# General Topics > Food, Feeders, Live, Frozen, Culturing, etc >  Best place to get crickets?

## Lily00

I bought a container of crickets Friday for my new fire bellies and of course they are already gone. We live 30 minutes from the closest pet store. Does anyone order them online? Any recommendations?

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## AfricanBullFrog

Josh's Frogs has crickets at a good price that's where I buy all my crickets. But really you should buy roaches, breed them and never buy feeders again.

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## privet01

Ordering online will quickly get expensive.  There is little price difference between them.  I've used flucker's and premium crickets.  Both provided good healthy looking crickets, but I liked the shipping options better with fluker's.

If you only have a few mouths to feed then as weekly trip to the pet store will be way cheaper.  I raise my own crickets and there is only a two week window out of the eight to ten week lifespan that they are feeder size for FBT's.  Crickets are easy to raise, but if you don't have space in a garage or some sheltered area outside your house, then I don't recommend them.  They can get smelly if they don't get enough ventilation.  But if you have ten or so cats/dogs in your home you might not notice <<grin>>.

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## AfricanBullFrog

Yes you are going to want to buy bulk online. Fluckers and premium crickets are definitely not the best options to buy crickets I think privet did a google search and just listed what came up first lol :Frog Surprise: . take the 30 min drive, buy bulk crickets, and set them up in a glass tank or tub no lid, feed them dog food, vegetables, fruits, keep a gatorade or water bottle cap as a water dish,Toilet and paper towel rolls to hide in, they should live for awhile. And keep a wood chip substrate, I've been using this setup for years and have had great success, plus it doesn't stink I keep them next to my bed. Roaches would be the premium way of keeping feeders. I hope this helped some. :Smile:

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## Lily00

I kept 2 bearded dragons for a short time that I rescued and one of the reasons that I ended up finding them a new home was because I just couldn't do the roaches. I thought I could but it bothered me too much. I can do crickets and worms. I could probably feed roaches a few times by just dumping some in but there's no way I could raise them. I'm a wuss.

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## AfricanBullFrog

Ok, well do whatever makes you comfortable, if roaches creep you out then do crickets, if you can't handle the crickets just let the toads starve and find another hobby like sewing or jewelry.

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## Lily00

> Ok, well do whatever makes you comfortable, if roaches creep you out then do crickets, if you can't handle the crickets just let the toads starve and find another hobby like sewing or jewelry.


Not really into jewelry. I did try sewing once but I sucked at it. I think I'll stick with the frogs, thanks.

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## privet01

> just let the toads starve and find another hobby like sewing or jewelry.


Quite a bit of immaturity shown in that quote along with sexism.

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Lily00

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## AfricanBullFrog

> Not really into jewelry. I did try sewing once but I sucked at it. I think I'll stick with the frogs, thanks.


Great cool, send me a pm with any other questions you have and I would be glad to answer them. :Smile:

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## AfricanBullFrog

> Quite a bit of immaturity shown in that quote along with sexism.


I mean that's the truth, you are caring for living creatures that deserve alot more then what anyone can provide. Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings but you should be feeding your toads/frogs more then just crickets, you should have a wide variety of feeders for them at the minimum.

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## Lily00

> Quite a bit of immaturity shown in that quote along with sexism.



Thanks. I agree. 


I read several care websites and forums posts before deciding of fire bellies. Every place I looked listed their diets as being "crickets, mealworms, wax worms, earth worms, small feeder guppies, and bloodworms" . I've actually not once found a site that listed roaches...unless you count the one that said "other small insects". I'm sure appropriate size roaches are great for them but I'm confident that I can still give them a varied diet without having to raise roaches. I mean, I even said I was fine feeding roaches occasionally, just not raising them. 
But oh well. I got the answer I needed and I'll figure the rest out.  :Smile:

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## privet01

> I mean that's the truth, you are caring for living creatures that deserve alot more then what anyone can provide. Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings but you should be feeding your toads/frogs more then just crickets, you should have a wide variety of feeders for them at the minimum.


The OP never said they were not going to feed their FBT.  They just nixed one of your suggestions and apparently that irritated you. You can't get pissed just because someone tells you they prefer something different than you.   Not every thing you or I do and suggest will be appropriate for others.

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Lily00

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## privet01

> Every place I looked listed their diets as being "crickets, mealworms, wax worms, earth worms, small feeder guppies, and bloodworms" .


