Thoughts on feeding frozen crickets and woodies

[Delphy]

I'm in a country town and it's often hard to get live crickets and woodies and when we do the price is high. Breeding my own isn't an option as I live in a very cold climate and don't have a room where I would be able to breed them.

I'd like some thoughts on mail ordering live in bulk and freezing and then feeding out (thawed) as needed for a bearded dragon.

Does anyone do this ? and if you do have you noticed any problems with your dragons ?

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

You can breed woodies outside in a compost bin no problems at all. Just place it in a sunny position.



I live in Toowoomba on top of the Great Dividing Range and it gets well below zero here in winter. Currently down to 9° here at night. Roaches are tough as nails. Breeding your own this way allows you to feed them all your kitchen scraps and they're very nutritional for your herps in return.

 

[Delphy]

I'm in even a colder zone Kev - we get -13 in winter and daytime temps might only get to 7 or 8 in the winter time...LOL I'm in the Snowies, so we also get blizzards etc. Total pain being in the country sometimes and particularly where it's cold

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I'm in even a colder zone Kev - we get -13 in winter and daytime temps might only get to 7 or 8 in the winter time...LOL I'm in the Snowies, so we also get blizzards etc. Total pain being in the country sometimes and particularly where it's cold

With wind chill here a few years back it got to -16. My colony is still going hard. They just feed less and cease breeding in the winter. It has been said that Roaches would be the last thing on the planet after a nuclear winter. They could survive your conditions fine. My winter day time temps are the same, single figures. As for Crickets... Well I wouldn't attempt that with those. Lol

 

[cris]

You could freeze them. You could probably also gather large amounts of wild insects and freeze them too (avoid collecting where poison exposure is likely). All you need a plastic container around 50 litres that can easily be heated with a heat cord. They actively thermoregulate so you don't even need to heat the whole enclosure. EDIT I'm talking about roaches.

For one bearded dragon that should be heaps, as part of a balanced diet.

 

[Delphy]

With wind chill here a few years back it got to -16. My colony is still going hard. They just feed less and cease breeding in the winter. It has been said that Roaches would be the last thing on the planet after a nuclear winter. They could survive your conditions fine. My winter day time temps are the same, single figures. As for Crickets... Well I wouldn't attempt that with those. Lol

Something to consider then. What are your thoughts about frozen though ? I've done a bit of reading and there are some who do feed frozen making sure they have loaded them up for about 48 hours before freezing. It's going to depend much on whether or not my dragon will accept non moving insects as well I guess.
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You could freeze them. You could probably also gather large amounts of wild insects and freeze them too (avoid collecting where poison exposure is likely). All you need a plastic container around 50 litres that can easily be heated with a heat cord. They actively thermoregulate so you don't even need to heat the whole enclosure.

For one bearded dragon that should be heaps, as part of a balanced diet.

Living on a huge property where we don't use poisons, I should be able to go on an insect hunt Just been thinking of the easiest way to ensure I've always got food. I might just freeze some and whenever I can't find any around here especially in winter and our local store has some, then just feed live but at least I have a backup plan.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I personally think freezing insects isn't a viable option. The freezing/thawing process would destroy what little valuable nutrients they'd contain, rendering them similar in comparison to soggy cardboard. Let's say you could freeze them however, I imagine their frozen "shelf life" to be next to nothing. Probably why pet food producers opt instead to preserve them in little cans... canned crickets, canned silkworms, canned snails, canned shrimp, etc... then again... I am not aware of the process they undertake before canning... they're possibly frozen first?? Couldn't tell you honestly.
[doublepost=1524635449,1524635035][/doublepost]If you put crickets in the fridge, NOT freezer, they will go into a coma like hibernation state but remain alive for over a week or 2. Returning them to room temperature will see them come back to life in a matter of minutes.

For people that keep pink tongue or blue tongue skinks that collect their own garden snails, you can freeze them solid in the freezer if you collect a heap after rain during the warmer months and want to keep some on hand for when they're scarce. Upon thawing out, they will come back to life and be as fresh as the day you popped them in the freezer. I regularly collect and freeze garden snails for a lady that lives at the Gold Coast who comes and collects them every few months for her pink tongues. By the time she's arrived back at the coast, they're all cruising around the container again.

