the pellets, try dropping a few onto their basking rock. 99% of the time, this will do the trick and they will start eating them within minutes.
We offer fresh greens and rep cal pellets twice a day. The lights come on at 7:30 am and they get their first plate of food at around 8:00 am. We then put in another plate of food at around 2:00pm. The food is removed at 6:30 pm and the lights go off at 8:00pm. We also offer small silkworms every 3 days or so. These are dropped directly into the salad mix.
Do not give up……. It may seem like nobody is eating anything, but if your finding poop, they are eating something! Generally you will start finding poop from the hatchlings at about day 3 or 4 after hatching. This is when they usually start eating. By about 2 weeks of age, they will be emptying the plate and wanting more. It is VERY important that you keep a supply of both greens and pellets in the cage during the day at all times or else the hatchlings WILL start looking at tails and toes as other food sources.
I now use the T rex supplements and use the Veggie growth formula. This is sprinkled on top of the veggies and pellets at both feedings per day. If you still use the trusted method of calcium with D3 and a separate multivitamin, I would suggest dusting the meals at both servings with the calcium with D3 and then using the multi vitamin twice a week. At about 3 weeks of age you can cut the multi vitamin back to once a week since they will all be eating a lot more of the rep cal pellets by then and getting most of their needed vitamins from them.
Oh and another “key” is to only soak the pellets in warm water for about 1 – 2 minutes. (Just long enough for them to start to expand) Any longer than that and they will just turn to mush.
Hope this helps …. Any questions, just email me and I will try to answer them for you
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Lisa 
Cricket free babies!
www.beginnersbasics.com
