Are Crickets An OK Food?

[Pizzaparlor45]

Self-explanitory, some say they can reduce adult size others deny that. I want to know if crickets are ok because they are the only food I have access to exept for common feild moths.

 

[BugLover]

Crickets are fine. Where did you get that information from? I have never heard of crickets reducing adult size. The only problems I have found with crickets are 1) they can hurt/kill your mantis while its molting and 2) they have pesticide sometimes if you are catching them from outside.

 

[aNisip]

I can easily formulate on the many viewpoints towards crickets...but for now I will spare it...

All I will say (in my opinion) is that its all about the gutloading (a healthy cricket, is a happy mantis )

 

[hibiscusmile]

I don't eat them myself, but the mantis seem to like them! :tt2:

 

[gripen]

The importance of gut loading is PARAMOUNT! If they are not fed good food they WILL kill your mantis.

 

[Paradoxica]

Also, it all depends what species you're feeding them to. It's my understanding that crickets should never be fed to Flower mantids.

 

[bobericc]

Idk what it is about crix, when I started I used them almost exclusively. I found more and more dying from not being kept well obviously. A lot of the time I buy my crickets they would be used for feeders immediately. Lost many this way.. I guess the remedy for sick crickets are to keep them a few days and feed them to flush out whatever it is that moves onto the mantis notoriously. I've stopped using them completely because of this black death disease that seems to transmit.there are people here that stands by their crix, I don't trust them, roaches are a more reliable feeder

 

[twolfe]

I've never had a mantis die after eating a cricket, but they aren't my first food choice for most adult mantids. I only use them when I have to. My adult female Deroplatys dessicata would not eat anything except crickets and grasshoppers. She lived a long time as an adult, though her ooths never hatched, and she mated several times with one of her two roommates. I didn't gut load the crickets before I used them as feeders, but they seemed to be healthy and uneaten ones would live in the terrarium for several days. I would occasionally put lettuce and cricket food in the terrarium if I noticed uneaten crickets. Other than that, I only use crickets for emergency food when I'm low on other feeders...especially in the winter when I don't have access to wild caught insects.

In my opinion, a varied diet is a good thing. So, I wouldn't feed a mantis only crickets unless that is all they will eat.

 

[Rick]

Yes they are fine. Been using them for years. Buy them online from a reputable source and take good care of them and you won't have problems.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I don't eat them myself, but the mantis seem to like them! :tt2:

With a little melted butter they're not bad Rebecca.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I think they make a fine food. Personally I find keeping a little breeder tank the easiest way to go. Then you know your stock is good and you don't have to constantly order more or drive to the nearest pet store. Another plus is with a breeder tank going you at any time can reach in and get from the tiniest of pinheads to a full grown adult.

If you are finding a bunch of dead crickets in your tank, something is wrong. You shouldn't be loosing younger crickets and the adults should be slowly aging out not dieing in droves.

I also wouldn't call what you should be doing to get the crickets ready to be eaten, gutloading. Gutloading is when you exculssively supply a food high in vitamins and calcium to the crickets a few days before feeding to say a reptile. This food isn't what is best for the crickets. Mantises don't need tons of vitamins or calcium pumped into their system. Thus all you need to do is feed your crickets a healthy diet to make for happy mantises in the end.