Crickets are the mainstay for my FBT's which have been in my house about five years.  I tried mealworms and they are not lively enough to attract their attention.  Their shell seems too hard and actually feels sharp on the edges.  So I've nixed them, maybe I had them at the wrong stage in their lifecycle.  An occasional earthworm that's wriggling does get their attention, and I am considering guppies if I ever get around to building a bigger viv with much more water. 

And with crickets, your FBT does get a variety (somewhat) if you change the crickets diet.  It's what the cricket has been feed that nourishes the FBT just as much if not more.

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Lily00

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## Lily00

> Crickets are the mainstay for my FBT's which have been in my house about five years.  I tried mealworms and they are not lively enough to attract their attention.  Their shell seems too hard and actually feels sharp on the edges.  So I've nixed them, maybe I had them at the wrong stage in their lifecycle.  An occasional earthworm that's wriggling does get their attention, and I am considering guppies if I ever get around to building a bigger viv with much more water. 
> 
> And with crickets, your FBT does get a variety (somewhat) if you change the crickets diet.  It's what the cricket has been feed that nourishes the FBT just as much if not more.



Thanks, that's what I've been reading. Funny story... I did end up ordering crickets online. I assumed that it'd be a box within a box...nope! My kids learned some interesting new words when I opened that box up while sitting on the couch. I now have a crickets crawling around the top of my living room walls. Ha!

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## KMAC

> I kept 2 bearded dragons for a short time that I rescued and one of the reasons that I ended up finding them a new home was because I just couldn't do the roaches. I thought I could but it bothered me too much. I can do crickets and worms. I could probably feed roaches a few times by just dumping some in but there's no way I could raise them. I'm a wuss.


Hi Lily,

This thread mainly covers roaches for the squeamish but you could also use similar tools for crickets etc, will vastly reduce escapes.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...8&share_type=t
dubia roaches - fresh molt

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Lily00

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## Lily00

> Hi Lily,
> 
> This thread mainly covers roaches for the squeamish but you could also use similar tools for crickets etc, will vastly reduce escapes.
> 
> https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...8&share_type=t
> dubia roaches - fresh molt



Thanks so much! I really love your bug tools! Lol.

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## KMAC

They make my life so much simpler  :Smile:

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## AfricanBullFrog

> Thanks. I agree. 
> 
> 
> I read several care websites and forums posts before deciding of fire bellies. Every place I looked listed their diets as being "crickets, mealworms, wax worms, earth worms, small feeder guppies, and bloodworms" . I've actually not once found a site that listed roaches...unless you count the one that said "other small insects". I'm sure appropriate size roaches are great for them but I'm confident that I can still give them a varied diet without having to raise roaches. I mean, I even said I was fine feeding roaches occasionally, just not raising them. 
> But oh well. I got the answer I needed and I'll figure the rest out.


No roaches, feed your toads all that you wrote that would be good, with crickets and earthworms as staples, dust crickets every feeding with your preferred supplements.

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## privet01

> Everything you have wrote.. on this thread has been wrong,


Just like you, everything I've written is opinion.  Much of if based on what I've read, researched or experienced. 

You can't just say I'm wrong and you are right without giving supporting THOUGHT and references.  Otherwise it's just a pissing contest.  Which apparently we are involved in. <<grin>>

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## AfricanBullFrog

You're giving out bad advice, your research consists of, google searching crickets then going on a forum and saying they're good I promise I trust google and every big company out there that has a catchy theme song lol. Please before you type on a forum, learn where the cheapest, healthiest crickets can be bought so that others that see this thread can succeed in this hobby, I made that my job you came for Cheetos.

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## privet01

How is telling the OP that I've used Premium Crickets and Fluker Farms bad advice?  

I didn't just google them and offer up an answer.  I have actually bought crickets from both places several times.

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## AfricanBullFrog

It's ok you did what any beginner would do, your main goal was to feed your frogs crickets and fluckers came up first so you purchased and thought wow these are some good healthy crickets filled with fluckers jizz jelly man i love fluckers i'll go on a forum and throw up how good fluckers is, when in reality they are like a petco with all the same rules and regulations that don't ever benefit the hobbyist or animal only there pockets. The quality of a flucker of premium cricket is like a big mac at mcdonald with who knows what the product was exposed to and what chemicals are inside. So i'm trying to direct people to small businesses or large that have the best intentions who actually cares about there crickets and there products with the hobbyist in mind like, Josh's Frogs i've never had a problem with them and they have all good stuff, at one time they were basically giving away there coco fiber substrate lol. Hope I can help make you understand why you have made poor choices in where you purchase your crickets and like a drug addict I hope you make better decisions in the future.

