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hara

When I got the crickets, I also bought the cricket food and cricket quencher. Being new to this hobby, I realize this is probably a silly question. I noticed that the quencher dries up in a day or so, well, I took the lid out that I had put the stuff in and just chucked it in the sink to wash later. A few hours after that, I went to wash it and lo and behold the blue dried pieces had totally rehydrated with dishwater! Is it ok to rehydrate this stuff with maybe a vitamin solution or even just fresh water to reuse? Or should I just toss it..

The other question I have is whether or not the calcium loaded cricket food, cricket quencher and then dusting will be too much calcium for the frog? How do you know when it is too much?
Lisa,
it is ok to re-hydrate the cricket qwencher with water. No need to add vitamins.
As for overdosing on calcium with the cricket gutload, not going to happen. The amount of vitamins that are absorbed in the crickets digestive tract is minimal. So it is basical a waste to spend the money on the fancy vitamin loaded cricket chow.
Also, you might consider feeding fruit flys over crickets. Crickets are nasty, and the ones that do not get eatten will grow in the tank. Fuit flys are an easy, economical food for your frogs.

Cindy Dicken
Vivarum Concepts
www.vivariumconcepts.com
www.rainforesthabitats.com

hara

Thanks again Cindy for your prompt help. I actually have fruitflies as well and have been feeding both. I started a culture, (my first attempt) today, and am hoping it turns out. I am in a rural area and finding foods is rather difficult so I really hope this does well.

Patricia Slayton

Instead of cricket quencher, why not invest in some oranges and give them a slice or so every other day for a water source, which is essentially all cricket quencher is--Merely a source of hydration that they aren't going to drown in as they are prone to do in a bowl of water. You can also use potato slices, but oranges last longer and don't rot or dry out as readily. You can feed crickets with chicken feed, bran, oats, whole wheat bread, etc. but essentially you are going to dust the pinheads you feed to dart frogs with vitamins and calcium/D3 before feeding them, so in this instance, gut-loading isn't essential, and cricket quencher isn't a gut load of vitamins and calcium-- merely a source of water that a cricket can't drown in.

I also agree that fruit flies in the long run are the easiest source of basic nourishment (along with dusting them with the appropriate vitamins and calcium) that dart frogs need, and are the easiest to culture. Pin head crickets are a diversion and additional interest, like the occasional lobster or crab dinner, along with other things your provide along the way-- springtails, field plankton and decadent aphid desserts in season, etc. Not essential, but stimulating.

Catfur

I would skip the cricket quencher all together as well as the grain based cricket feed, and feed your crickets stuff like yam slices and greens. Gutload and moisture all in one.

Jesse

For the cricketd I feed them dried oats, &2.00 for a big container from walmart and I give them a folded up wet paper towel in a little dish, that way now one drowns and I just replace the paper towel as it gets old. If you are looking for some additional food sources, contact pastorjosh, he sells springtails and other stuff, he will help you out.

Thanks,
Jesse

alexislake

I want to tell about an experience I had with cricket food. I will not name the company but they do have an open bin system with the crickets and cricket food (e-mail me privately if you really want to know the name of the company). I found out that there were some centipede eggs in it that had started to hatch out. I had to throw out the whole container of cricket feed and buy from another company. So watch out since there may be insect eggs included with the food. Also, if you have higher humidity in the room where the cricket quencher is put out for the crickets, it does stay more moist longer. I use primarily pinhead crickets because they are more available and affordable. There is not many sources for springtails and whenever I get the fruitfly culture that you have to set up for yourself they die on me so I would have to get an already cultured one every other week which is hard to do, money wise.

Patricia Slayton

For fruit flies, check with Ed's Fly Meat for starters, media and container kits. They won't die on you. Springtails are so simple to raise, and don't require continual re-culturing. Check with them on this, also.

The centipedes may not have come from the cricket quencher. The ones that show up in my tanks, more likely from plant sources, are merely organic matter eaters, although the dart frogs won't eat them. They just recycle stuff, come and go in numbers, don't harm the plants.

alexislake

The company that sold the cricket feed also sells pinhead crickets. I brought some pinheads from the company since they were based in Louisiana where the cold weather wouldn't kill the crickets (my regular cricket supplier had trouble with their crickets since they are based in a northern state where it snows in the winter time and their generator got knocked out that winter). The crickets came infested with centipedes which I learned through the internet can cause allergic reaction in a lot of people, can infest whole houses, and eat crickets. I e-mailed them this information along with links when they told me frogs will eat them. They then changed their story and said they weren't centipedes and that they said the wrong name for the insect but wouldn't tell me what kind of creature they thought it was. I looked at their website and saw that they had recently switched to an open bin system with the crickets and cricket feed. I did research and found out that centipedes can easily get into open bin systems and so can other creatures. So I recommend to anyone wanting food for crickets the following: make your own with oatmeal and other stuff or get ESU Reptile Gut Load. I haven't seen centipedes in it. It is oatmeal based. I also have a problem with the cricket quencher getting dry after two days. My mother does have citrus trees so maybe I can get from citrus from her to put in the cricket tank.

Patricia Slayton

There are a lot of different species of centipedes with different characteristics and habits, so we're all just generalizing without really knowing exactly what Hara is dealing with. Those harmless critters that my frogs decidedly won't eat, may be much different than some others.

zaroba

sure its not millipedes your thinking of?

if memory serves correct, all centipedes are poisonous (in varying amounts) and are predators. they have poisonous fangs similer to a spider to catch and kill other insects or small mice/frogs in the case of large tropical centipedes. but most smaller ones are harmless to people when it comes to poison levels (like the 1-2 inch feathery ones often found in damp basements). although sometimes painful like a beesting thier are only a few reported deaths from centipede bites, which were young children in the southern hemisphere bittin by large 10 inch centipedes.

hara

Patricia Slayton Wrote:so we're all just generalizing without really knowing exactly what Hara is dealing with.

Actually, I never brought up the topic of centipedes whatsoever. I believe it
was alexislake that mildly hijacked the thread :lol: