Crickets | Mealworms/Superworms | Feeder Mice/Rats

Many people think crickets and other feeders are disgusting, but let's face it: if it weren't for them, your reptiles and other animals wouldn't eat. Here is the basic care for feeders.

Crickets

Caging:
Depending on how many crickets you plan to keep at a time, you will need different size cages. If you plan to keep 3 dozen or less, a Tupper wear container with small holes poked in it works fine. For more than that, you may want to consider a 5 or 10 gallon aquarium with a screen lid. Inside the cage, you will want toilet or paper towel rolls, some empty egg cartons, and anything else crickets can hide it. What are they hiding from you ask? Well, crickets are highly cannibalistic, so they need to hide from each other! Crickets are also very, very dumb and will drown even if there is something they can climb on. Because of thins, to water them, the best thing is either a sponge, a wet paper towel, or my favorite and by far the easiest, is a product called Easy Water. it is a type of gelled water. It even comes in vitamin enhanced gel water.

Food:
Crickets will eat nearly anything, but you have to remember that what they crickets eat is what your animal eats. It is best to feed the crickets some type of gut load food (see pic). Potatoes and lettuce also works. I even give them Bearded Dragon Pellets since that's what they're going towards. [Top]

Heating & Lighting:
Crickets don't need heat or light, but they will freeze so keep them near room temperature. I usually stick them in the back of my closet so I can't hear them chirp as well!

Mealworms and Superworms

Meal and superworms are probably one of the easiest feeders to care for but unfortunately are not as healthy and much more fatty for your pet. Most pet stores sell them in little tubs of 50 or 100. This is the best to buy because they are stored in their food so they won't starve. Other pet stores will sell them by the dozen in bags, and this works well if you are planning to feed all at the same time. Basically, to store the worms, put them in the fridge. It will keep them in a halted state where they are still alive, but will not turn into beetles (they are beetle larvae).  The you just take what you need to feed and keep the rest in the fridge. You need to be careful with these worms though. Make sure not to feed to big, I have heard horror stories of lizards who did not chew well enough and the worm chewed right out of their stomach! I haven't seen it, but just to be safe, I feed smaller mealworms than needed.

I pretty much just feed the mealworms to my leopard geckos and as a treat to my beardie, though I know that they can be fed to adult chameleons as well. The way I've found most successful with the geckos is I put the mealworms in a small dish that they can't crawl out of. I cover the bottom of the dish in vitamin dust, and I let the geckos eat when they want. When they grab the worms, they also get a mouthful of the vitamins, so this is healthier for them. It also keeps them nice and plump. =) [Top]

Feeder Mice and Rats

For their care, check out rodent care. Feeders don't need the luxuries of pet rodents because they will be fed quickly. An alternative and cheaper way to feed your snake is to feed them frozen mice and rats. You can buy them pre-frozen at the pet store and then thaw them yourself. To get your snake used to eating pre-killed food, start stunning the rodent before you feed it so that he gets used to non-moving food. Hold it by the tip of the tail and wiggle it in front of him. It helps if your snake is already used to eating in a certain container. That consistancy will make him more likely to accept pre-killed foods. [Top]