Crickets.

[gozetec02]

Ok so I got a beautiful male Veiled Chameleon at the reptile show on saturday.

I want to order crickets by mail because i can get a cricket for less then 2 cents.

I want to keep lots of crickets that way i have a large suply. But i dont want 1000 crickets in my house. Could i keep them on my patio? It is covered and is out of the sun untill very late in the day.

What do i keep them in?

[Marla]

Keep them in a Cricket Keeper or similar if you don't want to have to deal with escapees and such. You could make one with pvc pipe and a Sterilite, but it might be troublesome finding clear caps for the ends. I'd guess you could probably keep them on your patio, but I don't know about doing that once it starts to get cold. I plan to keep mine in the basement after moving and heat if needed.

[JLC]

Could you keep a thousand crix in a Keeper? Sounds like it would be a bit crowded. lol

I buy about 60 crix a week from the petstore. Yes, I may pay a bit more for them than if I bought 1000, but I just don't need anywhere near that many. If I buy more than 60, they start dying off before I can feed them to Shaggy. I keep them in a plastic tub with an airtight lid (air-holes punched into it). They have some pieces of eggcrate to hide in, and I put a toilet-paper tube in there as well. When I need to feed Shaggy, I pick up the tube and tap off the bugs into the dusting cup. And I keep the tub in a cabinet beneath the cages. I only smell the crickets when I open their tub.

[Marla]

It would be too crowded, but depending on size you could keep them in a few Keepers or in a Sterilite set up like a Keeper as I suggested. I get 2 week old crickets by the hundred or 250, but if I get 250 I can't get them all fed off before they start making their noise 24/7. That gets tiresome.

[gozetec02]

Care sheets say to feed 3 to 10 crickets a day but he only manages to eat around 6 when i come home there are still a few left in there i just leave them there and he will pick them off as he wants. I think i will buy like 50 a week. I bought 100 my first time around and half of them died and they smell really bad.

[Marla]

Some herps are stressed by extra crickets being left in their enclosures. I don't know if that applies to chams, but I'd check just in case. Are you giving the crickets food and water? Keeping them in a cool area? Very few of mine die off before they're eaten, but they died off faster when I was trying to provide their water through damp food rather than the cricket water crystals, plus the ones I got have calcium in them, which is good for the herp.

[MrsMacWin]

We have a get reptile store that I buy my crickets from. They are a lot better than petco. I pay .80 a dozen and usually get a lot more than a dozen. I also love my cricket keeper it is great. I have thought about buying on line but I already have a great supplier here in town. I would really suggest the keeper as well, it is awesome.

[JLC]

I feed my crix with crystal things and they still die off if I don't feed them off fast enough. Maybe a few more airholes in the top of their container? LOL

[Marla]

Maybe, or a cooler space or different food?

[The_Godfather]

Crickets don't make much noise. I have over 100 in a 10 gallon tank, I barely ever hear them chirp.