Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My crickets keep dying. I have a critter keeper and put in plenty of Flukers gutloader food and Flukers quencher. I don't know what I am doing wrong.

Any tips?

I had the same probalem...my solution: change to mealworms.
Mine kept dying and were very stinky so now I breed my mealworms and it doesn't cost anything. They don't die and they're not stinky. They're super easy to take care of and if properly gutloaded can be used as the staple diet. I know people will disagree with this but it works for alot of people.
Hope this helps. (it depends on how many herps you have)
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Katie
Peach State Geckos
My Email

I would love to use mealworms, but, sadly, my blizzard won't touch them. Never has.

Maybe they are over-gut loading them selves? they could be eating so much that there simple little bodies cant take in all the nutrients they pack into those commercial gut-loads. try just giving them veggies untill 24 hours before you want to feed them to your gecko, then give them the gut-load. preferably I would switch to mealies though! try doing it gradually, one mealie per feeding to start, then increase mealies and de-crease crickets. if you are trying to switch, try to dust both the crickets and the mealies with the same stuff, so if they give the mealies a lick, it tastes generally the same as the crickets, either way its worth a try!
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0.2.0. Leo
1.1.0. WTF
0.1.0. Irish Setter
2.2.0. Holland Lop Bunnies
1.1.0. House Cats
Too Many Fish!

Check out my site ~ www.freewebs.com/stephsgeckos

Make sure you're not letting the water mix with the cricket food. What I do is keep all the food on one side of the container, put egg cartons in the middle, and then all the veggies and water go on the other side of the container. Cricket poop gets everywhere and when it mixes with moisture can lead to bacterial growth that will kill your crickets.

If you're still having bad luck with crickets though, try feeding roaches. They are a much better alternative to mealworms and easier to raise.
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chickabowwow

Crixs r really hard to keep. Size of cage and how clean it is really matters. When i use to have to feed my herps (before switching to mealies) I kept about 500 in a ten gallon tank with half filled with egg carton and the other side had food and water gel stuff (forgot the name now lol) But i ended up having to change the news paper on the bottom every week most the time more often, but it did keep most of my crix alive even if the did ecape free into my house. Also crixs will die from over heat haven't had a problem with the cold tho... that just slows them down. hope this helps

Almost everyone has said to keep mealies. How, and if, do you breed them? What do you keep them in? What's the "basic" care of them?
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Tricia Smith

http://www. freewebs.com/stephsgeckos/projectselfsufficiency .htm
try reading this (take out the two spaces first)and then ask us anything you dont understand. I use a pretty basic method of keeping and breeding them, its not difficult at all!
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0.2.0. Leo
1.1.0. WTF
0.1.0. Irish Setter
2.2.0. Holland Lop Bunnies
1.1.0. House Cats
Too Many Fish!

Check out my site ~ www.freewebs.com/stephsgeckos

Here's a page on my site called "Breeding Mealworms". It has everything you need to know about gutloading and breeding them.
Click Here
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Katie
Peach State Geckos
My Email

Thank you!
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Tricia Smith

Hello. I've found the most effective way to keep crickets alive is to offer them orange slices. They get vitamins and fluids from them. (On the side, I feed fish food flakes, kitten growth formula food and gut load. But there are times when I only have oranges to use). With them, my cricket death rate has decreased from 50% to only about 5-10%. Give it a try. You also want to make sure you have plenty of hiding places for them (i.e. toilet paper rolls), keeps them less stressed. Hope this helps