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EM-JAY Snakemaster327 EM-JAY EM-JAY Snakemaster327 Yarg Joshsnakeman I_likepie_alot Jezah Im an animal I_likepie_alot Whytwolf Eartaker Armagedon48 I_likepie_alot Ferndalezoo Mike420 Mascaron Rrrragdoll Kyoss 789 Reptillian777 Kyoss Liz@rd lov3r Kyoss

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#295458

EM-JAY
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Crickets keep dying

i dont breed crickets, i go to the store and buy them, but they only last a couple days then die.i keep them in a bucket with lots of holes,and feed them lettuce.wat can i do to keep them alive longer?

04/02/05 08:43pm

#295645

Snakemaster327
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Message To: EM-JAY In reference to Message Id: 295458

Crickets keep dying

Try slicing potatoes and carrarots. I think they need to have a little water too. I buy mine from the store too, and mine lasted a couple weeks.

04/02/05 10:38pm

#297947

EM-JAY
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Message To: Snakemaster327 In reference to Message Id: 295645

Crickets keep dying

where do u keep them?

04/04/05 09:13pm

#297949

EM-JAY
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Message To: EM-JAY In reference to Message Id: 297947

Crickets keep dying

oh, and do they need warm temperature/

04/04/05 09:16pm

#298028

Snakemaster327
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Message To: EM-JAY In reference to Message Id: 297949

Crickets keep dying

Go to petsmart and get a little cricket keeper. It is a small plastic cage. I am not sure about warm temperature, but I don’t and they do just find.

04/04/05 09:58pm

#298045

Yarg
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Message To: EM-JAY In reference to Message Id: 295458

Crickets keep dying

crickets are omnivores.NO LIE! they scavenge for dead insects and other dead creatures all the time, meat is 10-15% of there diet however, usually females do this while pregnant so add a thawed frozen pinkie about once a week.

04/04/05 10:07pm

#299449

Joshsnakeman
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Message To: Yarg In reference to Message Id: 298045

Crickets keep dying

get a ten gallon aquarium. feed them carrots, potatoes, oat meal, bran, or anything else that is too healthy for people to eat
dont give them standing water because they will drown in it.
oh and give them egg carton.
they dont need heat.

04/05/05 11:59pm

#304084

I_likepie_alot
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Message To: Joshsnakeman In reference to Message Id: 299449

Crickets keep dying

i got about 500 babies. most died b4 they were half the size of adults. they kept eating eachother when maulting.

04/09/05 05:13pm

#319044

Jezah
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Message To: I_likepie_alot In reference to Message Id: 304084

Crickets keep dying

If they are adults they die because their life span is only about 3 weeks long. They are usually quite old when they are adult sized..

04/22/05 03:45pm

#327626

Im an animal
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Message To: Jezah In reference to Message Id: 319044

Crickets keep dying

Crickets are so e-z to keep. I usually keep about 5000 in bins. about 1000 per bin. All you need is some egg cartons you can purchase form www.eggcarton.com. Some water gel/crystels I buy it for about 5lbs it�s $30 thats including shipping. The crystels suck up about 400 times there weight in water. Some carrots,potatoes,oatmeal,dry iguana food, greens. The bins are lik $8 from wal-mart. you don�t need to keep the lid on They cannot climb out, but don�t stack the egg cartons 2 high they can still jump. Here is some pic�s of my breeders and the babys. The babys i keep in a glass tank cause the humidity needs to be a lil high for them i don�t no why. I have about 150 breeders in this first bin. thye are all hiding.

O and if they all keep die i would suggest get the next size down. And if you c some dead one�s get them out. They put out toxic gasses that will kill other crickets in the cage. I breed meal worms 2 but this is all ofr my chameleons. HAve about 14. LOT OF WORK!!!!!!

04/29/05 04:24pm

#529345

I_likepie_alot
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Message To: Im an animal In reference to Message Id: 327626

Crickets keep dying

whys there ice in those bins?

11/02/05 04:31pm

#529983

Whytwolf
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Message To: EM-JAY In reference to Message Id: 295458

Crickets keep dying

Ok here�s what I use. I have 3 medium sized plastic storage bins that i cut out the center bit on the lid and covered with ALUMINIUM Flyscreen.
I use a heating mat under each storage bin in conjunction with a thermomstat to keep the heat even. I have placed a stack of 3-4 egg cartons (usually free from your local takeaway shop) for the adult crickets to live in. I don�t place water in the enclosures as it�s a pain to change constantly. I only feed my adult crickets shredded carrots (LOTS OF THEM) large shreds, not the teeny shreds. AND I make my own cricket food by placing in a blender cat food, skim milk powder, wheat germ (when i can get it) AND CALCIUM POWDER about 1-2 teaspoons depending on the amount i�m making. Blend it all up until it�s a fine powder and place in an airtight container. I feed the dry cricket food as required by the crix. As soon as i see it�s gone i throw in another 1/2 cup or so.

Crickets.....you can�t do this with only 1/2 dozen crickets. I buy my adult crickets BULK in lots of 2000-3000 at a time from our local pet supply shop. If you can find a pet supply wholesaler who sells to the public even better. This way I not only have a breeding colony but i also have enough to feed my 9 month old beardies while waiting for babies.

In the container i place 2 containers (like plastic chinese food containers) filled with vermiculite (LARGE SIZE vermiculite) and completely moistened with water. I place these in the breeding colong enclosure and the let the crix do their thing.

