What size crickets for my crestie?

She's only 19 days old and all the crickets I find out local stores seem too big - bigger then her cute little head.

I think it holds true for any lizard that the length of the cricket should not be longer then the width of the head.

I am not too certain though.

That's kind of what I thought...that's why I figured I'd wait to feed crickets when she's older because I can't find any small enough.

http://www.herpfood.com/ will sell you small enough crickets, if you want to give her some. There are lots of sources that sell pinhead and other small ones online, though you may have to get more than you need. One of the nice things about herpfood is that you can pre-order to have the crix sent at intervals to get around their minimum order.

Thanks! I'll check them out.

Pick up some crix for me while you're there, will ya? ;)

LOL. I've never seen pinheds and any other smaller crickets (only seen adults) - are pinheads big enough for me to find in the cage, handle, etc. I'm so afraid of crickets hiding in the cage and possibly nibbling on my baby!

pinheads are tiny! they're too small to handle, for sure, but if you order 100 pinheads, they won't be pinheads anymore by the 3rd feeding. a cricket keeper is just the ticket for avoiding handling them. just tap a few into a baggie, and if you tap too many in, you can put some back, and then you dust them. fwiw, i haven't had any problems with crickets attacking my geckos, and if you make sure to only put in 5 or so at a time, i'm sure you won't either.

I heard that Fruit Flys are good for small baby lizards. I give those to my chameleon and he loves them.

I've never heard of anyone feeding fruit flies to cresties, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't. They're just so tiny I don't think they'd be filling, but I'm no lizard. ;)

LOL. What is the rule for determining the correct cricket size to feed? Is it the width of their head,etc

I've heard width of head and distance between the eyes both. All I know for sure is that they don't seem to have any trouble with whatever size crix I can get for them. The bigger ones they just chomp in a couple of bites instead of a single one, but I wouldn't try anything bigger than 1/2" with a wee one, and would be quite comfy with 1/4" crix, so I'd buy pinheads and have them be ok in size for several feedings.

oops double post ... what do you expect at 4 am!!

actually I have had the best luck with fruit flies getting my baby cresteds started I use the large variety I forget which is which at the moment :roll: quite handy though since I have the darts around as well
I feed them a couple weeks on as many as they can pack in until I can get them on 1/8" crix atleast I hate messin with pinheads
The reason I do this is they seem to be intimidated by larger prey right after hatching

http://www.chondrosunlimited.com/Pho...s/IMG_1236.JPG

Thanks for the info, Robert! I may try that if I get a little hatchling.

Me too! Even though I've never seen a fruitfly - but I know they have them at my petstores.