I have a 15 year old child who is generally very responsible. She owns a BP, a chameleon, and a chicken. She takes excellent care of them. However she takes horrible care of the crickets that she buys for the chameleon. I know crickets are hard to keep alive, but she has the equipment to at least provide them with a decent home until they are offered for food. She has a cricket keeper enclosure and both powdered food and orange cubes for them. She will set it up when she buys them but then never care to replenish food or water the rest of the time she has them, and as a consequence we have mass die off. I just want into her room and found the crickets with no food or water. I put in some orange cubes and they immediately covered them and started to eat because they were so desperate.
She uses her own money to buy the crickets. She usually walks to the petstore herself to get them.
What bothers me is that these crickets still deserve a decent life while they are in our care. In nature they can walk and find food/water sources but are at the mercy of my daughter in captivity. My daughter says "they are only crickets" but they are living creatures and I'm sure on some level they do experience pain, hunger, thirst, fear, etc. It's just irresponsible.
Any advice?