Will cresteds eat this?

[rich_19]

Will they eat prekilled crickets? I'm sure most would say no but many would also say the same thing about leopard geckos which is not true since all 19 of my leopard geckos eat nothing but prekilleds. I'm thinking cresteds would accept prekilleds since they eat fruits as well. I'm just kinda looking for a second opinion concerning the cresteds. Let me know what you think.

[Zoe]

Why do you bother to prekill your crickets??

[rich_19]

so i don't have to bother with caring for the crickets. Along with having to cope with the smell and noise that they make.

[rich_19]

Let me clarify a little more. When i purchase crickets, i feed them for at least 24 hours. I then freeze them all until it is time to feed my reptiles. I make sure all the crickets i freeze are still alive before freezing. I do this by knocking live crickets out of their hiding brackets (egg holders) into shoe box containers and those are what i place in my freezer.

[geckoguy157]

thats alot of work for a couple minior problems and careing for the crickets is very important so u get them nice and fat and u get lots into them so they are better for the your geckos and why dont u just put your cricket container somewhere where u cant here them and u olny have to clean them out once a week and change there fruit evrey couple days its not that big of a deal

[sara]

A few of my cresteds will eat the occasional dead cricket, but I don't know how easy it would be to teach them to do it on a regular basis. The cresteds that do this love meat babyfood, maybe you could try it as an intermediate step.
Your cresties really do need something to hunt, I think it would be fair to compare it to someone who lets their dog run in a closed yard, as opposed to taking it for a walk. They still get excercise in the yard, but not the stimulation. Do you see what i'm trying to get at here? Hunting gives them something to do.
Anyway, i'll stop rambling now, I guess it's just something to consider.

[ButterBall]

Uhhh, not to sound mean, but pre-killing crickets is pretty self-defeating. Why not just let the gecko kill the crickets? Freezing them also probably eliminates alot of the nutrients in them If you don't want to care for the prey items, you shouldn't have the gecko. Cresteds are the most insectivorious of the Rhacs and they grow much faster and bigger on a mainly-insect diet. I only feed baby food )fruit flavored) 2x a week and the rest of the week live insects (roaches, mealies, crickets, waxworms as treats).

[Emily-Fisher]

I totally agree withh ButterBall. And in the end, killing a weeks worth of crickets will probably take more time then it will to care for them.

[jaymo]

hey there,
your cresteds should eat pre=killed crickets. the key is to train them to an area to get their food. freezing will NOT eliminate any nutrients, I don't know why anyone would think this (and they are probably the same people who feed snakes frozen rats and keep them in a little plastic tub. your crestie should get exercise from being in a nice big tank not chasing stupid crickets. As long as you feed the crickets some gut loading stuff for 24 hrs before freezing them it's perfectly fine, since keeping crickets is gross and stupid if you aren't breeding them.
All the best, pm me if you need more feeding details I am a feeding fanatic!!!
PS cresties are NOT one of the most insectivorous rhacs they are one of the more frugivorous

[jaymo]

great message emly,
I don't find anything personally insulting at all. In fact it is pretty hilarious that they say cresties need live food to exercise and live a natural life, but that it's okay to give snakes (a more predatory animal) pre-killed food and kept in a small box.
As for my information I got it from Aaron Bauer's book, Siepp and Henkels book and countless other references from SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. So you guys can all read the Reptiles Magazine;s 4 page caresheet on crested and think you are all-stars.
So this is for Butterball: (from Rhacodactylus by Siepp and HEnkel)
"feed mainly on fruit: the excrements we analyzed on the Bayonaisse and Ilse de Pines islands proved to contain almost exclusively fruits and seeds" -sounds like a lot of crickets.
It also goes on to explain how aurics and leachies are the most carnivorous.
So go read a book Butterball instead of some wack care sheet

you guys need to get a life, my email was harmless and you guys went crazy because rich_19 had a great idea that you didn't
Freezing gut-loaded crickets is no different then the can-o-crickets or can-o-pillars sold in herp shops or the T-Rex gel diet.
So instead of freaking on me email those companies and tell THEM they have no idea what THEY are talking about.

have fun in school kids

friendly jay

[sara]

wow, this is nuts.
There were excellent points made by everyone even though some weren't as well researched (lol, some of that stuff was hilarious)
Anyway, I really don't see any reason to get so worked up over frozen bugs. (this is a general comment, don't beat on me for this)
When did this forum get so nasty?

Hey jay, do you still have any of your cresteds from 1998? I've kept one of my males from around the same time period and I'd love to compare notes, pm me if you feel like it.

[Fang&Claw]

Hello , I think this was a good discourse/debate on the subject of rhac nutrition there were good points made by both sides. A little common sense goes a long way and for rhacs as well as us humans and most lifeforms ,the best quality foods will benifit us the most ,i dont think the quickest or easiest ways are usually the best but frozen,freeze dried etc do have a place in herpetoculture, but to exclude fresh live food wich is gutloaded properly cant be good even though freshly killed frozen well gutlaoded insects are probubly better than nutrient deficient live prey My point is a rich varied diet of as high a quality foods as possible should be the goal...freshly mashed fruits are much better than jarred baby food...premade diets are better than baby food but probubly not as benificial as fresh fuits and fresh bugs or high quality frozen etc ....if they have a big enough cage they can probubly get enough exercise yes, but the benifits of hunting for their prey would also seem logical to assume ....and as adults it would be logical to assume that rhacs are more primarily fruit/nectar eaters and as babies and juveniles the insect content of thier food in the wild would be significantly higher also evryone made good points Normand