Stunning the crickets.

[katiekatelyn]

I have 13 tarantulas, that range from a MM t.stirmi to an h.lividum sling & all the best ones between. I am not afraid of them, but I do respect their speed & ability to defend themselves in ways I wouldn't want to experience.
However, what I am absolutely terrified of is their food. I can only get my hands on crickets, & they scare the sh*t out of me/gross me the hell out. The little ones, not so much, but currently all of my T's except one are on an adult cricket diet. I had the bright idea to stick them in the freezer yesterday for a couple of minutes & waited for them to settle down. It worked & my T's accepted them.
I just wanted some opinions on this. It seemed like a good solution to me because not only do they make my skin crawl, I feel really bad grabbing them from anything but their antennas with my tongs & they tend to rip off when they struggle. I've tried the ovipositors, but it only makes them freak out which in turn freaks me out. I can't do the legs because if they fall off I feel like I'm hurting them, & that is silly because I am sending them to their deaths so it shouldn't matter to me but it does. /:

 

[LauraMI]

Do you only tong feed? I'm w/ you on hating crickets but confused as to what sort of contact you need to make w/ them.
We have about 200 reptiles now that it's hatching season, & I had to learn to deal w/ crickets for both feeding & catching loose ones. I don't touch them though.

 

[adz07]

I use a spoon if you get one deep enough the cricket can't get enough grip to move anywhere, touching them doesn't bother me I just don't want to hurt them by grabbing hold of them, sounds strange considering I am sending them to their doom anyway

 

[katiekatelyn]

I don't actually bring the cricket to the tarantula, it's just getting the cricket into the enclosure without mishap. That includes it not breaking an antenna and getting free, or not being able to jump out of the enclosure before I secure it shut. I use the big 12 inch tongs, which is nice because it keeps me as far away from the cricket as possible but at the same time my skin is crawling and I'm trying not to gag or jump out of my skin. The only time I am not totally grossed out by them is when I'm collecting boluses (is that the correct plural?). -_-

 

[katiekatelyn]

I use a spoon if you get one deep enough the cricket can't get enough grip to move anywhere, touching them doesn't bother me I just don't want to hurt them by grabbing hold of them, sounds strange considering I am sending them to their doom anyway

Yeah I can't stand the thought of hurting them, though I hate them tremendously.

 

[MatthewM1]

Try scooping the crickets up with a small cup and dump them into the enclosure. That's how I feed of latteralis roaches since they are way to quick to grab with tongs.

 

[katiekatelyn]

It wouldn't work out well enough, I wouldn't have enough room to scoop them. The crickets are in a Rubbermaid tupperware, and I crack the lid and open it a smidge, because one disturbance to the tupperware turns them into Mexican jumping beans and I can't have crickets jumping at me. It would be cool if I could get my hands on horn worms, but my local pet store sells out of them as soon as they come in.

 

[MatthewM1]

What if you kept them in something with taller walls so they can't jump out at you? Or have you considered dubias? No jumping and slower than crickets. Takes a little more effort on your part to make sure the roach and the T cross paths but I'll take that over dealing with crickets any day. Some argue that not all T's will take them but I've yet to see one that won't in my collection.

 

[katiekatelyn]

My local pet store only sells crickets, and horn worms. The horn worms don't stay there long when the stock comes in. My motor blew (thanks, Hurricane Arthur) so even if I could get to Petco, they still only sell crickets. I tried freezing them this once, they looked dead but were twitchy so I knew they were okay. All were accepted by my T's, so I think I'm going to take this route from now on. All of the crickets reanimated in several minutes. I think others should give it a try. Because I'd rather kiss my t.stirmi than have a cricket jump at me again!

 

[Sabeth]

Ha, ha…funny, I can't stand crickets either! On the occasions when one manages to get away from me, I'm on pins and needles while I try to catch it. I keep mine in an empty peanut jar, then dump however many I need in another jar, which in turn gets dumped into the T's cage. To stun them if necessary, I just shake the jar around to daze them.

 

[katiekatelyn]

I used to just have them put in separate bags at the pet store, so I could just cut the bag open and dump them in the tanks, but as I got more and more that had to stop. They started eyeballing me when I requested different sizes, at one point I needed medium, large, and pinheads. I couldn't do the transfer thing, it would freak me out! I'd rather have to rehome my flighty, spastic p.regalis than separate crickets once they're in the tupperware!

 

[katiekatelyn]

Oh why oh why does it have to be live food? Haha seriously. /: my t.stirmi is a good boy and eats dead mice. That is one thing I cannot do, is send a furry creature to its death. Crickets, yeah. Mice, nope!

 

[MichK]

I put the cricket tub in the refrigerator (not freezer) for abut 5 minutes prior to feeding my T's. It slows them down enough to make them easier to catch but it does not seem to harm them.

 

[katiekatelyn]

Neither did freezing them. It didn't just slow them down, it stopped them completely. They reanimated within minutes, which was all I needed to feed my babes.

 

[Denny Dee]

I hate the little (fill in the blank) well. They smell and are great escape artists. Wanted to move to Dubias but my wife drew the line on roaches in the house. So, I use critter keepers specifically designed for crickets. I have four (2 large and 2 small) to support the wide variety of my inverts (pinheads through Xtra large). The nice thing about the keepers is that they have sliding tubes that the crickets use to hide in. When it is feeding time, I simply shake them into and empty vial (the ones that T slings get shipped in). Ususally more then one falls in so I dump the extras into a second vial until I get the correct amount for the feeding. Then I simply dump them into the enclosure and BAM! Never have to touch them.

 

[katiekatelyn]

Yeah I meant to buy some cricket Kritter Keepers but I needed to move ten of my T's into bigger enclosures at the same time so it was a bit costly. The damn things smell to high heaven, it's amazing.

 

[Denny Dee]

I use ordinary paper towels cut to size on the bottom. I change it out with each new batch of crickets. But still.....wish I could do roaches.

 

[katiekatelyn]

See I'd rather have roaches I think than crickets. Either way, I have three cats that compete to see.who can eat any escapee first so I'm not worried about bugs in my house, I'm just worried about crickets jumping at my face.

 

[philflake]

I think switching to Dubia roaches would be your best bet.

 

[philflake]

They don't smell bad like crickets either.