# Feeding live crickets



## Pawlove (Sep 16, 2010)

I've been thinking to offer my Milkiey some live crickets, but I was not too sure. I can't get any canned insects in my place and from what I hear, they go bad pretty quickly. I used to give him live mealworms and superworms, but i'm concerned about the high fat content, since he is already on a high fat diet. 

I have a leopard gecko whom I fed crickets, but reptiles don't eat much and lots of the crickets one wasted since they grow big and winged and my gecko won't eat them anymore. 

So i got a few questions:
1. How do you feed the live cricket to hedgies? With them jumping around like that...
2. Is it okay to give them the large, winged crickets? 

Thanks!


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## shawnwk1 (Jul 8, 2011)

Superworms should not be fed to hedgehogs unless you're cutting off the head. they can't chew them up well enough to not get bitten as the superworm goes down their throat. 

crickets are fine to feed and you can get live ones at pretty much any pet store. they are just empty calories though and there have been instances of hedgies dying from the hard shell getting impacted in their intestines. just something to keep in mind. i don't feed more than a couple at a time and because of this i'd stick to the smaller crickets, not the large ones. 

feeding live crickets is a blast though if you're careful to watch and not feed to many. many hedgies will start chirping as they chase them. easiest way to prevent the crickets from escaping is to put hedgie and crickets in a bathtub. crickets can't jump out very easy and hedgie can run around chasing. 

if you want to buy a large number of them you can also freeze them to keep them fresh longer. make sure you freeze them when they are alive so when you go to feed them you know they are healthy frozen crickets and you're not passing something on to the hedgie.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Bathtub or a large-ish bin. We use a bin that's about 12-13" tall and has enough room for them to chase the crickets around. That height is enough to keep the medium ones in, which is the size we use. It might differ by where you get them - I found the small (from PetCo) to be too small and not as mobile, and the medium ones are still small enough for our hedgehogs (some not fully grown) to eat without a problem. They're around a half-inch long.


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## Pawlove (Sep 16, 2010)

Alright then  I'll just give him the smaller ones at treats. 

How about darkling beetle? The one that emerge from superworms.


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