Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I pay $3 a week for 30 crickets a week. That will be about $156 a year. How do you save money on this?
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I will be back!

It sounds like you feed your gator more than mine - but I think San Diego subspecies does get a little bigger.

How warm are you keeping them? The warmer you keep them, the more they eat. I keep mine at room temperature with a small UTH providing a hot spot at one area of the tank, no heat lamps etc.

My adults eat about a dozen a week. Probably a littler more, local pet shop puts more than 2 dozen in the bag when I ask for 2 dozen - except for new employees who waste time carefully counting (until they figure out that it costs them more work as the line of customers builds up)

The adults are obviously content as their are always a few crickets left at feeding day from previous week, enough that they actually breed in the lizard tank. I throw a little gutload in the tank so the crickets don't try to feed on the lizards, and it works well.

My young - it depends upon size of the cricket.

I buy crickets basically when they are all gone.

If you have roses and you do not use pesticides, they absolutely love earwigs. Turn your porch light on at night and wait half an hour - catch all the moths that are attracted.

And you don't need to feed them in winter. Around thanksgiving, put them in the coolest room of your house without any heat - and make sure no live crickets are in their enclosure. Other than making sure they have fresh water available, you can basically just leave them alone until spring.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 19 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

The one that I originally had, double it size in a matter of less than 3 months.

Like you, i keep mine at room temperature too.

"And you don't need to feed them in winter. Around thanksgiving, put them in the coolest room of your house without any heat - and make sure no live crickets are in their enclosure. Other than making sure they have fresh water available, you can basically just leave them alone until spring."

Is this what you call brumatting? How can they live without food during this time? Do they lose size?
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I will be back!

They lose some weight but that is natural.
They don't lose a lot of weight because they are not very active but they do lose some.

Yes - that is brumating. It is necessary for many species to succesfully breed, I'm not sure if it is necessary for alligator lizards to succesfully breed or not.

The room I keep them in over winter cools down to mid 50s. I don't know how cool they need to get to succesfully breed.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 19 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

I would fined a new pet store, I get crickets 20 for a $1.00 or 1000 for $12.00 in the Los Angeles area
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1.1 Desert Iguana(Dima, Dianne)
0.1.1 Chuckwalla (roxy,Little Chuckie)
2.4 Collared Lizard (Fred, Barny, Wilma, Betty, Pebbles and ?
1.1 Desert Leopard Lizard (Simba, Kimba)
0.1 AZ. MTN. Kingsnake (Nimo)
0.1 Hamster (Tofu)
1.1 Kids
0.1 Wife