# Cricket Food



## Gurd (Jan 3, 2007)

I don't know if this has been posted before but I was told that crickets will eat tuna. What effect if any will this have on the Mantids fed on the crickets??

I normally feed the crickets dry cat food with the odd bit of greenery such as a bit of lettuce


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## robo mantis (Jan 3, 2007)

I buy cricket food from my local pet store. If is called Flunkers (not sure on the spelling) they are like these orange cubes. ( But remember different places may have different brands).


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## Rick (Jan 3, 2007)

Keep feeding what you're feeding now. Its pretty much what I feed mine. Why somebody would feed tuna to crickets is beyond me. That cricket food in the cubes isn't a good diet IMO.


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## Ian (Jan 3, 2007)

We feed ours ends of old vegetables and left overs...they go down pretty quickly. That is along with a sprinkling of bran on the floor. Never had a problem with this, and has raised healty mantids, chameleons and geckos for the past 3 years


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## Shelbycsx (Jan 3, 2007)

Someone whom I was talking to raises Gonatista grisea which tend to be a little timid. So he'll feed a variety of meats to them, particularly tuna because of the healthy nutrients in tuna vs any other meat.


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## timp (Jan 11, 2007)

Mt crickets seem to really like bits of chopped up potato and occasionally they will eat bits of carrot, cucumber and celery although I recently started buying smaller crickets and they dont like the celery. I havent had any complaints from the mantis


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## Gurd (Jan 11, 2007)

Cheers ppl  

I'm sure my Mantids will enjoy my fat bellied crickets


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## calmspeak (Sep 5, 2007)

The bug room guy at the muesum told me to feed my crickets oranges. Have any of you tried this. The mannies he keeps are beautiful.

cheers


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## Xenomantis (Sep 5, 2007)

I see this (oranges for crickets) at the local arthropod 'zoo' nearby. The cricket-eating insects/arachnids look really healthy there, though I guess they also add some vitamins to the crickets' diets.

I haven't tried it yet.


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## joossa (Sep 5, 2007)

> The bug room guy at the muesum told me to feed my crickets oranges. Have any of you tried this. The mannies he keeps are beautiful.cheers


Several of the care sheets and gut loading instructions for crickets I have read online suggest using oranges for the water and the vitamin C.


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## Asa (Sep 5, 2007)

As for the tuna, I just feed my mantids it plain, it doesn't affect them.


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## buddhistsoldier88 (Sep 5, 2007)

> Keep feeding what you're feeding now. Its pretty much what I feed mine. Why somebody would feed tuna to crickets is beyond me. That cricket food in the cubes isn't a good diet IMO.


Fluker's isnt good? How come?


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## Dave_B (Sep 6, 2007)

I feed my adult, wild-caught mantids, crickets. I feed crickets dog food because I have it, and salad greens because we always have some of those, usually spinach, kale, collard greens and such like...iceberg lettuce if there's nothing else, as their sole source of water. They always have some sort of greens available.

In the last few months since I've been reading this forum, I started using store brand oatmeal as bedding under the crickets, as per Rick's suggestion (great idea...thanks!). Not only is their odor totally irradiated but I notice them carrying it around and, I am guessing, eating it, too. They don't eat much of the dog food. Maybe I need to crush it more or something.

Today, they needed greens and I hadn't any in the fridge. Once in a while, we put young dandelion leaves in our salads so I went into an area under the hedges and picked a couple of clumps of dandelion leaves. They have never devoured any green so ravenously as they did those. I won't feed any green, or any food for that matter exclusively, but this will become a part of my cricket and (hopefully), b. lateralis diet when in season.


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## Xenomantis (Sep 6, 2007)

I've started feeding my crickets orange slices along with gutload, and they're eating a whole lot more. They also are much more active.  

I'll try giving them some dandylion leaves too, thanks to Dave's suggestion.


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## Krissim Klaw (Sep 6, 2007)

I have been using Fluker's high calcium cricket feed. The crickets thrive on it. I also add veggies, fruits and other scraps for them. Their all time favorite snack though is the freeze dried bloodworms I sprinkle in every few days.


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## Precious (Sep 6, 2007)

Fluker's is doing something right. They have a thriving, profitable business farming and feeding criks. I use their orange cubes. I have three kids, three dogs and a cat. Criks are kinda' low on my food chain. :wink:


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