Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi- I am going through like a thousand crickets a week for six geckos- can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong?Thanks,
Zach

I raise my own crickets to feed ten California toads, and 5 adult and 13 hatchling fence lizards, and don't go through 1000 crickets a week. Are you sure your geckos are eating them, the crickets are not somehow escaping instead, or hiding in the substrate?
:A good rule of thumb for all geckos is to feed them a food item that is about 90% the size of their head. Food items much smaller than the gecko's head tend to be ignored in favor of larger food items. Hatchling leopards can be fed 2 week old (1/4" crickets, older juveniles(year or less old) and adults can be fed 3 week old (3/4" crickets or larger depending on the size of the gecko. Feed hatchlings 3-5 crickets or small mealworms daily, juveniles and adults at least 5-10 crickets/mealworms or more- adults 3 times weekly.
So for six geckos I come up with about 100 crickets for the lot for a week. Of course if you are feeding really small crickets maybe try a larger size.

hi- yeah.My lizardfs are def eating, i just cant keep the crickets alive. I usually give them some kind of greenms and vitall from sticky farms but they are dying. Thanks for your response.
Zach

Tub with lid on.

Tub with lid off to show the egg crate roosting pieces, the water crystals, and the ground meal ( I use the dust from the bottom of my rodent block bags, ground up cat food works well, too). Vermiculite for them to walk on. These are my breeders so they also have a lay tub (the little wire screen covered deli cup).

I don't feed any wet vegetable matter as that seems to always lead to mold. Mold will make them sick. When the water crystals get dirty I change them for clean fresh crystals.

For big hatches I use bigger tubs. It is very easy to drill a bunch of holes in the plastic lid for ventilation.

I hope this helps with keeping your crickets alive. If you can maybe describe how you are currently keeping (or NOT keeping, LOL!) your crickets, that would help in finding a solution to the problem.

There is a virus going the rounds putting big cricket farms out of business, so if you can grow your own that would be very good.

Hi,
I keep my crickets in an open topped plastic rubbermade with Vitall gut load on the bottom and nothing else. I add sponges for water and add some kind of vegetable weekly. I completely clean out
the bin after shipments. Thanks for your help,
Zach

leave the crickets aloneand set up some mealworms. OH so much easier.

>>Hi- I am going through like a thousand crickets a week for six geckos- can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong?Thanks,
>>Zach

Sounds silly but are you getting large crix? Cause Crix only live like....2 months. So by the time you get larges they have maybe a week left. Possibility.
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Sonya

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