Crickets

[StickyTongues]

Is there a reason you dont hear about people feeding crix to the dart frogs more often? It seems most people feed mainly FF. Wouldn't crix be better since you can gut load them real easy? Also, the crix seem to stay in the substrate where FFs want to try and climb out. Let me know what you all think. Thank you

Danny

[oddlot]

Alot of people don't like the sound, or if not kept up on the smell.You would be surprised on how they can climb.You can often find them on the screen top or on the tops of plants.I personally use crickets for my terribilis as they can take decent size crickets.I haven't been, but I am going to start breeding them again because pinheads are great for thumbs and pumilio.They are actually easy to breed.I like to use them in rotation with a variety of feeders.I hope this helps.


Lou

[StickyTongues]

Thanks Lou,
I breed crix now for my Chameleons so its no big deal to snag a few hundred pinheads for the frogs. I mainly like the idea that i can gutload them.

Danny

[billschwinn]

I think Crickets are a better food source than FF in my experience.They really are good at putting weight on thin frogs quickly and fresh hatched crickets really make froglets grow quickly. I had to quit using them as they were bad with my asthma.

[Ed]

Originally Posted by StickyTongues

Is there a reason you dont hear about people feeding crix to the dart frogs more often? It seems most people feed mainly FF.

It typically is due to convience and cost. It is extremely easy to culture fruit flies while keeping crickets (particularly with the cricket virus wiping out breeding colonies of Acheta domestica) is typically more labor intensive. Depending on the media and whether or not you reuse the culture containers, it is very inexpensive to make and keep fruit fly cultures (could be as inexpensive as 20 cents/culture).

Originally Posted by StickyTongues

Wouldn't crix be better since you can gut load them real easy? Also, the crix seem to stay in the substrate where FFs want to try and climb out. Let me know what you all think. Thank you

Danny

Gut loading has several different meanings and depending on what you are using for the diet, there are wide levels of difference in success of modifying the nutritional content of the cricket. If you are using a good supplement, there is little to no support to indicate that crickets are actually better than fruit flies for the frogs (as a different comparision, in fact diet trials show that at least in some reptile taxa, that crickets are inferior to mealworms for supporting growth (which goes against prevailing common belief of many hobbyists). (Gut loading is an area where there is a huge amount of voodoo husbandry beliefs).

With that said, when I was still working at a Zoo, the diet of the larger dendrobatids was more than 95% crickets with only occasional feedings fruit flies with good success.

[StickyTongues]

Thanks for the info. I plan to use both FF and crix so what ever i happen to have the most of at the time is what i'll feed. i place egg laying bins in with my crix once a week so i always have a good amount of week olg crix with seem to be the best size for my Auratus.

Danny

[Ed]

I would suggest adding astaxanthin or using a gut load that already contains it (like some of the Repashy products) to the crickets before feeding them out. Anurans (and apparently some other herps like chameleons) are prone to vitamin A deficiency in captivity which may be due to an inabilty to convert beta carotene (or convert it poorly) to vitamin A. There are other carotenoids that can have pre-vitamin A activity and appear to be better utilized.

Some comments,

Ed

[bristles]

I used to use crickets occasionally but if one gets lose you may have to face a spouse who say's what the deuce is that just saying.

[StickyTongues]

My cat and my 3 year old take care of any crix that get loose.

[RacinJason44]

My cat doesn't even care about feral crickets anymore. Yesterday I saw her simply watch as one hopped by across the dining room floor.