Crickets?

Anyone from new zealand know if there are crickets in the pet shops? And how do you feed them? (live, kill them first, etc?)

Im not in NZ (obviously) but if you cant find them in a pet shop, go to a reptile place. Not sure if you guys have a "Reptile Barn" there?? OR something similar.

hi skylar i have also had troubles finding crickets or any live food except flys at my pet store. im also interested to hear if anybody knows a shop that sell them!!.

are there crickets in the wild here? Only things i've seen in pet shops are white worms and flies

yeah there are crickets in the wild here. theres a lot of cicadas *sp* around my house at the moment and i have managed to catch a lot for my axies

How about freeze dried crickets? Does anyone know if they are any good? They are readily available in most pet stores here in Aus and have thought about getting them for my axies for a treat every now and then.

I have pin head crickets ( really small ones) for my frogs and thought about giving one to my axie. I cruched its head ( i felt really sick, almost vomited, and promised never to do it again) I fed it to squidy and he ate the whole thing up. The problem was thet he kept gulping like he couldnt breath. I think thats because the cricket was still moving inside him and ticled his throught. My axies have the same problem with worms, anything that moves they have trouble with.

I suggest removign the crickets legs, IF you have the guts.

That's why I wanted to know bout the freeze dried ones you can buy . . . I couldn't squash a living ones head OR pull off its legs. I think of Jimmeny Cricket out of Pinnochio whenever I hear crickets chirping!

They wouldnt be as nutritious for them as live one because of the lack of vitamins etc in thier bodys for the axies body to benifit. Im not sating it isnt good im jsut saying its less nitritious then live, gut laoded ones. You can also gut load worms, If you want my secret recipe just ask.( i have recipies for gut loading just about any insect, so if you ned soem info ask me. That inclouds gut laoding feeder fish, brine shrimp and even black/blood worms, if oyu need a recipe for anything just ask)

There are tons of gutloading recipes for many things out there and very, very few of them have been developed to address the nutritional insufficiencies of the target animal. In any case, gutloading technically means a diet to adjust the calciumhosphorus ratio in an invertebrate feeder animal and unless the conditions are exactly correct, this usually does not work to any real degree.
A lot of hobbysists simply feed the feeder invertebrates with what they presume is a ideal diet and call it gut loading when they have no clue as to the effect of vitamin/mineral content of the "diet" does to the nutritional value of the feeder animal.

Ed

So . . . freeze dried crickets are ok, just not as nutritious as live ones. Buying live ones, then killing them isn't really an option.

I appreciate the offer anyway Stipe. Cheers.

Cicadas scare me, i have an irrational fear of them but yeah, i don't think i could kill a cricket, i have enough problems with cutting earthworms in half (the way they writhe and stuff after, they must be in so much pain!)

stipe - im interested in one of your recipes for the gut loading earthworms!!.

quote "I think of Jimmeny Cricket out of Pinnochio whenever I hear crickets chirping!"

Me too Joanne!! I feel so mean! Im going to have to get over it soon though (reptiles on the way)!

Stipe - one of my axies used to have trouble with live feed too. Ive never tried crickets with them (but was tossing it up the other day too). He'd grab the worm, and he'd fight and fight and fight to keep it in his mouth. It would slowly fight back and end up trying to borrow in the sand (till i used my trusty turkey baster). Its as if, he couldnt be bother, or wasnt strong enough to fight the worm. He's fine now though - its weird. Im thinking, maybe he just wasnt hungry enough to have to fight for his food ?? =)

Jojo i kniw, how frustrating is it. I try feed them, and they cant eat what you give them, then you keep trying and they never take it, trhey jsut cough it up, grr, i blame the worms(lol, i know they've been under alot of pain.)

Alex- Earth worms done need to be generly gut loaded, but i still do for taht extra kick. If ed would post info on the specific deficiency's earth worms have i can defiently twick my recipe abit.

