removing cricket legs..

ok, theres gotta be an easier way to go about this...

I just used a pair of tweezers to hold/catch crickets while i clipped off one hind leg to keep them from jumping. This was suggested to me as a mean of feeding my red eye tree frogs as they are housed in a live tank with lots of places for nasty little crickets to hide... I wanted to have an ability to also keep count of what they are actually eating also.

So, any suggestions besides tweezers and scissors. would it be helpful to freeze them for a moment to slow them down? I feel horrible having to do this for them

Sticking the crickets in the fridge will work. Don't freeze them though. Leave them for about 15 minutes and it will slow them down. They do warm up wuick though.

I use to use a vase for flowers a tall one. The crickets couldn't jump out, but the geckos could get in and out and get the crickets. I used that when I had loose substrate. I have since gone back to papertowels.

I am not sure about the frogs? Do they have sticky feet? lol.

Anyway, thats about all I can think of.

Can they eat roaches? If so I would try some B. Dubias. Than can fly or climb. Plus the geckos really, really like them.

eww they can fly and climb or they cant?

i will try the fridge thing next time. they do have sticky feet but they have to actually pounce on their food. right now i have them in a small but deeper than sandwich plastic container one frog is eyeing them bit time while the other remains asleep.

they do have sticky feet ;) more sticky than the cresties actually.

*they can't*

im sorry?

I believe what Richard meant was that B. Dubias "can't" fly or climb

I think :oops:

thanks for clearing that up ashley.. that would be so gross though, i hate cockroaches!

ugh me too, I am actually afraid of them

When I think about it, I don't really understand why they are so scary.

I can't help it, but if one touches me, I almost cry. I live in TX and the biggest one I saw was like 4-5 inches long.

4-5 inches :O
I would have a heart attack.

im in s.fla and they get pretty big here too.. I HATE THEM! *shudders*

Yeah, when I lived in FL, I opened the door one night, and one came flying at me. I started screaming and crying and my mom was panicing trying to figure out what it was. She laughed at me. But I can't kill them either, I can't stand the crunch.

I recently saw removing the legs suggested in a cham care sheet. I'm trying to decide just how risky cricket legs are. At least in the case of chams, they eat crickets in the wild.

its not that the cricket legs are risky.. its just easier to keep tabs on the number of crickets consumed when you keep a count on them because they are confined to a small container

I was under the assumtion that you dont actually remove the legs, but sqeeze and break them. I would think removing the legs would actually kill the cricket.. :confused:

Yeah I wouldn't actually pull the legs off, but clip them so they can't jump.

Pulling them off will kill the crickets.


Oh and I did mean that B.dubia "can't" fly or climb.
I was really freaked out about roaches too. I actually had the worst phobia of them. I could handle scorpions and spiders but not roaches.

Then I found Dubias, they are actually rather small and move much slower than most roaches. They breed pretty slow. They don't get that big. Max about 2 inches, maybe 3. I handle them all the time now.

They are so much better than crickets.
Here is a pic of one. This one is a little smaller than an adult.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...n/DSCF1424.jpg

pulling off the crickets legs *Will* kill them, i clip them with a pair of nail clippers or cut them off with scissors. i try not to torture them too much by only doing one rear leg. its just as effective and cant hurt as much as doing both (ouch!!) those roaches are so gross im sorry! they totally creep me out. i will call our local insect provider and see how much they are. it has been easy because of already having crickets at home (dragons) so snagging a couple from them was pretty easy and cost effective

Ah! look at the little buggs! looks like a large roly poly. haha

i just pinch the back legs off of crickets with my finger nails while i hold the cricket in the other hand. i bet cuticle scissors would work pretty well too since they are nice and small.

dubia roaches are nice roaches. they are totally not the same as regular cockroaches. i really despise regular roaches and the thought of one flying at me is somewhat horrifying, but the type of roaches that you use for feeders are waaay different and so much cleaner and less stinky than crickets. i used to feed my red eyes crickets and dubia roaches and they were crazy for both.