# Feeding crickets



## mike2293 (Mar 23, 2009)

Hi all,

I have read on here about store bought crickets being malnutritioned and should be feed a couple of days before feeding them to my Mantis. It is recommended to feed them dog food. I was wondering do you feed them wet or dry food? My dog eats both so I access to both.

Thanks,

Mike


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## Katnapper (Mar 23, 2009)

Dry, and I grind it up in a coffee grinder (one I use specifically for this, not coffee, lol).  I suppose you could feed canned food... but I've never heard of anyone who did really, and seems like it might be messy and stinky. :lol: 

Edit: PS... I guess if one fed them the canned/wet food, maybe they wouldn't need a seperate water source if it was kept moist. But if you go with the dry, don't forget to give them water via a shallow container with pebbles, a chemical-free sponge, or folded up paper towel in the bottom of the container. Or use the water gel crystals. I just got some and I really like them! Much easier and cleaner, I think.

And don't forget some leafy greens or fruit (oranges are great) too!


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## Rick (Mar 23, 2009)

I recommend keeping crickets on a bed of dry oatmeal which they will snack on. Provide a shallow, gravel filled dish. Feed flake fish food, leafy greens (not iceberg lettuce) and occasional pieces of dry dog/cat food. They also like things like apples and other fruits/veggies. I say you should get them from an online breeder unless you only need a few at a time as most online breeders sell in bulk.


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## mike2293 (Mar 23, 2009)

Thanks all. I placed them in a container with a small carrot, a wet paper towel and ground up dry dog food. They are golng nuts. They love the carrot and dog food, they are all over them. You can actually see them eating. Too bad they don't relize they are going to be lunch in a day or two LOL :lol: 

Mike


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 23, 2009)

There's no doubt that buying crickets in bulk is a lot cheaper and saves a lot of trips to the store, but if you only have a few mantids and want to feed them pin heads, you will find that they grow much faster than your mantids (they double in size with each moult [i'm using the English spelling, today] and are adults in about six weeks at about 80F), and you may end up with a lot of crix that you can't use.

If you buy at a pet store, find out their cricket delivery day and try to buy them the next day. That will give the weak/ones ones time to die off, and you can start gut loading before their next moult.

Like Katt, I always use dry dog food, it is much less likely to grow bacterial cultures and fungus than wet food and the crix never complain about it being dry. Unlike Katt, I don't have a "dedicated" spice grinder.  I just put a couple of cupfulls into a freezer bag, wrap it in a towel (if you don't, the pellets will break through the bag) and pummel it with a mallet until it submits.

Crix are onmivores and like their animal protein. I have heard it reliably stated that providing dog or cat food, together with the veggies that Rick mentions, will greatly reduce their attacks on each other or (worse) moulting mantids.


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 23, 2009)

Course if your like me, u will use the old hand grinders, try using that to grind up a 20 lb dog food and 10 of cat :blink:


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 24, 2009)

hibiscusmile said:


> Course if your like me, u will use the old hand grinders, try using that to grind up a 20 lb dog food and 10 of cat :blink:


Jeez, Rebecca! Are you your neighborhood arm-wrestling champeen? :lol:


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 24, 2009)

nO but my dad was, maybe I should try it, but with my luck, I would break something.  ps, it is his grinder I am using.


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## Frack (Mar 24, 2009)

Rick said:


> Feed flake fish food, leafy greens (not iceberg lettuce) and occasional pieces of dry dog/cat food.


Why not feed them iceberg lettuce?


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 24, 2009)

Frack said:


> Why not feed them iceberg lettuce?


http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutri...ettuce_info.htm


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 24, 2009)

:lol: it's to cold! :blink: I can't help it, I am locked in a bug room all day, u people are all I have to talk too


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## Orin (Mar 24, 2009)

I've raised crickets continuously for many years (long enough to isolate a large, hypermelanistic form of normal house crickets that hatch at lower temperatures) and I just throw in a handful of dry dog food. I let them grind it up themselves when they eat it. Of course you can feed them a variety of fruits and vegetables if desired.


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## rayg (Mar 25, 2009)

I have found organic kale to be the food of choice of my crickets. They choose it over other greens and it's chock full of vitamins. Plus the shelf life is greater than any other leafy green.


