Cricket feeding

[beverleyx]

Hi , I would like to try crickets with my Axies as the moment they are fed almost exclusively on fresh earthworms and blood worms if im too busy to dig!!!!
I appreciate the wee beastie crickets will swim /float and as soon as my guys see them they will be eaten but ...... how do I keep crickets ? I can buy them from pet smart but how do I keep them healthy so that my Axies are getting a healthy snack ? :happy:
many thanks ,

 

[melfly]

I'm not sure crickets would be worth getting to be honest as you are already feeding them on earthworm.

I would imagine there are lots of undigestible bits on a cricket.

Stick to worms

Mel

 

[melfly]

On a side note...they will eat woodlice. Woodlice walk on the floor in the tank and are free if you have a garden.

Mel

 

[Quentari]

Crickets don't have a whole lot of nutritional value but one of my axies love them as a treat. Some people use the gutload on them... either way you shouldn't use them as a staple if you can help it

 

[Hamamelis]

Just in case you do decide to get some as a treat- keep them in an escape proof box, with air holes and add some broken up egg boxes or shredded newspaper to hide in. Give them something like bran for long term food, gut load with fish flake or some specialist cricket food for the last day or so, and give them an orange or apple segment for liquid- if you put in a water dish, they will drown in it, regardless of how difficult this seems. Keep them dry, or mould will develop and kill them.

Unless you are incredibly careful, some of them will escape, they will then take up residence somewhere in your house that you can't find, then once they reach adulthood, they will chirp until you go mad. They also smell pretty bad, unless you do get a mould problem and they start dying, in which case they smell awful.