what's up with my crickets?

Shox

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i have 20 cricktes in a 'cricket keeper'. i placed two oragne^3 cubes in from flukers. they ate sum of it at first.

then i saw that they seemed to be slipping and sliding on the plastic floor, so i placed in a piece of cardboard....they are eating the cardboard....while the orange cubes seem half their size and dried up...


i'm guessing this can't be good for my T.

can the T. still consume crickets that have been eating cardboard?
 

Code Monkey

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Why wouldn't they be able to eat a cricket (or a termite) that had eaten cardboard? It's perfectly harmless cellulose that won't even make it into your T.
 

Shox

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i'm assuming the cricket uses what ever it eats to makes its cells etc, so i would think a higher protein diet would benifit the cricket and, in turn my T., more so than cellulose. but anyway, the T. won't die from a carbohydrate rich cricket lol.
 

vulpina

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Crickets will chew on and eat about anything in their enclosure. I use the Cricket bites for water and feed chicken mash, dog food, and fish food flakes. My crix stay alive for a good while.

Andy
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by Shox
i'm assuming the cricket uses what ever it eats to makes its cells etc, so i would think a higher protein diet would benifit the cricket and, in turn my T., more so than cellulose. but anyway, the T. won't die from a carbohydrate rich cricket lol.
This is a HUGE misconception regarding just about everything from mushrooms to broccoli to children. Just because a little bit of something is good almost never means that a whole heaping lot of it is better. A cricket is what a cricket is barring you feeding it a diet completely lacking in some essential amino acid. Whatever amino acids aren't present in the food will simply be synthesized by the cricket, so whether you feed a cricket a 100% vegetarian diet or a 100% meat diet (which would probably kill the cricket in the long run, most insects are not designed to handle large amounts of protein in their diet) what the *cricket* itself is made of is *exactly* the same. Gut loading is a whole other issue and is predicated upon the notion that since crickets are largely mineral poor, by feeding them a diet rich in minerals then the stuff in their guts gets uptaken by the predator. However, there is no reason to believe that Ts are in any way mineral dependant like a herp, nor any reason to assume that a "gut loaded" cricket is of any more nutritional value than any other cricket relative to a tarantula.
 

Shox

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"nor any reason to assume that a "gut loaded" cricket is of any more nutritional value than any other cricket."

yea i was assuming that if the cricket had 'good' food in its gut before i fed it to the T. that the T. would also benifit from what the cricket ate...like fattening up pigs for slaughter.
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by Shox
"nor any reason to assume that a "gut loaded" cricket is of any more nutritional value than any other cricket."

yea i was assuming that if the cricket had 'good' food in its gut before i fed it to the T. that the T. would also benifit from what the cricket ate...like fattening up pigs for slaughter.
But, see, even your analogy here is completely off base. A pig is a mammal very much like us in what it can and cannot eat and in how much it needs to eat. A tarantula is an invertebrate that is adapted to very rare feedings of a primarily wild type invert diet. Trying to improve upon the wheel in regards to feeding them may or may not have a minute positive effect, but not trying to improve upon the wheel will still leave you with a very nice and functional wheel.
 

arcane

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I have a Kricket Keeper too, and I wouldnt worry about them 'sliding'. I just put in some waterbites and gutload and dont realy worry about it. The tubes are textured in the inside, so they can hang out in there.

I gutload, mostly to keep my crickets healthy... but it is aimed for herps. Also I worry that the increased calcium can cause constipation in insects and (possibly, I'm guessing) arachnids.

It's just easier to feed them stuff out of a jar, and not worry about it being moldy 24 hours later.
 

Shox

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code monkey, you are coming off as supercilious =(
it's probably just your style of writing.


you misunderstood my analogy.

the pig is not the tarantula, it is the cricket. Humans would represent the T. in this case. We fatten pigs for our delight, just as we give cows and chickens and the rest of the stuff we eat various chemically treated foods and hormones etc...all to increase profit and to add more nutrition in the food we consume (i.e. orange juice that has more calcium in it than milk etc).


why not give the T. exoskeletons of crickets? because it is less nutritious than a gut filled exoskeleton. why not give a gut loaded cricket to a T. instead of one that is starving? i think it is for the same reason.
 

