Crickets as feeders?

[beefygt]

So I have been reading about some odd feeders over the past couple days and was just wondering if anyone has seen or read about crickets for feeders? If not, does anyone object to the idea?

 

[danielle]

No! Crickets are not a suitable food for any snake. Crickets alone have a crappy nutritional value and are way too low in protein to be snake food. I know some idiot probably told you it was fine, but not a great idea. I am sure if you did a search on here you could find better info than what I just gave you to satisfy your curiousity, but even for insect eating reptiles crickets must be gutloaded before they are ever used because of their makeup. Snakes at least when they are young are growing rapidly and need high amounts of calcium and protein to sustain these growth spurts. Hope this helped a little.

 

[Chip]

WHOA!!! Danielle, please!!! Crickets are perfectly nutritional to many, many species of snakes. Just not most colubrids including corns...

Edit: (rep given, and explained I'm joking)

 

[beefygt]

The only reason why I ask is because I had some Anoles a long time ago and they eat crickets. Anoles are a little different then corn snakes though. :bird:

 

[sarcare]

One of the good things about the expo in columbus that is here every month is Rodentpro mousies without shipping--that is 19cent pinks and fuzzies! No need to worry about what to feed--more mousies please! (dyk I've got a second career in line writing feeder jingles?)

 

[Chip]

Baby corns will in all likelihood not eat crickets. Even if they do, there is little there except protein. You need rodents. Start with mouse pinks, and bump those up as soon as the snake can handle something with more calcium and meat to get healthy growth. Danielle was right on, I was teasing her.

 

[hiddenhollowherp]

During the first job I had at a veterenary office, someone was paying buku bucks to keep this whole clutch of normal-colored cornsnakes alive. These were the tiniest most ungodly thin snakes I have ever seen to this day. I have a suspicion that they were actually manually removed from their eggs prematurely and somehow (don't ask me how) they pulled through. There were six in the beginning, and only three made it. One of these three was like.. An earthworm. The only thing small enough for it to eat was an insect every few days. It lived, but the quality of life to this day (if it's still around) I couldn't tell you. I am positive it is still an abnormally small snake.

I would think that if you fed a cricket very frequently, you'd be alright. The snake would have an abnormal metabolism, but since crickets are digested quicker than mice, as long as you kept up with digestion, I'd think that nutrition would be sustainant. Crickets are quite defficient in calcium, which is why lizard owners often use RepCal or other calcium supplements with them.

This is not common knowlege, but herps can actually develop soft, spongy bones from a lack of calcium. It is extremely disturbing to see, and even worse to correct. Once bone has already grown, it takes a considerable amount of time for it to repair itself, but it will if given the chance.

I'm not saying this would most definitely happen if you decided to feed crickets, but mice are definitely higher in calcium (and other nutrients) than insects, atleast for corns.

 

[crackerhead]

Given that this is a corn snake forum I'm going to assume you mean are crickets good as feeders for corn snakes. And the answer would be a resounding, NO. I've been asked this at shows so many times I've lost count. Most people see hatchlings and think that there is no way an animal that small could ever eat a mouse, pinkie or otherwise. Hence the cricket as food myth evolves. There are other snakes that do just fine on crickets. I own a trio of rough green tree snakes that love crickets. I don't espouse feeding any insect exclusively, so they eat other insects as well. I also know that many of the big chain stores, through sheer ignorance, feed their corn snakes crickets. I should actually say "try to feed", because I doubt they are very successful. Even in the smallest of hatchlings (2 grams), newborn pinkie heads or fuzzy feet are able to be consumed. Stick to rodents when it comes to feeding colubrids. I don't know of many crickets that need constricting before consumption.
Terri