Keeping crickets for weal or woe (particularly in small dwellings)?

[FamousAdventurer77]

I've been buying gutloaded crickets from a local pet shop that specializes in reptiles and exotics, and those Vitabug Crickets to Go from Petco if I'm skimping on time since there's one right by my job. I always dust all the crickets with Repashy just in case those little cubes aren't enough sustenance. Miss Yael is a pretty big bufo terrestris; she's about 5" long and gets 12-15 large crickets three times a week. She seems to like these crickets as she happily jumps over to me right away once she hears the box shake.

I think it'd save some money if I just started mail ordering bulk crickets and gutloading them myself, and bonus points if it'll be better for Little Miss nutritionally anyway than the ones I've been buying. Buuuut...

NYC apartment. Not much space. These crickets don't shut up and it's utterly maddening! Like I find myself weeping tears of joy the second they become toad chow. And...that's just with a little box of about 30. I'm kinda shuddering to think of what would happen if I got a large amount of them; the entire building would hear crickets. I don't have the option to just put them in another room to get some peace and quiet; this apartment is basically one giant room.

I've also been reading about cricket keepers and found a lot of people had bad experiences with crickets either drowning or eating each other instead of the food; and/or dying from stress of being overcrowded into the keepers.

Anyone with a similar living situation have any experience with this who can weigh in?

 

[Small Pet Feeders]

Ok, before I begin on telling you why this is a bad idea, is there any particular reason why you want to feed crickets to your pet? There are just so many other options available online (not so much locally, except for mealworms and superworms), many of the insects available are prolific, meaning they reproduce themselves, which = Free Food And honestly, crickets are horrible as a feeder, mostly comprised of shell when compared to Dubia, Discoids, Fuscas, or even Lobster roaches.

Anyways, let's get started on why this isn't a good idea for you.

1. As we've already addressed, crickets are just a poor feeder, on simply a nutritional basis.
2. Crickets are noisy. Sure, if you can manage by some miracle to keep them all in the 22 gallon Cricket Bin I'm going to give you the instructions on how to build, it will be a localized noise, confined to the room you wish to keep them in. But in reality, crickets escape all the time, and love to chirp all...night....long. My wife was not happy. lol
   http://www.smallpetfeeders.com/content/19-diy-roach-habitat
   
3. Crickets smell horrible. I can recommend some cleanup crews to help keep the smell down, as they feed on dead insects and decaying material, keeping a good handle on the issue, but depending on how hot your home is and how quickly your crickets die, the smell will likely still exist until the cleanup crew grows large enough.
   http://www.smallpetfeeders.com/128-clean-up-crews
   http://www.smallpetfeeders.com/content/43-dermestids-caresheet
   
4. They can get through the walls and invade your neighbor's apartments, which definitely won't make you any friends, unless you live around reptile lovers like us
   
5. Crickets die quickly, whereas many insects live for months. Superworms, roaches, beetle larvae, and most other feeders live longer than crickets. Here's a caresheet to help care for them as to extend their life to the max.
   http://www.smallpetfeeders.com/content/21-crickets

I had all these problems when I kept crickets, and since going to only other feeders, there's not a single chirp in the house!

If you need any help making a selection of different insects, let me know

-Dave

 

[Dbz4246]

I dont really have anything that eats insects anymore, but I have to agree with Dave. Crickets have to be gut loaded because there is nothing to them. I always loved Superworms cause thats what my Leo and Cham (at the time) would love to eat, they hated waxworms and I hate roaches. But as for Breeding for superworms, no clue

 

[FamousAdventurer77]

These are definitely helpful tips...I've had it up to here with these frigging crickets. I had about 12 left in the carrier as of last night, nice and dark too. I use a small pet carrier and put egg carton or hole-punched pantyhose cardboard in it, and gutload using Herptivite mixed with squash-kale powdered baby food (a 1:3 ratio) and Fluker's Cricket Quencher. Results in dark crickets that don't eat each other and it's an easy mix for me to make. It was working nicely, my fatality rate was maybe 0-3 crickets a week buying 40-50 a week.

But what happens this morning when I went to go give Yael her breakfast? Half them had killed each other! I gave her the 4-6 crickets that remained and 2 superworms, swearing the whole time I cleaned out the cricket cage.

She's very picky. She loves crickets and superworms, but hates mealworms and waxworms (phoenix worms.) The latter she will just NOT eat (she's like her mama and loves carbs haha.) I was always under the impression though that superworms are good as a treat but not a main source of food because of the fat and water contents?

What about the other bugs like beetles and dubias? Mail-ordering is a problem for me because you usually have to order some ungodly amount and I have just one toad; one very very spoiled toad but one toad at that.
Is there a way I can get like a "Whitman's Sampler" of different bugs for Little Miss to try? Or order smaller quantities and have them sent to my office (I already warned my co-workers!)

 

[viandy]

I'd think dubia roaches would be great for you. I have a colony that has lived in a small tub (12x12x18). It has hundreds of adults, they breed and perpetuate, don't make noise and don't stink. Even if you just got adult males they are bigger than crickets and much easier to deal with.

 

[viandy]

Also -- wax worms and phoenix worms aren't the same thing. Wax worms are a moth larva, snout moth family (Pyralidae). Phoenix worms are black soldier fly larva, and have MUCH more calcium.