MizM

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I have a HUGE container of fish flakes leftover from my sons' deceased and flushed goldfish. Do your crix eat them well? I hate to waste them, and if the crix and hissers will eat them....
 

Buspirone

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IME, crickets and roaches love fishfood.


I gutload crickets for my Ts. I grind up dog biscuits, catfood and fishfood to use as the gutload. It might not help but it makes me feel like I'm going the extra mile so even if its not helping the Ts it still makes me feel better. :)
 

DR zuum

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Ive used Oxolinic acid gutloaded in crickets for treatment of parasites it worked quite well, I sent bodisky the info on it. And a amino formula im testing for breeding. Both made it into the T's, quite effectively through a gutload prey . On cricket dissection youve got about a 6 to 8 hr window for gutload to be effective, at least with the formulas i use.
 
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Code Monkey

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Originally posted by Shox
why not give the T. exoskeletons of crickets? because it is less nutritious than a gut filled exoskeleton. why not give a gut loaded cricket to a T. instead of one that is starving? i think it is for the same reason.
No, an exoskeleton is indigestible, not exactly *less* nutritious since it's zero nutrition. What I'm getting at is this notion that you can truly gutload a cricket for a tarantula. We gutload with herps for a very simple reason: crickets *lack* the proper mineral content if simply fed a natural diet. So, we feed them a diet chock full of minerals that, given enough time, will simply be excreted but we feed them to the herps before they crap the excess nutrients out.

This, in so far as anyone knows, is not the case with Ts, nor is there any reason to think it is the case.

I feed my prey insects well but I do not kid myself that I am "gutloading" them. If you want to stress out over what you feed your crickets or termites or meal worms or roaches or whatever, knock yourselves out. Barring taking up feeding them something genuinely harmful to Ts you're not going to be making any difference one way or the other of significance for your Ts.
 

DR zuum

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Obviously it does mean something at least with the formulas im using, the T'S fed the breeding formula, produced very high yield egg sacs for thier species, for example the gbb produced 2 egg sacs, one with 200 the other with 152 in it which was sold intact to a reputable respected, breeder/dealer who verified the count 6 died out of the whole lot. I kept the first one and am still selling from it. Average count on gbb according to the info i was able to get from breeders 75 to 120, this may not be the average but its all i could find.

The medicated formula killed the nematodes infecting the T it moulted no signs of infection and is still alive clear of them, bodisky believed it to be the killing of the bacteria required by the nematodes to flourish. Granted these were formulas with a penetrant mixed in which were geared for a specific purpose. But a constant gutload diet is up to the keeper, and personal preference there are no established vitamin or amino acid requirements set down or researched for T's that im aware of.


There was a study on the amino acids in Drosophila and growth in T's i cant remember whether it was limited to T's or not. But even it didnt give the percentages required. So theres nothing supporting its benefit,and theres nothing disproving it, so all you can get is a opinion of a individual, no proof for it or against it but the formulas i used were fed within a 2 hr window of them consuming it, i think the reason for that should be obvious. The 6 to 8 hr window is how long at least traces of formulas were found in the crickets gut, well actually the crop. To each thier own though.
 
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Shox

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"No, an exoskeleton is indigestible, not exactly *less* nutritious since it's zero nutrition. "


and that is my point. is 0 less than 1? so too, an exoskeleton has less nutrition than a live cricket. the wording I used is accurate.


"Barring taking up feeding them something genuinely harmful to Ts"

and thus the reason for asking what i asked...i wasn't sure if cardboard might be treated with sum kinda chemical that might be known to kill T's...i figured all you experienced folks might have some knowledge about this afer your years of keeping T's and possibly crickets.
 

DR zuum

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Bro i couldnt tell you,i know crix have eaten that egg crate cardboard and i saw no ill effect, but that doesnt mean there isnt, just that i havent seen one. But you would think cardboard isnt the best feed for the crix lol.

Like a wise man once told me,what we know is nothing compared to what we dont know.
 
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