Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am still having a great deal of difficulty succesfully keeping crickets alive for more than a day. If I leave them in an empty container, they live for a few days. If I put some pieces of lettuce, they do fine . But if I put Fluker's cricket feed (with a sponge for water on one side of the container) they die in like 8 hours. What is the deal? Is fluker's cricket feed terrible? What is the cricekt food most recommended for bearded dragons?

make sure you have good ventilation in the container. crix feed is really not needed and gets expensive. All you need is some greens or fruit for short times. they can get their hydration from that. You can also use chic feed with additional hydration. If you want to gut load, there are products for that too. use the gut load 1-2 hours before feeding.
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Bennett

Home Of The Florida Orange
www.beardiedragon.com

i wouldnt use chick feed, its mash and loaded with hormones, and beardies dont need those horrible hormones!

i use cricket total bites for crix and monkey chow for mealies.

imho some common problems:

1) TOO MUCH dampness.... if you start adding to much damp stuff they get a fungus and die fast, and get REALLY smelly.

2) too hot or cold keep them a comforable 77 deg - 3

3) lack of air flow esp. with #1

4) age, an adult crick only lives a short time, young ones live longer...

in general a batch of say 20-60 should live for over 7-14 days with a small number dying each day at the end.

if they are packed to close at a pet shop for the trip home this can kill a whole batch.

a local shop will try and put them in plastic bags and if you are getting a lot of them and have to travel in the heat of the day then 60 crix in a bag will start to die fast...
and when under stress they will turn canibal (limited space, and stress)

one way to deal with the bag is bring a small cage and avoid the bag.

hth
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