Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How come i can't keep a box of crickets alive longer than 3-4 days??? I have them in a ventillated sterelite box with newspaper/paper towel substrate and plenty of paper towel tube/egg carton hiding spots, i am feeding fresh veggies...for the first 3 days i lose not a single one, then one morning 70-80% of them are dead. Any ideas?

thanks
chris

>>How come i can't keep a box of crickets alive longer than 3-4 days??? I have them in a ventillated sterelite box with newspaper/paper towel substrate and plenty of paper towel tube/egg carton hiding spots, i am feeding fresh veggies...for the first 3 days i lose not a single one, then one morning 70-80% of them are dead. Any ideas?

Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry? It sounds dumb but they aren't just molting and leaving you a ton of empty shells that look like dead crix? They are truly dying?? The number is vanishing? Other than conditions.....Do you have a cat? I have had cats climb in and 'play' with my crix and kill them. We won't talk about the escapee Savannah Monitor that climbed in the bin once though.:X
Only other thought is you are buying BIG OLD crix and they won't last long.
-----
Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

It can also depend on the health of the crickets when you purchased them. If from a petstore they may have been half starved and couldn't survive the competition for food. If adult crickets, they coudl be dying of old age. They could be killing each other off as well, which some will do if there are weak ones in the colony or competition between males.

I had the same problem for a long time thats why I don't care for crickets much anymore. Are you buying adult cricks?? It could just be that there old (crickets don't live very long), you can always try buying a younger batch and see if they fare better. Other then that just make sure they have food and water all the time. I use processed cricket food, or oats and a sponge soaked in water. Good Luck
-----
0.0.1 Green Water Dragon
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko
1.1.3 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Columbian Red-tailed Boa
1.0.0 Yellow Ratsnake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake

Try using roaches instead!

Fact: Average life span of a cricket = 2 months, average life span of most roaches 1 year.

Fact: Crickets make that annoying "Chirp" which can drive most reptile enthusiast up the wall. Roaches on the other hand don't make a peep!

I could go on and on but you get the point...

Dan Haas

Crunchy Critters Roach Farm (and pet supplies)