# How to feed without escapees



## CML (Feb 28, 2012)

There must be a trick or hint I’m missing here. How do you get the crickets from the tub to the viv & dusted without one or some of them either escaping or getting the ‘sawdust’ in the viv?


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## LovLight (Apr 14, 2012)

If you buy yourself a KricketKeeper box it comes with two little interior tubes that the crickets run up. The tube is removable with a cap for both ends so you can transfer the crickets safely from box to viv with no spills. 
This is a small one, but you can get a bigger one. 









Sent from my U8180 using Tapatalk 2


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## Calceto (Jan 19, 2012)

I put some nutrabol in a small lidded pot take it outside with crickets shake a few critters into small pot (any lucky enough to escape good luck to them ) give the crickets a shake and feed to geckos .normally you can lift a corner of the cricket tub just enough to release them.
The saw dust stuff in the bottom of a cricket tub is Bran placed in there to feed the blighters before dooms day : victory: .


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## sharpstrain (May 24, 2008)

stick em in the fridge for five mins and they go very lethargic then you can take what you want dust em in a bag and lob em in


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

shake the egg crate into a sandwich bag, add dust, shake, empty in to the viv.


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## Andy84 (Sep 5, 2011)

Meko said:


> shake the egg crate into a sandwich bag, add dust, shake, empty in to the viv.


I do that as well...however, I still get all the muck in the tanks though...does the fridge thing work with locusts too? The thing is, locusts stink! Not sure I'd want to eat any of my fruit and veg after having them in there!
AW


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## Spider Call (Mar 23, 2007)

Whatever you do dont buy a cricket keeper xD Not sure how but that escape extremely easily from them. Just get yourself a tall plastic faunarium and tip them in there, then simply pick them out with tweezers! 
I pick one cricket at a time, dip in calcium and then throw in. I even remove the lids off of the tubs completely and don't have issues. Though I do feed black crickets, so that could be why.


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

Andy84 said:


> I do that as well...however, I still get all the muck in the tanks though...



I stick an empty cricket tub in the viv and empty the bag into that to catch any left over muck.


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## sam1014 (Jul 2, 2011)

I HATE bugs, and i use a cricket keeper. Ive never had any escape from it, just need to be a bit patient sometimes. The crickets love going in the tubes and within minutes of putting the crickets in the tub you'll have loads in the tubes. The hoppers/locusts however are little different. Sometimes they don't really want to go in the tubes and require a little help (shaking the tub lol) 
The only thing that i struggle with is transferring the container of bugs into the cricket keeper. This is my boyfriends job though lol. Sometimes you'll get a couple escape, but once they're in they're in.


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## switchback (Nov 25, 2011)

I feed locusts and crickets to my yemen and some1 has posted a great trick which i use.... Buy tub of each from the shop and then gut load them over night...Put the boxes in the fridge for 5-10 mins...they get so lethargic you can pick them up. Use tweezers if you a bit squeemish but i just grab em.
Put them in a bag with whatever supplement you want shake rattle and roll...Bag in the viv and empty. 
You say loacuts smell,never experienced that and as they are only in the fridge for 5mins or so they dont make it smell...i just use the top shelf everytime with a quick wipe with antibacterial wipes and its sorted...takes no time at all


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## violentchopper (Jun 20, 2008)

Meko said:


> shake the egg crate into a sandwich bag, add dust, shake, empty in to the viv.


This!!
I've always done this without a problem.


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## CML (Feb 28, 2012)

Must admit I’ve used a combination of these. 
Using a cricket keeper or equivalent & then tipping them all in there with the bran & a lettuce leaf and all & then tapping the dark hollow tubes into a dusting pot, the problem I had here was they’d jump from the dusting pot and they’d be so much bran in the cricket keeper.
I’ve also tried putting the tub in the freezer for 2 mins & then hand pick from tub but it’s quite laborious as I’m only feeding little ones.
The tall cup sounds like a good idea though. J


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## roblad (Feb 15, 2012)

Spider Call said:


> Whatever you do dont buy a cricket keeper xD



To true i lose so many from the holes that the hatch things clip onto , i have a feeder rock that i turn upside down add some calci dust , add some crickets 
throw on the lid and shake voilah !!!! 

