Which cricket is best?

[Sean90]

I was a pet store buying some crickets recently and a member of staff first told me that the black crickets were silent even though the website says different. However they suggested black crickets have more nutritional value is this true?

 

[Davo]

For some reason my newts are not much on the black crickets, as for silent crickets i used to worry about this with escapes and the missus and crickets chirping.
I never use above a 2nds cricket for any of my newts, even large adult newts dont get bigger than a seconds, they are not big enough to chirp, if any get out they would have to moult eat etc before they were chirping, i have never had a problem since swopping to 2nds for the last 5 or 6 years.

 

[Tappers]

I prefer using blacks as they're slower moving. Silent/banded crickets have long antennae and seem to leap rather than run. Once dusted and cooled to newt temperature there's not much in it but I feed and water mine and keep them on top of the viv stack where it's warm so any escapees whilst being decanted into a dusting bag have to be slow enough for me to catch!

As I use bean weevils and fruit flies for many of my beasties I have other options but nothing gutloads on colour-enhancing fish flakes like crickets do, so they're a staple on my menu -well, not mine exactly but you get the point..

Black crickets are far from silent but as Davo says, they need to be adult and male before this is a problem. Cool them, dust them and offer them in a smooth sided dish (or place your newts in a feeding container) and escapes are unlikely.

 

[DeCypher]

I personally don't think crickets should be fed to caudates [or even reptiles for that matter!] Their exoskeletons are difficult to digest and they don't provide much nutrition. A fat earthworm is much healthier

 

[Tappers]

I personally don't think crickets should be fed to caudates [or even reptiles for that matter!] Their exoskeletons are difficult to digest and they don't provide much nutrition. A fat earthworm is much healthier

But impossible to gut load to ensure proper colour development and balanced nutrition. Caudates have had an awfully long time to evolve the capacity to digest chitin - when you eat invertebrates in a world full of beetles there's a good chance you're going to encounter lots of crunchy meals. Bloodworm has a lot of chitin but can you imagine a world where caudate keepers don't use them?