How do you keep crickets alive??

Question

My son bought a tree frog about a month ago. All it eats is crickets. I have been buying 2 dzn at a time. It costs less than $2.00. Inside of a weeks time, they are all dead?? I keep a moistened sponge, and a peeled potato, that is what the guy in Petsmart said to do....they are still dying?? I keep them in the container that my son brought the frog home in....it is a plastic container with holes on the lid! I wash the container in hot water to keep it clean in between buying the new crickets! What else can I do? I am tired of constantly going to the pet store!

Answer 1

Crickets need good ventilation, enclosed damp enclosures invariably result in high mortality. Those small plastic "critter pals" work well. I would also get rid of the sponge, the female crickets are likely laying eggs in it and polluting their water source. Try a slice of orange or a piece of washed lettuce for giving them moisture instead. I think they do better with some dry food as well, something as simple as finely crushed cereal like cheerios will do. I like to use the dry cereal mix sold for toddlers, it has a good amount of calcium and other nutrients that are being passed on to your frog when he eats the crickets.

Answer 2

well i had to do that for a while to and than i just put them in a plastic container about 2 1/2 feet long 2 feet wide and high with a mesh lid with some feline pine cat litter on the bottom,some egg carton, banana ans some store bought food and they live about 3 weeks i know i am treating them as pets but they reproduce so i dont need to buy many more. but i buy 50 at a time .

Answer 3

First of all, peeled potato isn't a very nutritious food to "gut load" crickets. Try other high-vitamin foods. Potatoes are good for mealworms, but that's about it.

I would buy some commercial cricket food. We use Fluker's Orange Cube:

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441780631&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030087&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023694&bmUID=1184271151723&itemNo=10&N=2030087

We have one of the Lee's Cricket Keeper boxes and it's so nice to have! All we have to do is take out a tube, sprinkle in some calcium/vitamin powder (feeding geckos now, but have fed frogs in the past), give it a shake, and then dump the tube in the pet habitat. I keep a folded paper towel on the bottom and clean it out each time we bring crickets home. The love to hide in the tubes and are so much easier to "catch" this way to dust and feed.

Make sure you dust the crickets with calcium before feeding then to the frog.

Answer 4

Is it in a spot that is to cold or hot.

They need lots of places to hide (egg cartons)

Use saw dust,news paper etc on bottom of container.

Don't need to worry about sponge if you put fresh fruit/veg (carrot,apple etc)& change every 2nd day.

Keep in dark spot.

If you want to breed, put in a small container (5-10cm deep) of coco peat or clean soil and keep moist.

Answer 5

Give them egg carton and some grapes

Or go to your local pet store and they have special food and some type of gel for them.