I need a good source for crickets!

[Ananszi]

I just recently got a senegal chameleon. They gave me some crickets with him, but I knew I was going to need more fast. The problem here is that I can't just go to the petstore because the closest one is about 30 miles away, and all they have are pinheads and 3/4ths which are either too small or too big.

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I bought 250 crickets from Flukers. Some of them had died, but it was okay. Problem was; they were going to all die or get too big on me before I would ever use them up.

So I bought their 100 count cricket tube, and I kid you not.. I got more crickets with that tube than I did for the 250 cricket count.. and it looks like quite a few are dead in the bottom. My mother is starting to get pissy with me because we keep running into problems and end up throwing money away. I mean it's not entirely my fault.. I figured that when I ordered 100 they would give me 100, not 400.

I need a good cricket source that is fairly cheap and will give them in small quantities.  

[Ananszi]

Nevermind.

We ended up keeping all of the ones that went into the tubes, and dumping the rest. It's somewhat wasteful, but I didn't really have many options. By doing this I still have about 100-150 crickets left so it worked out well. And at $9 it's not too bad.  

[Krissim Klaw]

Ananszi

I just recently got a senegal chameleon. They gave me some crickets with him, but I knew I was going to need more fast. The problem here is that I can't just go to the petstore because the closest one is about 30 miles away, and all they have are pinheads and 3/4ths which are either too small or too big.

Crickets grow very fast so you can always purchase the pinheads if you like and let them grow to size while feeding off your current stock. Currently there is a virus going around hitting the only feeder cricket we had in the USA. It has been a problem overseas for a while now and finally hopped the pound. So far they have not found the virus to effect anything but that specific species of cricket, but there is still some debate on how healthy it is to feed a sick cricket that may very well have dropped dead the next day to your pet.

Ghann's Cricket Farm is a site that I often see advertised by people on another forum I frequent for good quality, healthy crickets. I think the smallest order they do however is 250 so you may find that too wasteful. They are however one of the few places I know that is already working on changing their stock over to the new Gryllus assimilis which is resistant to the cricket virus. They have been reported by those to have tried them to be more robust, have less of an odor, be quieter, and get larger than the current Acheta domesticus.

Since you only have one lizard I would personally suggest getting your own breeder tank/tub started since that guarantees you are feeding healthy well cared for crickets and cuts down on cost and annoyance of buying. Crickets however are not going to be enough for your chameleon.

You are going to need to look into bringing a variety of other feeders into the mix if you want to get a more balanced diet. Roaches are very popular feeder choice, even easier to breed and care for than crickets and I know many in the hobby prefer them over crickets for their main staple.  

[Ananszi]

Krissim Klaw

Ananszi

I just recently got a senegal chameleon. They gave me some crickets with him, but I knew I was going to need more fast. The problem here is that I can't just go to the petstore because the closest one is about 30 miles away, and all they have are pinheads and 3/4ths which are either too small or too big.

Crickets grow very fast so you can always purchase the pinheads if you like and let them grow to size while feeding off your current stock. Currently there is a virus going around hitting the only feeder cricket we had in the USA. It has been a problem overseas for a while now and finally hopped the pound. So far they have not found the virus to effect anything but that specific species of cricket, but there is still some debate on how healthy it is to feed a sick cricket that may very well have dropped dead the next day to your pet.

Ghann's Cricket Farm is a site that I often see advertised by people on another forum I frequent for good quality, healthy crickets. I think the smallest order they do however is 250 so you may find that too wasteful. They are however one of the few places I know that is already working on changing their stock over to the new Gryllus assimilis which is resistant to the cricket virus. They have been reported by those to have tried them to be more robust, have less of an odor, be quieter, and get larger than the current Acheta domesticus.

Since you only have one lizard I would personally suggest getting your own breeder tank/tub started since that guarantees you are feeding healthy well cared for crickets and cuts down on cost and annoyance of buying. Crickets however are not going to be enough for your chameleon.

You are going to need to look into bringing a variety of other feeders into the mix if you want to get a more balanced diet. Roaches are very popular feeder choice, even easier to breed and care for than crickets and I know many in the hobby prefer them over crickets for their main staple.

Thanks for that. I'll check more into it when I'm needing more crickets. - And yeah, I suppose that's true about the pinheads. I didn't really think that through too well. Though still.. it would be cheaper for me to order a can from flukers as oppose to driving (paying $8-14 in gas) and paying 11-13 cents per cricket. ._.

Yeah. My mother and I were actually talking about possibly setting a tank up. I'll have to do more looking into it and everything, but I'm sure it'd be worth it.

Yeah, I know I need more than just crickets. I'm working on getting a deal set up for them.

Thank you.