Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was checking on my Sav trio(hatchlings) this evening and noticed something very odd. Well earlier today i threw 4 or 5 live pinky mice in the enclosure along with 10 to 12 crickets.

I had a few things to take care of and upon my return i decided to see if they had eaten everything i offered and didnt notice anything moving besides a few crix.

I decided to take a closer look and flipped over a few leaves and what i saw really was....... well lets just say it wasn't what i had expected to see.

The damn crickets we're eating the pinks!(literally) I'm talking chunks missing and blood oozing! Get the fu_k out of here!

Anyone else ever see some ish like this?

Boy did i get a kick out of that. hahahahah
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0.0.1 Varanus Salvator (Gator)
0.1.3 Varanus Exanthematicus (Adisa "long term captive" other 3 "yet to be named hatchlings"
2.0 Ferrets (Chaos & Kasha)
1.0 Cat (George)

A lot of folks get to learn the hazards of leaving live prey in with their herps by less "humorous" incidents. Crickets will sometimes make a mess of lizards if the cage is dry, most often by eating their eyelids, the edges of their mouth or cloaca. Why the lizards put up with this is unclear, but it happens. We have also had sad stories here fairly regularly about what happens when live mice or rats are left unattended with monitors.

Unlike rodents, crickets are often fed in bulk, and can quickly disperse to hiding spots all over a cage. They are attracted to the same dark, tight and moist spots as are your small monitors, and it's always a good idea to (a) feed only what experience suggests that your animal will eat in a short time, and (b) have something (like lettuce or soaked dog kibble) available in the cage that you hope the crickets will prefer over lizard eyelids.

Thanks Sam,

I just thought it was odd. I had no idea about the whole nibbling of the eye lid thing either, thank goodness. But i do keep dog kibble in all of MY enclosures as well as moisture.

Wouldn't want the crix to go to waste(those that survive the initial meal) or dry out before becoming a meal for my animals.

I truly hope someone reads your post though and learn from it.

Thanks again for your response.

James Grigsby

i too have had monitors for several years with crickets left in their enclosure, i have never seen what you described. perhaps its a health issue, but i couldn't say.

andrew

i have been biten twice by cricketts..(funny), when i powder them on occasions , i pick the females only cause its easy to pick them up by there egg layin thingy on there ass with roachclips. well while picken them out i was biten, it didnt hurt but i'd be lien if i said it didnt kinda freak me out a little. it took a second bite before i believed it myself. it wasnt a brown cricketts like you order, it was a black crickett. im in alabama and where im at there is an awful alot of these things,so i go out and catch them in the afternoon, my girlfriend calls me the " the crik hunter" funny huhh?

in all my dwarf monitor enclosures there are lots of bugs. i especially notice this in my kimberly enclsoure. when you bring home crickets you bring home really three or four types of bugs. crickets, fuzzy worm like cricket eaters, the tiny beatles (which may be the final metamorphasis of the fuzzy things)and perhaps another bug or two. if fuzzies are not immediately eaten the bugs work at them, sometimes the monitors eat the fuzzies with the bugs on them, sometimes the bugs just totally devour the fuzzies and leave bones. either way it is kind of nice not to have to worry about it.

i get that a lot too with my male pilbara, he only eats fuzzies that have rotted a day or two, its kind of gross, but its his thing and he is healthy. so be it.

andrew

hey andrew,

Those "fuzzy" catepillar-type bugs are the larval stage of the dermestid beatle. The cricket growers strategically introduce these into their cricket bins, to feed on dead crickets.

I have learned from others, that Dermestids are a great way to clean skeletons you want to preserve. They will eat all flesh down to the bone, however, depending on the size of skull/skeleton you want "cleaned", this will usually require quite a significant number of beetles...

As for the cricket issue, I had an unfortunate experience with hungry crickets, where the actually killed and consumed 50% of my striped knee tarantula 8years ago or so... Make sure you provide some veggies, or fish flakes, or dog food, etc.. for the crickets to eat... They've gotta eat something organic, if there's nothing there, they look for the next best thing...

Cheers, everyone,

bob

thanks bob,
i just went to sunshine mealworms today. it seems like there are more beatles at different times. today they were swarming one of the buildings, kind of funny.

on a side note. anybody that thinks they can do a major cricket operation out of their basement is probably mistaken. sunshine (which supplies mark bell with 1.6 million mealies a week)has 12 20x40 foot buildings just for the crickets). WOW! and most of their customers are not reptile people or bird people, they are fish stores, lol.

the crickets in my enclosures just feed off monitor crap (a type of cannibalism, lol). if they last long enough after not being eaten they die and the beatles eat them.

ps: the larval stage is by far the favorite food of my baby beardies.

pps: spiders are a little different, especially during molt.

cheers, andrew