Temp is most important with crix. If they are too cold you will know as they will not be singing and be very quiet. If they are warm enough, adult crix will start laying within two hours. You leave the Laying boxes in the breeding colong for 1-2 weeks depending on how many eggs you want. Make sure to keep the vermiculite moist...not soaked, but moist. If the substrate dries out the eggs will die.

After one-2 weeks place the laying boxes in large plastic container number 2.....same setup as your breeding colony (without the food and water initially. I tried like some people said and sealed these laying boxes...but they grew mold on top and the eggs never hatched. This time i left the lids off the containers and the eggs started hatching within a week. They have been hatching out of these same 2 containers for last TWO WEEKS!! I literally have hundreds of babies running around...

once they start hatching make sure you have water and food for them. I fouund that whole carrots with large cuts thru them work best as the babies crawl inside and suck the juice out of the carrot. You can also start placing the dry food (cat food mixture) in as well. Be sure to put a small container of water in as well that is stuffed with cotton balls so that the cotton balls soak up all the water and the little fellows will drown otherwise...

There you go...easy as.....

PS: the hatching container needs to have a heat mat under it as well. I found it best to place a towel between the container and the heat mat on both the breeding colong and the hatching colony. It diffuses the heat so they don�t get overheated....

Hope this helps

Cheers

11/03/05 04:32am

#535152

Eartaker
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Message To: Whytwolf In reference to Message Id: 529983

Crickets keep dying

im new to keeping crickets but i rarly have them die on me. I actualy feed them fish food... they love it and eat up very quickly and it also acts as a gut load, I hydrating them with potatos but the taters would dry out ver fast so I upgraded to the Fluker cricket quencher gel. and it acts as a water suplement so that they do not die in water. also i keep them in a 10 gal. tank with tubes for them to hide in.

11/07/05 09:34pm

#535476

Armagedon48
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Message To: Eartaker In reference to Message Id: 535152

Crickets keep dying

dont feed them pinkys. too messy, try feeding them a little dog food or cat food. i feed my crickets and roaches rat food. has good protein and lots of other good stuff. i noticed a 3x faster growth rate than if you feed them only collard greens. but remember to supply some food that contains water, i use jungle juice, same thing as that water gel shown up further

11/08/05 07:10am

#535939

I_likepie_alot
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Message To: Armagedon48 In reference to Message Id: 535476

Crickets keep dying

the first 3 days i found 2 or 3 dead ever day. then if ed them lots of carrots and havent had any die yet. none of the smaller ones died either. i guess t was lack of carrots.

11/08/05 04:50pm

#544041

Ferndalezoo
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Message To: I_likepie_alot In reference to Message Id: 535939

Crickets keep dying

Our crickets are set up thusly:

We buy 1000 at a time, and we keep them in a spare 10ga tank. We usually have bed-a-beast or soil at the bottom, but we�ve done newspaper, paper towels, and nothing at all, with no change in result. In the center of the tank, we have a cereal--sized bowl of greens, mixed with a good-quality gut-load. At the front left and rear right corners are small bowls of cricket "gel", or wet sponge. The other two corners have small bowls of the aforementioned gutload. You can either purchase this from somewhere like WILD EYE REPTILES, or make your own. We pile up assorted egg-crate and toilet-paper tube pieces in the tank, and dump in the crickets. We seldom have any significant die-off, and the crickets last us a couple of weeks.

Remember that feeding your crickets is about more than just keeping them alive. In the herp world : "You are what what you eat eats!".

11/15/05 07:32pm

#573961

Mike420
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Message To: Ferndalezoo In reference to Message Id: 544041

Crickets keep dying

I keep mine in a spare 10 gallon tank as well, and have some egg carton in it, and some paper towel rolls cut in half like the size of toilet paper rolls, and then have some cricket water and some cricket chow that I order with 1000 crickets from reptilefood.com . I also keep some carrots and potatoes in there for them. Mine used to die like crazy until I ordered the cricket water and cricket feed, but for some reason my adult crickets always die even thogh I have cricket was feed and carrots in there, and there not that big either so I dont think their dying of death. I dont think they need a specific temperature, but mine are at room temp which is about 78-80 degrees, which I think it shouldnt be any lower Ive read.

12/15/05 04:27pm

#866986

Mascaron
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Message To: Mike420 In reference to Message Id: 573961

Crickets keep dying

I had the same problem 35 crickes dead in 3 days so what did I do you ask? i switched supplyers and behold! no more dead insects.

07/05/06 12:01am

#869097

Rrrragdoll
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Message To: Mascaron In reference to Message Id: 866986

Crickets keep dying

I have had good luck with premiumcrickets. This last time when I ordered my 500 crickets I got the water crystals and food. I have noticed that they have grown quite a bit faster using their food. Mine last about a month, I get 1/8ths, they�re a little small for my needs at first so I use more, but as they grow they are perfect. It�s so much cheaper, about $15 for 500 delivered, and they are quick. Even if I wouldn�t use them all I�m still saving.

I�m feeding 2 RETFs and a tiny gecko.

07/06/06 02:44am

#869630

Kyoss
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Message To: Rrrragdoll In reference to Message Id: 869097

Crickets keep dying

the lettuce u could be feeding the crickets might have a type of chimcal on it.thats y i feed mine chimcal free lettuce.

07/06/06 02:01pm

#879622

789
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Message To: Kyoss In reference to Message Id: 869630

Crickets keep dying

I lost 1,000 or so crickets to a cat knocking over my bin. I�m glad it was in the garage and not the house. i have dead one�s all the time, but I�m getting large crickets. I saw three crickets eat a dead one. gross.

07/12/06 02:00am