No touching crickets for me!

[meluvstgr]

Don't feel bad, Nellie. When I got my savannah monitor, I was looking at this bag of crickets like...! Ok, how am I gonna do this?

But I got mad at myself for getting all worked up so I just crammed my hand in there and grabbed a couple. Since then, no problems. Except that they are sneaky little bastards. They try to climb up your arm!

I have mine in a critter keeper that I got from the pet store. Works great. I just plunk some gut load in there whenever they are out, and they do just fine. Til Mikey eats them, of course!

[nellie]

Fanmaninacan ~
Thanks for your apology! I appreciate it!
I too have to say I'm sorry. I posted my first nasty message back and it didn't show up. So on Sunday, I reposted. (I have this way of needing to get my point across! ) I now see that the first did infact show up ~ so my 2nd post came in a day after your apology! I'm a big dummy!

I am slowly getting over my cricket issues. I don't feel all squirmy when I look at the aquarium anymore if that means anything!

I do have another question:
It seems that a lot of my crickets are dying off. I bought 500 just last week and I would be surprized if there are 100 left. I have egg cartons, food substrate (oats, fish food, Cherios, dry milk, etc), & a slice of orange in the cage. When I cleaned the cage a couple of days ago (there were sooo many dead ones, I had to clean it out), I noticed that quite a few of them had something wrong with their back legs. It almost looked like their legs didn't work????? Anyone ever seen this?

Thanks~
Nellie

[HeatherRose]

Having crickets and mealies in my room constantly helped me get over any 'bug fear' I had....I still don't like the big crickets, the little guys are cuter... Just wait until they escape in your room, and you have to hunt them all down and put them back :|

Not that that has to happen!

I feed my crickets the store bought cricket feed (although whatever dry food you're using is good too) but I don't think citrus fruit is a good idea....I might be mistaken though.

I use carrots or apples, and I can buy 2/3 inch crickets and have them live until maturity....

I try to only buy as much as I need though, I don't know what you keep, but do you need 500 at a time? It's really expensive to pay for 500 and only have 100 left

I don't know what to say about the cricket legs....I de-leg mine anyway.....(that also helped me get over any icky bug fear :P )

Hope I helped

[nellie]

Hmmm....I swore I read somewhere to add a slice of orange. Maybe it was apple. Great, I'm probably killing to stupid things!
I bought 500 at a show for only $6 or somthing (they're like $1 / dozen at my petstore!) and I was going to try to breed them myself. Pretty funny since I don't want to touch them, huh?
Heather ~ if I had crickets running all over my house, I think I might move out. I wouldn't be able to sleep here anymore!

~N

[HeatherRose]

I can't be too sure about the orange.....I know some people on here use it as a sourse of moisture, but I remember reading somewhere NO CITRUS FRUITS in big scary letters....anything like potato, apple or even carrots give lots of moisture and are a nice source of water....sponges work too...

I like carrots, because apples get mushy fast.

LoL, even if you don't like them, breeding them still saves you the trip to the petsore :P I wish I could, but they make too much noise.

I don't mind loose crickets that much, I just can't figure out how they get out :P My cat usually finds them first anyway, so problem solved

[Siretsap]

Lolol, give it to Mikey, he eats anything. Remember that commercial? Of life cerials was it?