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## Lija

People please watch what are you writing and be respectful to each other opinions and differences! 
africanBullFrog - that's your second warning!

lily00 I'm sorry I haven't seen this thread sooner.

Feeding and breeding roaches not an option for many people, it is illegal in some countries and also there is "I can't handle that" option. "Cheapest and healthiest" is merely opinion rather then fact. And if we talk about healthiest..... There are no Fluckers, premium, whatever crickets. There are different cricket species belonging to Gryllidae family, they all are about the same nutritional value. It doesn't matter really what are they been fed before, but what you do feed them before feeding off to the frogs matters! when you get crickets, keep for a day or two to gut load them properly ( lettuce, carrots, oranges, etc) before giving them to your frogs.

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AfricanBullFrog, Larry Wardog, Lily00

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## AfricanBullFrog

> People please watch what are you writing and be respectful to each other opinions and differences! 
> africanBullFrog - that's your second warning!
> 
> lily00 I'm sorry I haven't seen this thread sooner.
> 
> Feeding and breeding roaches not an option for many people, it is illegal in some countries and also there is "I can't handle that" option. "Cheapest and healthiest" is merely opinion rather then fact. And if we talk about healthiest..... There are no Fluckers, premium, whatever crickets. There are different cricket species belonging to Gryllidae family, they all are about the same nutritional value. It doesn't matter really what are they been fed before, but what you do feed them before feeding off to the frogs matters! when you get crickets, keep for a day or two to gut load them properly ( lettuce, carrots, oranges, etc) before giving them to your frogs.


Don't get involved you are also wrong lol. All I said was that roaches were a better option if you can't get them then drop it. Also I have not used a single inappropriate word only stars to represent whatever the reader can imagine if it happens to be a bad word thats not my fault. I wasnt using bad words. Please take away the warning. Thank you.

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## perriejinnie

Frogs are good with crickets and worms. If you can arrange the food online then it is good. However, if you find the food source in your own garden then it would be better. I never owned a frog before but I recently have rescued one in my porch and since then it has been with me. I feed him roaches and crickets.

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## KMAC

I think everyone should group hug and be friends.

The thing with forums and because grammar is not used often people can 'read' things the wrong way and then you always get the 1 that tries to be better over the rest, thankfully I dont see that often here. We must remember this is an open forum and members are not just from the USA so practices and procedures can be different. As far as I am aware roaches do offer better nutrition if they are taken by the frogs. One I think they have a larger digestional tract holding more gut loaders and also they are of course more meatier than crickets. 

The chances are in the USA they are illegal in certain states because they can become a best.

Here in the UK a dubia roach may live however it wont breed due to the climate, some parts of the USA this will be a different story though hence why they are illegal as they could become a invasive species not because they are bad for the frogs.

Practices and procedures change so to me if you know your right and someone questions you, reference your findings or let them find out for themselves.  All in all we are all here to help each other and not to make others look daft or get 1 over them and sometimes that requires an open mind.

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## KMAC

> The chances are in the USA they are illegal in certain states because they can become a best.


And when I said best I meant PEST lol on a xell phone here  :Wink:

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## Lily00

> People please watch what are you writing and be respectful to each other opinions and differences! 
> africanBullFrog - that's your second warning!
> 
> lily00 I'm sorry I haven't seen this thread sooner.
> 
> Feeding and breeding roaches not an option for many people, it is illegal in some countries and also there is "I can't handle that" option. "Cheapest and healthiest" is merely opinion rather then fact. And if we talk about healthiest..... There are no Fluckers, premium, whatever crickets. There are different cricket species belonging to Gryllidae family, they all are about the same nutritional value. It doesn't matter really what are they been fed before, but what you do feed them before feeding off to the frogs matters! when you get crickets, keep for a day or two to gut load them properly ( lettuce, carrots, oranges, etc) before giving them to your frogs.



Thank you! I didn't realize it was such a hot topic. Lol. 

For the record, privet01 has been extremely helpful on every post I've made in this forum so far.  :Smile:

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## Lily00

My crickets are eating very well! We bought a ton of baby food awhile back but the baby has decided he only wants "real" food. So now the crickets have shallow lids full of different fruit and veggie purees. Lol

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