Caring for my new batch of crickets - sorry - another dumb noob question.

[ianinoz]

The first batch of P***** crickets were mostly dead when I bought the punnet and the survivors only lasted a weeks or so.
Some drowned (in the little drop of water I gave them - wont do that again)
some died of old age - I think
some died when I gave them bits of kiwi skin with some of green still attached - promptly went mouldy and I think this killed some of the crickets
the carrot pieces I put in with the crickets went mouldy - see able.

The new tub of medium crickets is full of very frisky crickets (a range of sizes from what looks to me to be mature to little crickets about 5mm long.

This time I want them last a bit longer.

I've fished 6 of the bigger crickets out (boy they move quick - had a couple of escapees in this process - Lizzy will probably find them next time she's inside and on the hunt) , and put them into a smaller punnet (a small size mealworm punnet for 50g medium mealworms has been recycled for keeping them) and I've put a thick slice of fresh carrot and liberally powdered it with gut-load stuff , they have a rolled up piece of cardboard to hide in and some of that gravelly goldish colored bedding that came with my first punnet of crickets to run about on.

What else do I need to do to keep the crickets healthy and happy in the big punnet and in the small punnet (until their individual numbers come up to become Lizzy-fodder) ?

I'll be watching the carrot in both cricket keepers and if it looks like it's starting to turn mouldy I'll be getting rid of it and replacing it.

 

[mad_at_arms]

P*****?????
Thats a pretty poor attempt at hiding an obvious name in insects supplies. (No name and shame in huuurr)
I would have asked the pet shop when they got the insects in, as most places that do not breed their own, do nothing to maintain them until they are sold or dead which ever comes first.

edit: generalisation

 

[ianinoz]

P*****?????
Thats a pretty poor attempt at hiding an obvious name in insects supplies. (No name and shame in huuurr)
I would have asked the pet shop when they got the insects in, as most places that do not breed their own, do nothing to maintain them until they are sold or dead which ever comes first.

edit: generalisation

I mentioned that the tub of crickets I got of them first time were mostly dead when I bought this more recent tub.
The first lot were my very first purchase ever from them. I've been back for a couple of tubs of mealworms since and I think they now want to keep me coming back.

I don't want to name the pet shop. And the only brand of live insects I've bought have been P*****. Good product IMO ,

Back onto subject please.

 

[dosngo]

i started with crickets and found to high of maintainence then went to a breeding colony of woodies and breed my own and love it as they are so easy to keep and thrive on neglect and seems to me they are a bigger insect so less neeeded to fill my dragons up with food

 

[mad_at_arms]

Alright here what I do.
Throw away food items in the container they came in.
Put them in a larger plastic tub with fresh veg, primarily for moisture. Such as broccolli stems, sweet potato, apple(things that do not spoil quickly)
I add dry dog cubes mixed with a little milk powder.
Keep them at around 26 degrees. Remove dead as soon as possible and dispose of.

 

[ianinoz]

Alright here what I do.
Throw away food items in the container they came in.
Put them in a larger plastic tub with fresh veg, primarily for moisture. Such as broccolli stems, sweet potato, apple(things that do not spoil quickly)
I add dry dog cubes mixed with a little milk powder.
Keep them at around 26 degrees. Remove dead as soon as possible and dispose of.

I'll follow your advice and get a bigger plastic container to keep the crickets in, something wide and with reasonably tall sides so I have fewer escapees when I reach in every couple of days to get one or two out for Lizzy (and her baby if she overcomes her natural fear of me).

I tossed a slice from an apple in with them this morning - OMG now I'm sharing my breakfast with crickets LOL ,and they love the stuff.
Apple cores OK ?

My mealworm beetles seem to prefer bits of sliced carrot and so far are ignoring the slice of apple I gave them to munch on.

Cripes , I need to get organised - I've a got insect farm on my coffee table
- a tub full of medium meal worms (about 200 worms in it - counted them last nigt when I was fishing out any new pupae).
- a mealworm egg and baby lavae incumbation tub where my meal worm pupae are too
- a small tub with a few crickets in it and a bigger tub that's got loads of very lively and frisky crickets in
- a bigger tub that my meal worm beetles live and breed in (those beetles are sex mad - I'm replacing the wheat bran bedding (which goes into my incubation tub) fortnighly).

I'll be freezing most the biggest crickets from this new batch once they've had a few days to full their guts with goodness.
I'm hoping the smaller crickets will live several weeks and will grow in their new home when I get it.
This way I hope not to need to buy new crickets again this year, since Lizzy will be getting maybe 4 or 5 crickets off me + about the same number of mealworms a week (unless she gets extremely hungry now she's got babies inside her again. And if her baby starts showing up in the flower bed or on my patio more regularly I'll be offering it about 1/2 that (but thawed out crickets and thawed out dead mealworms (got a small bottle full of them from my last 100g tub - I froze 1/2 those worms).

 

[littlemay]

Find out what day the order comes in at the shop and try to get them on that day, that way you know you're not getting something that's been sitting in the store for a week.