How Do I Keep My Crickets From Dying

Everytime I buy crickets they die like crazy. I bought 500 online and within 2 weeks there are about 200-300 dead. I keep them in a very large plastic box with a lid with large holes cut out. I keep a dish with the gel cricket water and a dish with cricket food in it. Is there a trick to keeping them alive? What else do I need to do for them?

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Originally Posted by cierahailee

Everytime I buy crickets they die like crazy. I bought 500 online and within 2 weeks there are about 200-300 dead. I keep them in a very large plastic box with a lid with large holes cut out. I keep a dish with the gel cricket water and a dish with cricket food in it. Is there a trick to keeping them alive? What else do I need to do for them?

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what kind of food are u given them?

They eat that stuff from the pet store Flukers High Clacium Cricket Diet. I keep some in there at all times. Should I just give them some like 2 times a day or something? Maybe they are eating too much or something?

well your suppose to change the water/food every 2 days.
Um what about temperature.??

They are to stay around 70-75 degrees
Never have a temperature above 80, or let it drop down to 65.

Its the Flukers food. Its horrible. Its too high in calcium and it will kill your crickets faster than your animals will:)

You are much better off making your own gutload. I am not sure if cricketfood.com is still running but I would highly recommend them.

There are many other things you can feed your crickets, but anything high in calcium will kill them off really quick.

I feed mine fresh veggies for moisture and I use repashy's cricket food or crested gecko diet, since I always have such an abundance of it.

ahahaha well there you go, guess its the fluke.

I would reccomend timberlinefisheries.com
Their cricket power food is awesome.

But either or website has goodstuff.

Thanks you guys! I will definately try a different food!

No problem, you will notice a huge difference.

I fed that stuff back when I had leopard geckos and my crickets died really fast too. They weren't adult crickets so I knew something was wrong.

Even adults don't usually die that fast.

What about the Flukers Gel Water? You think that stuff is ok or should I use something else?

Crickets have a very short life span, nothing you can do to keep the masses alive. Get roaches! if you need something cricket size then lateralis works great, if you can deal with stuff bigger dubia, craniifer or discoids!

I have heard that the water stuff is okay, but not the stuff loaded with vitamins. I have never used it so I can't speak from experience.

I would just use veggies like carrots, potato slices, I use the left overs I have from the dragons veggies. Fruits will work too.

I can barely handle crickets! I dont think I could handle roaches!

I rarely feed crickets anymore since I switched to Dubias. I try to change it up for the Dragon though so I do get some crickets here and there.

Dubias are so much better than crickets though. I didn't think I could handle the roaches but it wasn't bad at all.

I'll look into it. How many would a beardi the size of mine eat a day? See the pic with my sig for sizing!

crickets need water food and lots of air!
what size crickets are you buying?
when i had them all the time id use there huge critter keepers
even then they will still die

Merged both threads for you :gj:

Thanks Deborah!

I'm another who swears by Dubias... I keep all sorts of Herps and have not had to buy a cricket in months since my Dubia colony got up and going. They don't stink like crickets do... They are easy to handle... They don't chirp... and they breed like crazy when you keep them warm. IMO the best feeder for bug eating herps.

As for crickets... When I was raising them I found the survival rate stayed up when I had extra ventalation. It's like the smell of crickets...kills the crickets. I cut an openings in the sides and the lid to ensure a nice pathway for cross ventalation.

The smell of crickets kills humans! actually when they die they release a toxin that kills others, so one dead will kill 3-5 more and so on! ventilation is a must, mold and rotten foods will also kill them fast.

As far as roaches go, they are not as bad as you think they are. I dont even think that my dubia look like a normal american roach. They are a little slow to get off the ground to breed but once they are going your never have to buy crickets again. They like it warm so temps need to be in the 90's, with good food and a water supply, I use water crystals. He will be eating just a little less dubia than crickets, dubia are meatier so he will fill up a little faster, so just feed 2-3x a day for 15 mins all he can eat!

What size crickets are you buying? Beardies should be able to eat all 500 in two weeks easily. They cant die when they are already dead;)

BTW, to those who hate cricket smell, if your crickets smell, your doing something wrong. I buy thousands at a time and have never had a problem with smell. Its all about diet.

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

What size crickets are you buying? Beardies should be able to eat all 500 in two weeks easily. They cant die when they are already dead;)

BTW, to those who hate cricket smell, if your crickets smell, your doing something wrong. I buy thousands at a time and have never had a problem with smell. Its all about diet.

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its more than diet matt.
as far as feeders go crickets are the stinkist things period. even the box they are shipped in stinks! i usually had 4k at a time roughly

Im just saying. When you walk into Mikes place ( PremiumCricket.coms owner) You will not smell anything.

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

Im just saying. When you walk into Mikes place ( PremiumCricket.coms owner) You will not smell anything.

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yes im sure he has some serious ventilation or purification going on there then

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Originally Posted by nixer

yes im sure he has some serious ventilation or purification going on there then

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He says its purely diet.