Cricket Food

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dino

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I have been told a lot that you cannot feed crickets fruit since it is bad for mantids. You can use fruit, but oranges would be recomended since it is high in vitamin C. You can also feed crickets potatoes since it is high in moisture. Or you can just simpily feed it dry dog food that is also healthy for crickets. I personally would use this food for my crickets instead of buying gutloaded food for crickets at the pet shop when I have these healthy food for crickets right in my kicthen. :wink:

 
all I do, is throw in old vegetable peeling, and use sprigs of spinach and rocket from the garden. Also, brocollii stubs, cabbage stubs, potato, and anoy other cheap veg or green material, lol. I also add the vitamin suplemtn from shops, just sprinkle it in, and it is gone, usually within the hour.

Cheers,

Ian

 
Mmmmm all this fruit and vegatable talk is starting to make me hungry :idea:

 
Every day the potatoes will turn a little brown. Cut that part off until it looks fresh again. Also Ian I'm not saying that your vegatable garden has bugs in it, but when you put the vegatables or old vegatable peelings in the crickets cage make sure no bugs are in it. I dont know, but PROBABLY those bugs will be parasites? Which will probably do some harm to your mantids. :shock: . I can't wait till my fruit, vegatable and flower gardens start to grow. They seem to be growing pretty fast. :p Just got to wait a little longer though... ( sigh.) :(

 
You are completely and utterly wrong about your gutloading theories. I cannot stress enough, IF YOU DONT KNOW FOR A FACT - DONT POST!!!

Here is a very well researched article about gutloading content basics:

http://www.chameleonnews.com/gutload.html

Variety is very important, you cant call one or two items a "gutload" and you must keep in mind, that crickets will eat anything, so just because they eat somehting and dont die, doesnt mean it is good for them. I could eat motor oil and probably not die - doesnt mean its good!

 
A little bit of extra-anything in a cricket is a bonus as I see it. My crickets get the same treatment as Ians, works a treat, well, there are no negative results to suggest otherwise.

Dave

 
I feed my crickets 'spring mix' which is a mixture of different kinds of baby greens. I alternate between that and flake fish food and ground up dry cat food.

 
Well you do what you want to do with your crickets. A woman told me this info at a pet shop because she owns it and I know what she is talking about Leah. Lets keep this on topic please. Please Leah dont get stressed over the way I care for my crickets. We have our own ways... dont we? like Rick, like Ian, like you Leah, and my self included. Also a lot of other people too. I just want to know Leah, how come you think I'm wrong about this. Potatoes is really high in moisture and oranges are high in vitamin C. This is actually healthy for a cricket. I dont see how you think I'm lying about this... I have no reason to lie about this. Also it is like I never said that gutloaded food is bad. All I said was I would use these type of food for my crickets since it is right here in my kitchen. I know I would kinda get tired of buying cricket food from the pet shop when I have healthy food for crickets in my own kicthen. Also with all due respect Leah, you dont eat motor oil. You drink it. And if you ever did do this, than I would think that was really crazy to do.

 
My cricket food is right in my kitchen too. IMO I think your choice in cricket food is bad. I agree you don' t really need to buy cricket specific food. I know I don't. I use those mixed greens, cat food, and fish food for the really small ones. Potatoes are good for providing moisture for crickets but that's about it. If you only feed them potatoes and oranges you are not providing proper nutrition at all. It's not much different than nutrition for people. I can tell that you don't know anything about nutrition. And just because somebody at a pet store tells you something does not make it true. Some of the biggest idiots I have met were people running pet stores. But you don't have to listen to me. Do whatever you want.

 
lol, I agree, pet shop advice can be awful, and most of the time, it is. But as I said, I have been told by a lot of people, shop keepers, private breeders, and also on reptile forums that that diet will suffice. I mean, I am sure there could be a better diet for them, but from my experience, the diet I am keeping them on is a successful one. But yeah, I will give cat food a try, never taken that inot consideration before, cheers rick :D

Cheers,

Ian

 
My cricket food is right in my kitchen too. IMO I think your choice in cricket food is bad. I agree you don' t really need to buy cricket specific food. I know I don't. I use those mixed greens, cat food, and fish food for the really small ones. Potatoes are good for providing moisture for crickets but that's about it. If you only feed them potatoes and oranges you are not providing proper nutrition at all. It's not much different than nutrition for people. I can tell that you don't know anything about nutrition. And just because somebody at a pet store tells you something does not make it true. Some of the biggest idiots I have met were people running pet stores. But you don't have to listen to me. Do whatever you want.
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Oh I assure you I know what I doing. I know about nutrition. Just because I said something you don't agree with doesn't mean I don't know anything about nutrition. Explain to me why it is bad only you Rick explain to me why it is bad?

 
What I like to do when I feed my crickets cat food is soak the cat food in water so that it'll get bigger and sponge up the water. That way they get both water and food at the same time. :)

This post is kinda getting off topic as to who's right and who's wrong.

 
I just give them potatoes and thats it. Mine do fine they live long enough for the mantis to eat them. Ive never had one die by itself normally the mantis gets to it. I agree that you should feed them a good healthy diet but i jsut dont care about the crickets all there for is to fill my mantids stomach. Not that its bad or anything to make your crickets healthy but what are you raising the mantises or the crickets?

 
worldofmantis,

I think the logic here is the old 'you are what you eat' thing. If you feed healthy crickets that have been fed healthy food, to a mantis, the mantis should in turn benefit. Personally, i just put whatever i feel like feeding my crickets at the time in with them and let them get on with. Be it fruit, veg, meat, whatever. Normally though, the crickets have a wonderful plate each of cucumber and tomato salad, seems to do them just fine.

Dave

 
I just give them potatoes and thats it. Mine do fine they live long enough for the mantis to eat them. Ive never had one die by itself normally the mantis gets to it. I agree that you should feed them a good healthy diet but i jsut dont care about the crickets all there for is to fill my mantids stomach. Not that its bad or anything to make your crickets healthy but what are you raising the mantises or the crickets?
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The reason why so many of us find it important to feed our feeder crickets healthy diets, is so that the mantids will obtain the nutrition they need from the crickets. The longer a cricket goes without out food, the more nutrients it uses up to support its own life. Feeding a cricket that's been starved for a few days, is essentially feeding a mantid a husk.

It's no necessarily bad for the mantid right off, but think of it this way ... if you ate nothing but crackers, you wouldn't be receiving the proper nutrition you'd need for your body to function. It wouldn't matter how many crackers you ate, you'd be missing out on numerous vitamins, protiens, and acids. Eventually you'd become malnourished. The same thing applies with crickets and mantids. If you fed them nothing but malnoursihed crickets, you will end up with malnourished mantids.

 
I have to say, I have notcied a difference with the way I gut load my circkets. What I am currently feeding them, may not be the correct thing, but as I said, it works for me. However, when I first started collecting mantids, I only like, a tub of crickets a week, and feeding them on lettuce, and that was about it. And the oothecae that the female produced had a MUCH lower hatch rate, than the ooths that are being produced now. And the idea of it being down to the crix ha only just entered my mind...but I think it could be a possibility.

(rick, if you can get dino to change his tone, I will paypal you a 3 figure sum :lol: )

Cheers,

Ian

 
I feed my crix fish flakes and minced scraps from the veggies I prepare for dinner (minus carrots)... I can't use my cat or dog food because I use holistic foods that contain CARROTS... has anyone else heard of avoiding carrots?

 
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