W
wokka
Guest
how many petshops do you see with their crickets in contolled environment? It is not just a matter of breeding them. Transport and storage conditions influence survival.
Well i believe 25c is best for growth but i could be wrong.
I wouldn't normally bother correcting this but yes you are wrong, by a significant amount. It's much higher than this number.
And how many lizards have been made sick or even killed by their carers buying a tub of second rate, sick, half dead crickets , mealworms or woodies and feeding what looks like the good insects from the tub (who have been eating their dead, mouldy or sick fellows) ?
Can't be too careful about food insect quality IMO.
I happen to know the local PB keeps their mealworms refigerated (but it's an open refrigerator and this results in mealworms dying in the tub and excessive humidity levels especially in warm wet weather). So I buy them elsewhere in the summer.
I also time my purchases of crickets to the same day the local PB takes delivery of new stock from Piscus. (Pays to ask the staff when this happens and only buy new stock.)
Gets pretty warm in Queensland , excessive heat kills off crickets pretty quick.Who would pay for the additional cost of heating? I know with rodents many breeders cant be bothered spending the capital to keep rodents cool so as to maintain production in heat waves. After a heat wave many breeders lose their breeding herd and so a shortage develops in supply. The fair way to distribute the limited supply from the breeders who have invested in climate control, is then to look after the regular long term customers. I am assuming the same principle appleis to keeping insects warm. It is difficult to allow for demand whigh might occur and far easier to cater for regular demand.
I can only speak for one major supplier/breeder. The temperature range was 28-36c depending on the crickets life stage. I cant remember what temps the eggs were incubated at but it was around the 31 mark.
Crickets from pet shops are usually gut loaded with cardboard.
So after hours, when no one's around, pet shop assistants are shoving cardboard down crickets' throats?
I don't mean to question your experience but LiveFoods Unlimited suggests a temp range of 20-25. They state a cooler temp range will extend their life expectancy & only offer heat during Winter.
Can you please explain what you mean by this statement because to me as the statement stands it seems to be a contradiction in terms and I am sure there is an explanation behind what you are saying.Suggesting a lower temperature will extend their life, but it can also cause them to die.
Um yeah their business is to sell crickets. The more they can sell, the more profit they make. Do you think they would tell you how to breed them and all the ins and outs? Never. Suggesting a lower temperature will extend their life, but it can also cause them to die. Another breeder also suggests "on arrival, crickets should be kept in a cool area" and I laughed when I first read that.
All fresh boxes of crickets/woodies will have a fresh piece of carrot in there as well as some form of gut loading in some cases. Even if they didn't they are packed and shipped and on the pet shop shelf in around about 48 hours hardly enough time to rid their bodies of useful nutrients and replace with cardboard.
Can you please explain what you mean by this statement because to me as the statement stands it seems to be a contradiction in terms and I am sure there is an explanation behind what you are saying.
I read all of your posts and understand what you are saying in them but still cannot see how a temperature that is low enough to kill a cricket can also extend its life. Are you trying to say that there is a temperature just above what will kill them that will prolong their life as they will not be expending energy but this temperature is below the ideal breeding temperature?If you read my previous posts in this thread I mentioned what can happen when the temperatures get too low. I took them off heat for 20 minutes and had a few turn belly up. If I had kept them off the heat they would have most likely died. Surprising to me was that they could come back from this belly up state if you return them to heat.
So keeping them at cool temperatures will kill many of them (I don't know the specific way in which the cold kills them but it just does).
There is something I learnt at university about the lifespan of an organism. I cannot recall specific terms, but the concept, I have a decent grasp on, and it makes sense to me. It's an example of a trade off. Organisms have a finite amount of energy to use up. If it uses its energy up rapidly, then it will die at an earlier period than if it was energetically conservative.
So think about a female gecko who is encouraged to breed as much as possible year after year. This female will die sooner due to the amount of energy invested in producing eggs and young. If that same female kept separate and encouraged to not breed, then she would theoretically live a longer life (as she can invest this energy in maintaining cellular activity).
So by keeping crickets at lower temperatures, they should theoretically live longer than if they were kept at say, 32 celcius. At these temperature, they go through their life cycle at a much faster rate, including incubation, shedding, maturing and dying. These types of temperatures would be preferred by breeders because you are able to produce more stock in a shorter time period and would also require less space. But yes, it does cost a LOT of money to maintain these temperatures, particularly through winter.
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