P.S try adding crix to the feeder in the sink with the plug in as they cant climb the ceramic and are yours to tweeze at your leisure


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## Ignis (Dec 18, 2011)

Buy a cat. Mine sucks up all the escapees :lol2:


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## Jenface (Apr 8, 2012)

or a bearded dragon. Shep just came running out his cage and lept at an escaped locust xD


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## rossiriley (Jul 11, 2010)

I pinch the hind legs at the joint ,the big hind legs fall off in your hand which makes them far less mobile


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## sharpstrain (May 24, 2008)

I get them drunk - pop in some drops of brandy and while the crickets are fighting and deciding which curry to order I grab em and put them in.


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## sazzykins (Apr 14, 2012)

sharpstrain said:


> I get them drunk - pop in some drops of brandy and while the crickets are fighting and deciding which curry to order I grab em and put them in.


is that safe for the dragon though if they were to eat them later that day?

I'm going to try the fridge idea later with locust and see hoe i get on i spent a bloody hour the other day catching the dam things when more went hopping off than did in the box :censor: :bash: my daughter and hubby hate them and won't help at all so it's left to poor old me lol


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## heatherjhenshaw (Jan 30, 2010)

With crickets, you don't, they are the :devil: spawn and can escape from anything :bash: :lol2:, with locusts I just pick em up one by one, shake a pepper pot of dusting powder over em and chuck em in the Viv....voila, seasoned locusts

It took me a while to pluck up the courage though lol, I do have a little battery powered 'bug Hoover' which is great and I used a lot at first, works well for smaller bugs, I got it off eBay, still doesn't help with crickets though, oh it sucked em up ok but I still found em all over the house :censor:


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## snowdragon (Feb 21, 2010)

*smartie tubes*

Hi there i put old smartie tubes in my crickets boxes the crix go in these i then empty into the viv .
if i need to dust i put a few from the tubes into bag and dust then empty into viv easy ..... scot


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

sharpstrain said:


> I get them drunk - pop in some drops of brandy and while the crickets are fighting and deciding which curry to order I grab em and put them in.


Fantastic method, must try that on my crix. Do you think scotch will work as well ?

We use large cricket keepers but only two tubes in each. Tape the tube ports at one down with duct tape. We dont have any problems with escapees.

For locusts we have one of the large net pop up stick insect cages. Just bang the top and sides so all the locusts drop down to the bottom, unzip the lid and reach in and grab them. Its too high for them to jump out when they are on the bottom and it takes too long for them to climb out unnoticed. We have found our locusts last a lot longer since using the stick insect cage. £9.99 on fleabay

Stick insect net cage NEW | eBay


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## SleepyD (Feb 13, 2008)

I just pop the crix in the fridge for a short while before using 


Mal said:


> Do you think scotch will work as well ?


:shock::shock: sincerly hope you wouldn't use the good stuff!











> For locusts we have one of the large net pop up stick insect cages. Just bang the top and sides so all the locusts drop down to the bottom, unzip the lid and reach in and grab them. Its too high for them to jump out when they are on the bottom and it takes too long for them to climb out unnoticed. We have found our locusts last a lot longer since using the stick insect cage. £9.99 on fleabay
> 
> Stick insect net cage NEW | eBay


ooo thanks for that hun :2thumb:


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## Mal (Jul 22, 2007)

SleepyD said:


> I just pop the crix in the fridge for a short while before using
> 
> :shock::shock: sincerly hope you wouldn't use the good stuff! imageimage
> 
> ...


Well they do say what you put into your feeders is what you put into your geckos. I try my hardest to ensure our geckos get the best. I have to admit though, I draw the line at giving them single malts. Supermarket blends only for the feeders The stuff from the 16 Men of Tay is reserved especially for...........Me.


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

Why was this thread moved? it's about feeding *lizards* so it should be in the lizard section not the feeder section.

The moderators should know this but, as it clearly states on the front page.

*Feeder* (9 Viewing) 
Care, information and breeding of reptile livefood.


*CARE, INFORMATION AND BREEDING OF REPTILE LIVEFOOD.

*which this thread isn't about. It's about how to feed insects to a dum dum duuuuum lizard.


nothing personal if you're a moderator that I like.


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