[Kristy]

Im a first time crestie owner. Have a 7 week old crestie! He is now eating about 5-7 crickets every other night and I leave repashy out. The crickets are pinheads to about 1/3 inch. I guess I could give him fewer but bigger crickets, but I have seen him have a hard time with bigger ones. (I feed him in a seperate kritter keeper). Anyway, my crickets seem to die to easily. If I get 20 or 30 crickets, usually 5 or so die within a few days and a couple more later. The crickets have flukers gel, fluckers cricket food and a little repashy. I change the food and gel every other day. The temperature is always somewhere in the 70's. I have a thin layer of coco fiber and a couple pieces of egg carton in the critter keeper which is about 5x6x8 inches. During the day they have indirect moderate sunlight from the fish tank light or the window. The room is totally dark for about 10 hours at night. I was thinking of trying to breed crickets at some point to avoid a loss in cost. My crickets come from petsmart or petco. What do I do to make things better? Ordering crickets online appears more costly and I dont need a minimum of 250 crickets!!!

Question #2! I have had Rex since he was 3 days old. He is 7 weeks now. I have not seen him shed. He appears happy and healthy. Do you think he shed well and I just missed it? There were a few days (a couple weeks ago) where he wasnt sticking well and he looked faded more often.

Thanks for your help!
Kristy

[Yoshi'smom]

I'm not sure on the crickets, I've never had them long enough to die that much on me. I only get a very small number, as my Leo doesn't really go for them anymore. I did feel like that the crickets I got from Petsmart never seemed to be very robust.... The day after I got them home it seemed like at least one or two were dead.
I would say that most likely your gecko has shed. I'm pretty sure Crested Geckos aren't really on a shedding schedule like, say Leopard Geckos are but they do shed pretty regularly. I'm fairly certain that if you've had your gecko for 7 weeks, it's probably shed at least once. If you saw some fading in the skin, chances are he shed very quickly while you weren't around.
I know with my Leopard Gecko that sometimes he sheds super fast and I've missed him even going dull before hand (like a 10-15 hour shed) or he'll shed suuuuper slow and it'll take up to 2 days.
I wouldn't worry too much about shedding unless you start to see stuck shed on toes or on his tail or eyes.
Hope this helps.

[Moosenart]

He did shed!

[For The Sake Of Revenge]

In my experience petco has had much better crickets then petsmart and damn those things are huge when you ask for larges! Stay away from those ready to go cricket packages as they are terrible and usually have only a few alive crickets left. Be sure to ask them to bag you crickets.

Other then that I'd just put your crickets in a small keeper with no cocofiber in it, just the plastic bottom is fine with a paper towel roll or egg carton for them to hide in. I'd give them something like some carrot or apple slices and a shallow water dish (a wider bottle cap works fine). Never given my crickets any of the flukers stuff so I can't say anything about them. Crickets are harder to breed then other feeder insects aswell.

[Kristy]

Might I ask why no substrate for the crickets?
Petco usually doesnt have small enough crickets, but I will ask them to hand pick them more carefully. I think I will put some real food in the cricket keeper too. Also, thanks for the shedding info!

[For The Sake Of Revenge]

Originally Posted by Kristy

Might I ask why no substrate for the crickets?
Petco usually doesnt have small enough crickets, but I will ask them to hand pick them more carefully. I think I will put some real food in the cricket keeper too. Also, thanks for the shedding info!

They don't really need a substrate their just crickets, and it makes it a lot easier to clean. Unsure if they'd try to eat the cocofiber aswell. The only time you really use a substrate for crickets is when you're trying to breed them, then you would use a wet sand medium in a cup for them to lay their eggs in.

The petco near me carries pinhead to large sized crickets so all you have to do is ask for however many small sized crickets you'd want.

[Spyral]

It could be the Fluker's food. If the calcium content is too high, it will kill the crickets long-term. High calcium is great for a gutload, to make sure your reptile gets the calcium. But it's not good for the health of crickets (or other insects) so putting orange slices, carrots, potatoes etc in with them is probably best.

[JSmithGirl]

The cricket's dying so quickly seem strange considering it seems as if you have everything right. Although you are feeding them perhaps they are not getting enough water? I typically get crickets in by the thousands and it last maybe a week due to feeding them off. But, I typically stay away from the pre-made cricket diets and just use cut up potato. It provides both food and water.

If he's growing he is shedding. Depending on the substrate he is on you probably wouldn't be able to see it too easy. I noticed mine eat there shed sometimes! So who knows. But if he looks healthy,eats and appears to be growing at 7 weeks it is all good.

[Kristy]

Just got more crickets today (and 2 new fish!!). I will make some adjustments. Thanks for your advice!!