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## Rick (Mar 25, 2009)

rayg said:


> I have found organic kale to be the food of choice of my crickets. They choose it over other greens and it's chock full of vitamins. Plus the shelf life is greater than any other leafy green.


I forgot to mention bok choy too. I have it around for my uromastyx and that stuff lasts forever in the fridge.


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 25, 2009)

Rick said:


> I forgot to mention bok choy too. I have it around for my uromastyx and that stuff lasts forever in the fridge.


Yes it does, and it makes a great filler for potstickers, too!

rayq: "it's chock full of vitamins."

Is that a good thing? What are the "average daily requirements" for crix or mantids, anyway?

I'm looking for a good exfoliant that will help my mantids molt! :lol:


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## Katnapper (Mar 25, 2009)

PhilinYuma said:


> I'm looking for a good exfoliant that will help my mantids molt! :lol:


  :lol:


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 25, 2009)

a little epson salt in the waxworm will help :lol:


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## nasty bugger (Mar 27, 2009)

I hatched a bunch of pinhead crickets, and fed them dry dog food, uncrushed. I also put fruit in the shoe box, and carrot pieces, and kept a paper towel moist for water.

I had lots of baby pinheads, but very quickly, I assume due to excess moisture, the fruitflies appeared and seemed to take over. Maggots were squirming all over in the plastic box, and all my pinhead crickets were dead.

I can only assume it was too moist in the plastic box for the crickets to survive.

I'd suggest watching out for too much moisture, and to keep the dog gone fruit flies out of the box.

I do basically the same for my roach bucket, and have little problems with maggots. I assume the roaches take care of them, or they get rid of " the food the fruit flies find faster', say that real fast five times :blink:  

The roaches don't stink like the crickets, and they seem much hardier, so I'm going with them. They don't seem to reproduce as fast, at least not with my set up, so that is the downfall that I've noted between roaches and crickets.

Enjoy.


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## rayg (Mar 27, 2009)

PhilinYuma said:


> Is that a good thing? What are the "average daily requirements" for crix or mantids, anyway?


 :lol: 

I couldn't say what the daily requirements are, but it may be an interesting research project for somebody else to do. I might be wrong but I'm assuming that all animals have very similar cellular physiology and therefore have similar metabolic needs.

Bok choi is awesome stuff as well. Saute in a bit of sesame oil with garlic.


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## tnienhaus (Apr 15, 2009)

rayg said:


> :lol: I couldn't say what the daily requirements are, but it may be an interesting research project for somebody else to do. I might be wrong but I'm assuming that all animals have very similar cellular physiology and therefore have similar metabolic needs.
> 
> Bok choi is awesome stuff as well. Saute in a bit of sesame oil with garlic.


Maybe after the study on mantid daily requirements gets finished...we can start looking into different diets for different mantid body types...

You know...

Packed full of protein for buff mantids...

High fiber for slender, pretty mantids...

High carb for high energy mantids...

Lol...who knows


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## Rick (Apr 15, 2009)

Mantid Friendly Squire said:


> Maybe after the study on mantid daily requirements gets finished...we can start looking into different diets for different mantid body types...You know...
> 
> Packed full of protein for buff mantids...
> 
> ...


Insects are protein.


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## Katnapper (Apr 15, 2009)

The best "greens" I've found are fresh picked dandelion leaves. Just make sure they haven't been chemically treated with pesticides or herbicides. They are readily available and easily accessable (in season), a proven fresh food source for crickets in the wild, and best of all free!  

Edit: Added link to some interesting dandelion species information.


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## PhilinYuma (Apr 15, 2009)

Rick said:


> Insects are protein.


Not quite. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/52405.php http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/28/2/173.pdf

Insects contain protein, fat and glycogen (stored carbohydrate) much like mammals.


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## nasty bugger (Apr 16, 2009)

At the reptile show this weekend the guy from cricketsdirect said to use chick feed that is designed for chicken chicks.

He said he uses the stuff with vitamins added, and it works great for the crickets.

I know that Chuck at spider Pharm said that with a protein supplement that the canibalistic tendencies don't manifest themselves in the spiders, like they do without the protein supplement, so maybe it's similar with crickets, or all beasteses for that matter.

Maybe if you give them the good chick mash, and some protein supplement they are gonna 'pump you up', but then they'd be beating up on the mantids :angry: &lt;_&lt;


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