This is what i do now. Take a big leaf of cabbage, a couple of spinich and letuce leaves. Chope those up finely ( doesnt have to be too fine). Next get half a carrot or so, shread that up also. Next get some avocardo and kind off shread, chop it up ( i know it gets mesy) Toss that into the lettuce/carrot mixture. Next get some of a nannana and toss that it once its been sliced and diced. Next some leaves for a tea bag and a pinch or two of corn mean and choped weat grass. On top of this i always add a amphibian multi vitiman and culcium supplament. Mix that up and give a spray or two of water for easy digestion and vola a easy recipe. You can also add more vegtables in as they will eat most vegatation or organic mater. Be carful No acidic food. One thing you can do is get chicken mash, the realy finey mashed one and sprinkle soem on the surface of the soil and they'll devour that, but i dont think axolotls liver can take any excess protien, or was that fat, Hmm....

Anyways when feeding that plop it in some small holes at the surface so its not two deep. Only a pinch or two, you dotn want to over feed. DOnt feed any more till that is all gone, which would be a week or so. Then you crush dry egg shelf into a powder and sprinkle that ontop. The chicken mash must NEVER be burried into the soil, for fear of protien posiening.

I know its not a detailed recipe but one thats worked wonders sf my axies and frogs.

(Message edited by Stipe on February 06, 2006)

Stipe,

there are some inaccuracies with your statements,

1) earthworms that are collected from calcium rich soils typically do not need to gutloaded as they typically have a positive calcium to phosphorus ratio. This is typically not the case if the worms are purchased as the soil in the container where the worms are kept are usually calcium poor.

2) There are issues with your choice of greens as they are either goitrogenic or contain oxalates which bind and can inhibit the uptake of calcium.

3) When using chicken mashes as a food source there is published literature that the traces of pesticides in herbicides in the non-organic poultry foods accumulating in the insects and other invertebrates fed to the reptiles and amphibians disrupting the reproductive ability of the animal.

4) there may be sufficient residual caffiene in the tea leaves to cause issues with the amphibians (caffiene is toxic to amphibians)


And please explain the phrase protien poisioning?

Ed

This is a quot from a book about earth worms,

"condition known as "protein poisoning" which is a build-up of acid within the bedding caused by the decomposition of the food."

Ed to your first point not all worms come from culcium rich soils. Most buy them from thier pet stores.

I didnt know that stuff about the goitrogenic or oxalates. But my frogs have shown no difiecency in culcium.

I get your point of chicken mash, but if you get it fro mthe right place.

I read in another thread htat salamenders dont ming coffie beans if they get it through thier worms.

snip "This is a quot from a book about earth worms,

"condition known as "protein poisoning" which is a build-up of acid within the bedding caused by the decomposition of the food." endsnip

Unless there is some other context to the paragraph, this does not mean that excess protien causes acidification of the medium. What it means is that overfeeding in general causes acidification of the medium which then causes "protien poisioning" which is not explained as to what this condition is actually.

snip "Ed to your first point not all worms come from culcium rich soils. Most buy them from thier pet stores." endsnip

And These should be kept in a calcium rich soil which would help to adjust the calcium balance. The addition of the some calcium as egg shells does not mean that you have managed the calcium phosphorus imbalance in the worms.

snip "I didnt know that stuff about the goitrogenic or oxalates. But my frogs have shown no difiecency in culcium. "end snip

When was the last time they were x-rayed to determine if they have the correct bone density? All because you have not seen any overt signs of calcium issues and/or iodine metabolism disruption does not mean that they are not occuring.
In addition, it is well documented in the amphibian medical literature that oral ingestion of calcium without sufficient vitamin D3 in the diet of anurans does not cause an increased level of calcium in the bloodstream of the anuran (in other words the frogs cannot absorb the calcium).
And as a final point, you may not have had problems as you may be doing something else that you may not even be aware of that enables the animals to avoid the issues that that is not included in your instructions to someone else.

snip "I get your point of chicken mash, but if you get it fro mthe right place. " endsnip

If it isn't organic then it doesn't matter where you get it. It can take several generations to build up to toxic levels but this has been documented.

snip "I read in another thread htat salamenders dont ming coffie beans if they get it through thier worms."

Caffeine is poisionous regardless of the method of delivery.

Ed

(Message edited by Ed on February 07, 2006)

hi,

does anybody know how i could breed my own crickets?.

Alex - if you have plenty of plastic tubs, a warm place, and don't mind the chirping and the smell, you can breed your own crickets. For most people it's easier to just buy them. If you do a Google search, I'm sure you can find instructions.