Cricket pockets? or another lifesaver for crickets.

[maximusx6910]

Does anyone use the cricket pockets? The ones to prevent the stupid crickets from drowning themselves? I have decided to throw some crickets back in my leos's diet b/c i want them to get some more exercise. Recently there has been one or two that have drowned themselves. I cant replace and clean the bowl if im at school during the day. Do they work, or is there something familiar that works?

 

[Srt14292]

Have you considered using the gel crystals? Water source with no risk of drowning.

 

[maximusx6910]

Are the gel crystals for the crickets or the gecko?
I havent had the chance to try/ nor have i heard of it. But thanks though

 

[Srt14292]

For the crickets, ill try and find a link to a product, don't know if its avaliable in the US, but it will give you an idea of what your looking for.

http://www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=745

There you are, very good for feeder insects.

 

[maximusx6910]

Will it keep the crickets out of the gecko's water bowl? Just wondering. That is the main concern. But i do like the idea, and ill look into the gel. Thanks

 

[Srt14292]

For that I can't be certain, I can say they will be more attracted to the gel, In the times I've used it they have been, but I can't say none will not accidentally jump into the water bowl, But im pretty sure the leo will be able to use it as a water source as well. So you would iradicate the need to have a water bowl while feeding. But it might get tedious after a while.

Thats the only suggestion I have, Im sure there are other alternatives though.

 

[maximusx6910]

Alright but really thanks. Ill try that out and see if that kind of keeps the crickets attention.
They have a similar product i think thats a gel like you said at a local pet store.

 

[ZooKeeperKarin]

Personally, I do not feed the geckos in their own cage. I have a separate 20 gal. that I dump a bunch of crickets in and put the geckos in there one at a time until they've had their full. No mess in their cage, no leftover crickets, no drowning. It has worked wonderfully, as long as you don't mind an extra aquarium around.

 

[sammer021486]

For water in the cricket enclosure I would say get the unfortified water gel crystals. I have found that I have a lot less crickets dying when I use just the plain water gel crystals. When I was using the vitamin and calcium fortified water gel I had a very high mortality rate in my feeders. I began reading and found out that these high calcium and vitamin gels can cause high die offs on feeder insects. I switched just the gel and kept everything the same and I have no mass die offs now.

As for preventing the crickets from getting into the gecko's water dish, either use a shallow bowl that the cricket can get out of or place cricket savers in the bowl that allows the crickets to crawl out of the bowl. The cricket saver looks like a spiky ball.

If you are not using a lot of water gel, then purchasing it from a pet store is the better option. If you are using a large amount of water gel crystals I would recommend purchasing the crystals in their raw form and then adding your own water source. I was paying $10 for the 15oz unfortified bags pre-mixed water gel. I now pay $10 for a 1 lbs bag of the crystals, which produces 16 gallons of water gel. If making your own gel is it best to use distilled, RO, or bottled water. It is hard to compare the 15 oz bag to the 1lbs bag because the 15oz is by expanded weight and not by dry crystal weight. To give you a better idea of how much you are getting in a 15oz bag, 1 teaspoon of crystals from my 1lbs bag yields roughly the same volume as the 15oz.

 

[Imperial Geckos]

i use rack system to house all my fat tailed geckos. And I only feed them crickets. How i keep the crickets from drowning in the water bowls is simple and cheap. I got a sponge cut it into a square fully soak it and put it in the water bowl. If the cricket lands in the bowl it gets out by crawling up the sponge. I wash the sponge by rinsing it out thoroughly with close to boiling water to reduce risk of any type of bacteria growing on it. Hope this helps...by the way here is a picture of the baby rack only cause my white-out was out and about lol ...see the sponge? lol

 

[erik]

I just want to add that for the cricket enclosure you can also use plain water. What I've done is taking a small coffee cup, filled it with pebbles and then added water. I put this in my cricket enclosure and if they want to drown they really have to try their best!

Concerning the leo's water, I fridge the crickets before feeding because my tank is so big. So I throw a hypothermed cricket in front of the leos and they will gladly put it out of misery

 

[maximusx6910]

i use rack system to house all my fat tailed geckos. And I only feed them crickets. How i keep the crickets from drowning in the water bowls is simple and cheap. I got a sponge cut it into a square fully soak it and put it in the water bowl. If the cricket lands in the bowl it gets out by crawling up the sponge. I wash the sponge by rinsing it out thoroughly with close to boiling water to reduce risk of any type of bacteria growing on it. Hope this helps...by the way here is a picture of the baby rack only cause my white-out was out and about lol ...see the sponge? lol

thats a great idea thank you very much

 

[adam&nikki]

there really isnt any way to keep them from drownin in the gecko tank unless you take the water bowl out when feeding which would be a pain in the but you could also change the feeding time that will let you bet at home so you can save the cricket from the long painful death of drowning and let him get chewd up by your leo

 

[mushraeddur]

Will it keep the crickets out of the gecko's water bowl? Just wondering. That is the main concern. But i do like the idea, and ill look into the gel. Thanks

Just put a large enough rock in the middle of the water bowl to give the crickets an escape.

I have a cricket keeper and use the gel. I put it in a small cap (an extra that came with the keeper actually), and it works great.

 

[mushraeddur]

thats a great idea thank you very much

Another good way to clean the sponge is to microwave it. You need to let it completely dry before microwaving it, but it does great to kill everything.

 

[maximusx6910]

dont know when you posted back, but thanks haha