FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

When trying to place an order or create an account, if you get a message that your email is already in use for another account, it may be that you previously placed an order as a GUEST on our website using the same email address (the site has your email address linked to a “temporary guest account”). Click the Forgot Username or Password link below the Sign In button, and follow the instructions to set a new password. This will transform your Guest account into a Registered account. Now you should be able to login using your email address and new password.

You can EASILY compare shipping costs for various methods. Add the desired items to your shopping cart, hit the Checkout button, select Checkout as a Guest (if you haven’t created an account), and on the first page of the checkout process you’ll see a Shipping Estimate section towards the bottom right. Just choose your State and enter your Zip Code to see available shipping options and prices.

The smallest number of crickets we offer through the website is 500 crickets. If you need a smaller amount please visit one of our partner stores.

As a general guideline for sizing your pets meal, the insect should be about 1/2 of the width of your pets head, (or equal to the distance between the animal’s eyes), but most herps can actually eat a cricket a little larger than you’d think. The 3/4″ crickets are probably our biggest seller, with 1/2″ coming in a close second. The really small sizes (1/4″, 1/8″, and pinheads) are great for baby chameleons, beardies, geckos, tarantulas, etc.

As you might imagine, this will vary greatly depending on exactly what type of animal it is and how old (or large) it is. GENERALLY SPEAKING (and this is VERY general), a small lizard or frog may eat only 3 or 4 appropriately sized live crickets once or twice daily a medium sized lizard or frog may eat 6 or 8 live crickets once or twice a day, and a large lizard or frog may eat 8 or 10 live crickets once or twice a day. To stretch your feeding dollars, we recommend buying at least a week’s supply at a time. If your animal can take smaller crickets (1/2″ or smaller), you can usually get away with buying 2 or 3 weeks’ supply at a time (the smaller ones will live longer than larger ones). Animals can always eat crickets that are a little too SMALL – they’ll just eat more of them – but they may NOT be able to eat crickets that are too LARGE.

Yes, Crickets LARGER than 1/8″… YES. We put several pieces of potato in the box to provide nourishment while in transit. We recommend replacing the potato with a more nutritious food source like one of our special cricket diets once you’ve transferred your crickets into an appropriate holding container. Pinhead Crickets we do not put any potato in the shipping boxes because smaller crickets are more easily injured or killed by the pieces of potato bouncing around in transit.

The plastic tote boxes readily available at most home improvement stores work great. Glass aquariums are OK… but not the best choice. Glass is a poor conductor of heat which means it tends to stay cool to the touch. This can make it difficult to maintain the proper temperature for the crickets, ESPECIALLY for crickets 1/4″ & smaller. Expect a higher death rate when crickets are kept in a glass tank.

Your box should be sized to provide adequate space for your crickets to spread out comfortably. They do not like to be too crowded. Overcrowding is the # 2 cause of excessive death rate in crickets. (The # 1 cause is buying poor quality crickets from one of our competitors!). As long as the crickets don’t have to stay stacked on top of each other they will be fine. Each cricket needs to be able to stand directly on some surface other than another cricket!

The packing materials from our shipping boxes (egg flats) stood up along the inside walls of your holding box will provide excellent crawling & hiding space. If your box is short enough that the flats come too close to the top (within 3 or 4 inches) just tear them in half. You can also rough up the inside walls of the holding box with sandpaper to provide more crawling space

80º F is a good all around temperature for live crickets. However, if you are able to keep different sizes at different temperatures it can help them live longer. Generally, smaller crickets do better at warmer temperatures. Pinheads do best at about 85º to 90º F, 1/2″ – 3/4″ crickets will do fine from 80º to 85º F, and adults will keep best at 75º to 80º F. But again, you should find that they all do OK at 80º F.

Live crickets do best when fed a diet similar to what they were raised on. We have tried many “modern” formulas over the years, but have yet to come across any that grows crickets as strong and healthy as our original formula. Feed “free choice” (keep some chow in plate at all times & let crickets eat as they desire). Be sure they can get to the food easily! If you don’t see crickets actively on the food source, maybe they can’t reach it. If necessary provide some type of “ladder” for them to climb up to the food – wrap a piece of paper towel around outside bottom of plate or food tray so they can climb up to the food easily. It’s also not a bad idea to supplement your crickets’ grain diet with some fruit occasionally. A quarter of an orange or apple every few days is just the trick.

Water should also be available to live crickets at all times! Be sure crickets can get to the water (remember the paper towel around the base trick?). Be sure the sponge completely fills the trough & leaves no standing water – crickets will get caught in it & can easily drown (they aren’t very smart!).

The short answer is… it depends. Many factors come into play here – temperature (80º – 90º is optimal), humidity, nutrition, hydration, and cleanliness of the holding environment are all big factors. Also the quality of the crickets (yes, there can be a BIG difference from one producer to the next), and the age of the crickets when you get them (larger crickets are nearer the end of their natural life cycle). We recommend never buying more than one week’s supply to ensure that losses are minimized.

The complete life cycle of live crickets is typically about 6 – 8 weeks under ideal conditions. This does NOT mean that ALL crickets will live that long. Crickets experience some degree of physical stress during the production, loading and shipping processes, which can shorten their life expectancy. The amount of stress depends upon the care taken to produce, package and transport them. At Bluegrass Feeders we “baby our bugs!” which is one of the reasons Bluegrass Feeders crickets are so sought after.

NO! Avoid any type of insecticides – sprays, “no-pest strips”, anything that might give off fumes, even if not in the same room. Live crickets are very susceptible to insecticides!

Normal shipping days are Monday through Wednesday (no shipping on Thursday & Fridays) so packages will be delivered before the weekend.

Not yet, but we have plans to add mealworms, isopods, and more.

We occasionally offer coupons on our Facebook page, and via promotional emails. If you have purchased from our website before, the email address you used to purchase is already on our list (unless you UNchecked the “Specials and Discounts Email List” box on the Billing Address page of the checkout process).

No, we don’t. Our web site is the best place to find the latest information and special pricing on all our products and services.

Have a question that isn’t addressed here? Email us – we’ll do our best to answer promptly, and if your question is good we’ll add it to this page.