 

[Bl69aze]

Only time we freeze crickets is to slow them down to a crawl

Breeding crickets isn’t hard at all, just need a tall large tub, some bedding like crushed up rocks, water dish, egg holding trays and some food, then let them at it with a takeaway container of soggy vermiculite

 

[dragonlover1]

Freezing crickets isn't going to work as beardies eat food they chase down,if it doesn't move they don't eat it; with the exception of veg obviously.
On occasion I have put a drowned cricket in the veg bowl to see if it would be eaten but never has been.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Only time we freeze crickets is to slow them down to a crawl

Breeding crickets isn’t hard at all, just need a tall large tub, some bedding like crushed up rocks, water dish, egg holding trays and some food, then let them at it with a takeaway container of soggy vermiculite

Breeding them isn't difficult, I breed them by the thousands... rearing them is the hard part as you have to continuously separate them according to size and you can't have them too densely populated or they just start eating one another, also they are demanding, you can't simply forget them like woodies because they'll all just die. That aside, they only live for 12 weeks during which time you'll go mad from the chirping that can reach a god awful pitch when you have them in the numbers that I do.

I use simple tubs with a bedding of raw oats. Fresh carrot and grapes daily for moisture and feed them dried fish flakes and dog biscuits. Have a lot of success this way. My breeding adults have nesting boxes with an inch deep bedding of damp coir peat.

Some of my newly hatched pinhead Brown house crickets.

Crickets by nature don't like to be on the ground, hence the egg cartons. This is where they will seek refuge.

Woodies on the other hand don't molest their young or eat each other, are far more hardy, actually thrive on neglect, eat a much wider variety of foods and are therefore superior nutrition wise and live for 14 months AND don't make a racket.

 

[pinefamily]

Crickets are too much hard work; woodies can be bred in a tub with a lid that has small ventilation holes in it. In your situation, if you are concerned with the cold, a low wattage heat mat will be enough to keep them breeding. We breed them in a tub with a hole cut in the lid and a piece of flywire glued over it.

 

[dragonlover1]

Crickets are too much hard work; woodies can be bred in a tub with a lid that has small ventilation holes in it. In your situation, if you are concerned with the cold, a low wattage heat mat will be enough to keep them breeding. We breed them in a tub with a hole cut in the lid and a piece of flywire glued over it.

I do a similar thing with my woodies,but I buy my crickets as they are too much trouble,too smelly ,too noisy.
To make a woodie tub,get a 35-50 litre tub with lid,cut a hole in the lid and glue in some aluminium mesh as they will chew through plastic mesh.Get some egg cartons stacked vertically so the frass falls down.Feed them in 2 bowls with dog biscuits in 1 and wet food ( carrots,orange pulp etc.)in the other.It's also a good idea to get some " Fluon" to paint around the top edge,this is the only thing that woodies can't climb otherwise they will climb out and you will have woodies all over the house.

 

[Delphy]

Okay so it looks like woodies might be the way to go for us and I can always try and buy crickets when they have them at the pet store. I can do the tub thing with a low wattage mat.

Thanks everyone for your knowledge, it's much appreciated !

 

[cris]

Freezing crickets isn't going to work as beardies eat food they chase down,if it doesn't move they don't eat it; with the exception of veg obviously.
On occasion I have put a drowned cricket in the veg bowl to see if it would be eaten but never has been.

I feed thawed insects to a variety of reptiles, including bearded dragons when I had them. It has never been a large part of their diet, but never had any trouble getting them to eat dead insects either from tongs, hand fed or mixed with other food. If they are small insects I freeze them in water, often in an icecube tray. I have not heard of it causing nutritional problems before, but never really looked into it.

 

[dragonlover1]

It might work if you have time to tease 1 or 2 critters to eat dead bugs,but I have about 40 reptiles to feed after 12 hours on the road , I simply don't have time to play around with tong feeding so if they don't chase it they don't eat it!

 

[Delphy]

I'm only feeding 1 dragon at the moment and work from home, so I have the time but I'm going to give the breeding a try. If I have an overflow of woodies that I've bred then I'll freeze them and try and get my dragon eating them and go from there.

 

[pinefamily]

Oh, you'll have an overflow, lol. Anyone else in your local area have reptiles? You might be able to supply them as well.

 

[dragonlover1]

Yes ,you might become the local supplier,big things can come from tiny beginnings.

 

[Delphy]

I'll put my feelers out (pardon the pun) and see if there is anyone who would like some. The local pet shop might actually buy them considering they don't always have stock.
I'll get some fluon as well, the last thing I want is a house full of roaches! LOL

 

[Buggster]

Not sure about long term freezing- I can only imagine thawing out a long frozen cricket only for it to be a pile of goo by the time it reaches room temp... yuck!

Also depending on what you’re feeding. For example, my geckos will only take live- if the cricket isn’t moving they’re not interested in it at all.
That being said, when they were younger I would freeze crickets for 5mins to slow them down to a crawl so my geckos had an easier time chasing them down.

As mentioned above woodies are super hardy- I’m pretty sure the ones I haven’t fed in the last 6 months are still growing and breeding... speaking of, should chuck them a bit of carrot sometime soon...