Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I remember reading a while ago that Adam's crickets don't smell, even if he puts his nose in the container. How do you do it, Adam?

I currently only keep 100-150 crix at a time and they smell up the whole closet! I am feeding them calcium fortified grain-like food and cricket quencher gel that I bought at Petsmart. I know a lot of you guys feed them fresh veggies... is that the smell solution?

I am mainly asking because I intend to order crix online (cheaper), and they come by the thousand. I will be setting up a larger keeping container, but I really would like the smell to be as minimal as possible. I can't imagine how thousands of crickets smell when 100 really stink!

Thanks!
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1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger & Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)

Ok, I am not Adam, but until he gets here....I have b/t 100-500 at a time and the biggest "smell" offense is a dead one. It is amazing how much a single dead cricket can smell! I monitor my tubs daily or every other day and poke around for, and remove, any dead ones. The frass (poop) has some odor too but is mainly the dead bodies.

As for what we feed them it is more of concern for our chams than our crix (with the exception of bug-nuts like me!). "fortified grain-like food" is what exactly? What is inside your cricket is what provides vitamins, minerals and other nutrients to your cham so feeding them in a healthy way is important. I have heard nothing good about the gel cubes and since the crix poop on them and then consume it is sort of gross.

The gutload recipe on adcham.com is easily modified (if you cannot get all the ingredients ) and also give guidelines for the veggies to feed them.

So the long and short - take out your dead/dying crickets. Do you use any substrate? I use either nothing or plastic canvas (pc) cut to fit in several layers. All the poop fall thru and keeps it away from crix and food.

btw - closet? If they are in an enclosed space you will have that much more smell. hope this helps until Adam comes along How many do you have in what size tank/box/tub? I keep no more than 150 in a 10 gallon tank with lots of egg crates for them to climb on, I turn those daily and the frass falls thru the pc in the bottom

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Hmmm.... it seems that I am going about this all wrong. I keep them in one of the 'large' cricket keepers they sell at Petsmart, probably only equivalent to 2 or 3 gallons. I am new to this whole cricket keeping and gut loading routine, so I guess I just dont know the best way to go about it.

Before I discovered this wonderful forum, I got the cricket keeper and the jars of cricket feed and gel cubes... along with a little info from the Petsmart staff. I don't use any substrate... and yes, they do poop all over those gel cubes! Its gross...I have to change it all the time! How do you hydrate your crix?

I keep them in a closet because I don't live in a very large place, and the noise is muffled in there. Also because I thought my whole place would stink if I didn't separate them from the rest of the house.

I plan to upgrade the crix container to a large clear plastic storage tub, how many do you suppose I could keep in there? Will I need more than one to keep 1,000 crix? It is the 15.5 gal rubbermaid tub.

Thanks!
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1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger & Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)

I keep mine in rubermaid bins. I take the lids, cute the top square out and put screening in it for ventilation.

Then I put 2" of pine shavings in the bottom. Packed down a little bit. Then I put ample amounts of Egg crate. The pine, sucks up any smell, keeps it freesh and their poo falls down into the bottom.

I take two or three saucers, fit them down into the pine shavings. Fill one with dry grain gutload, fill another with wet gutload jelly, and then the last with some carrots, and healthy fruit.

Change the fruit and veggies every 48 hours, at least if not daily. You don't need to put a lot in there. If there isn't any left when you go to change them, ad one half peice of mini carrot or something until you get the right amount.
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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

Ahh... pine shavings. That makes sense. Smells good (to me) and cheap and easy to replace. Thanks for the ideas!
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1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger & Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)

Defenetly, about $4 for a 4 x 1.5 x 1 foot bag!

And pick up your dead!
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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

Are pine shavings OK? All I have read and heard about chams is that they are extremely sensitive to phenols and using pine in any way (cleaner, branches, etc.) is a big no-no. As bedding for the crix it may be OK, but they are exposed to the pine oil and may even consume some. Just curious.
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Hmmm Haven't had problems yet I think? The pine shavings are absolutely dry. Very tiny peices.

However, I do know that Wax Worms are shipped in Pine shavings to prevent "sweat" mold they often make.

Could it be Cedar you are thinking of?
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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

Hi Will,

The problem may be quite minimal due to the dryness, age of the bark/shavings and that the crickets live in them and not the cham However, if you read the article that Eve posted and the link to Kaplan's next article specifically on pine (first article is on cedar) you will see that most toxic effect is internal and that the jury was still out in 1994 (her articles are old, but her research is excellent - she is a trusted source of info).

I know about the waxworms being shipped in pine shavings, but they don't breed or live in them (at least not very long) and they don't eat them whereas a cricket might (they eat just about anything!)

Pine and cedar are in the same family (conifer/cone producing) and are both resin producing trees and resins contain phenols, volatile oils, etc.

I don't mean to make a big deal out of it, but since there is no definitive answer on its toxicity level I just want anyone new to this (e.g. waspinator) to be aware of the potential hazard in using any. I hate that the reptile industry still sells this stuff, but they sell calci-sand, too ;-/

If you crush your shavings and have absolutely no smell you are probably OK. Hey, it just occurred to me - I wonder how dry coco-fiber would work? I mix that with the peat for my roache to help retain moisture, but used dry as cricket substrate may be a good idea. B/c the pieces are small and thin the frass would have less chance to stick and would likely fall away to the bottom. As for my crix, they are on pc or nothing - with lots of egg cartons to hide and cruise around on, but I might just experiment with the coco-fiber.

lele
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she is on the loose!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

I guess I'll be switching to something else...

Problem with coco fiber is its fairly expensive.

I'll keep thinking on it. Pine shavings (Bought for my sisters Guenea pigs) work soooo well. Damnit.
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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

and usually is not used as a substrate for most lizards. I have left you a link about it's use.
Cedar, and Pine Toxic ???

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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Use wood boxes, they keep it dry and allow more climbing space. Here's a pic of one of my bigger boxes that houses between 3,000 and 4,000 adult crickets. In the pic there's about 2,000 in there (half full). Keep a slick rim around the top and you don't need a lid for it.

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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

I keep mine in large tupperware bins 78 quart and larger. I don't even need lids. I glue my eggcrates like honeycombs like Tyler does. I feed gutload and for a water source a use a small handfull of frozen veggies, great for food and moisture. I clean them out daily. Water gel is bad bad bad.As is most any type of water containers. They are nothing more than bacteria containers I have learned. Mine don't smell a bit.
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Wendy
Tattooist by Trade
Chameleon Keeper by Heart
Daughter of "DragonLady" Breeder of High Color High Quality Bearded Dragons
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4 Veiled Sunbursts
4 Blue Bar Amblobes
2 Nosey Be's
2 Sambava's
2 Tamatives
1 Ambanja

I find that dividing a large group of crix into more bins helps some, as fewer die from competition, stress, and cannibalism. Also, I put a layer of alfalfa rabbit pellets in the bottoms and this seems to mask or reduce smells. The crix also eat it. Keep the bins dry, change food often, and just clean the bins more often. It seems that most deaths occur right after I get a new batch probably from shipping stress. So, check and clean away the dead ones daily for the first few days. After that, other than older crix simply dying of old age, there should be a lot less. I keep my crix bins in a mudroom near the furnace so there is a lot of air exchange...no smells!

.
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1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger & Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)