What to feed crickets?
- Thread starter Tommy13b
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moosassah
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If you really want to deal with keeping stinky, noisey crickets then the answer is:
cricket feed available at pet stores
the water crystals also available at pet stores
some pieces of lettuce, spinach or whatever green you have
That said...ewww! Crickets are nasty. Serve them up as a treat now & then. Go for feeding mealie worms as your staple food. Much easier, no stink, no noise, live longer, costs less.
all above comments are my opinion, as strong as it may be. It's your decision.
cricket feed available at pet stores
the water crystals also available at pet stores
some pieces of lettuce, spinach or whatever green you have
That said...ewww! Crickets are nasty. Serve them up as a treat now & then. Go for feeding mealie worms as your staple food. Much easier, no stink, no noise, live longer, costs less.
all above comments are my opinion, as strong as it may be. It's your decision.
Mealie might work for you, but my leo will not touch them, it loves crickets, eats them right outta my hand. lastnight i was feeding him a cricket but he missed and lached on my finger, I kinda freaked me out but after that i thought about it and laughed 
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TokayKeeper
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Post #22 from Cricket vs Mealworm Poll
I use the same diet at work (Naturalist ["curator" - unofficial title] at the Las Cruces Museum of Natural History, overseeing the entire Nature Center, its animals, programs, and students employees), as well as at home. I've been using variations of it since 99/00 with great success.
lettuce = water, low nutrients
spinach = high in iodine, and other oxolates that bind to calcium and do allow for calcium to be absorbed into the body in a form needed for bone development and other processes.
you are what you eat...
Mealies can smell just as bad as crickets, especially when you have 5 tubs od colonies going.
Mealies are higher in fat and lower in protein than crickets. Their exoskeleton is also harder (thicker) to digest than that of crickets.
Crickets are a more natural prey item, whereas grubs, such as meal worms, are rarely surface active where they can be readily consumed in the wild.
Crickets, if regularly cleaned like any other animal, can smell pretty decent if kept on oatmeal or chicken lay mash (high in calcium for chicken egg production!!!111!one!!).
I find the chirping ("noise") peaceful unless it's a lone male calling.
If buying mealies at a local pet store, crickets are actually cheaper (here) and mealies.
Bassett's Cricket Ranch (whom I oder my crickets from) sells super worms and crickets by the 1000 count at about same price, factor in shipping and they cost about $0.02-$0.03 each. Pet** or Pet***** charge $5.49 for a 50 count cup of superworms and $0.06-8 per cricket. Equates to cheaper for crickets.
I use the same diet at work (Naturalist ["curator" - unofficial title] at the Las Cruces Museum of Natural History, overseeing the entire Nature Center, its animals, programs, and students employees), as well as at home. I've been using variations of it since 99/00 with great success.
moosassah said:
lettuce = water, low nutrients
spinach = high in iodine, and other oxolates that bind to calcium and do allow for calcium to be absorbed into the body in a form needed for bone development and other processes.
you are what you eat...
Mealies can smell just as bad as crickets, especially when you have 5 tubs od colonies going.
Mealies are higher in fat and lower in protein than crickets. Their exoskeleton is also harder (thicker) to digest than that of crickets.
Crickets are a more natural prey item, whereas grubs, such as meal worms, are rarely surface active where they can be readily consumed in the wild.
Crickets, if regularly cleaned like any other animal, can smell pretty decent if kept on oatmeal or chicken lay mash (high in calcium for chicken egg production!!!111!one!!).
I find the chirping ("noise") peaceful unless it's a lone male calling.
If buying mealies at a local pet store, crickets are actually cheaper (here) and mealies.
Bassett's Cricket Ranch (whom I oder my crickets from) sells super worms and crickets by the 1000 count at about same price, factor in shipping and they cost about $0.02-$0.03 each. Pet** or Pet***** charge $5.49 for a 50 count cup of superworms and $0.06-8 per cricket. Equates to cheaper for crickets.
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I had the same problem with not all my geckos wanting mealies. I reverted back to crickets which all my geckos love. Worms as treats. As far as smell goes ....yea they do if you don't clean bins every once in awhile. I keep my cricket bins clean so ..no smells for me. For feeding crickets I use Cody's pro-gutload....awesome! and cricket water.
moosassah
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Thanks for that info on the diet (Tokay Keeper's post).
I also use the orange cubes because they are easy & keep well in the fridge.
I also use the orange cubes because they are easy & keep well in the fridge.
BettaDragon
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I feed my crickets carrots, potatoes, fluker's gutload, some of those dried flies advertised as leo food. I also feed them what ever veggies in the fridge that are slightly past being able to be consumed by humans such as wilted celery and lettuce.
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