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Don't Feed Your Bearded Dragon Dead Crickets

Posted by Feeder Crickets on

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Don't Feed Dead Crickets To Your Bearded Dragon

The title pretty much says it all.  But just to reinforce the idea, don't feed dead crickets to your bearded dragon.  Now, this comment probably comes with a few questions.  Such as, why would I have dead crickets?  Or, why can't I feed my pet dead crickets?  And sure, these are good questions.  

But when you have crickets for sale, it shouldn't be too difficult to understand why one might come across the deceased.  But if it needs to be explained, then here's the explanation:

When you ship live crickets year round, all across the country, you may come across some situations where the temperatures aren't ideal.  Or you might be dealing with a cranky postal worker.  Or maybe the crickets got stuck somewhere over the weekend.  Regardless of the testimony, crickets arriving dead happen.  And as a consumer, you may think its risky ordering crickets online.  But fear not, because that is why we guarantee live delivery.  So in the event that you do receive dead crickets, we will be more than willing to send another shipment free of charge.  

But then, you might begin to wonder "maybe these crickets will be ok for my bearded dragon or leopard gecko."  

And i'm here to tell you that it's not ok.

Firstly, a cricket is mostly made of water.  Once a cricket dies, its body will quickly loose its ability to retain the water, which will cause it to loose its nutritional value.  And if a cricket looses its nutritional value, then it's pretty much useless to anything trying to eat it.  

But another cause of concern is that a dead cricket can attract bacteria and parasites.  They will feast on the dead cricket.  Which is great for decomposition.  However, it's not so great for your bearded dragon or leopard gecko.  

So although it may seam like a neat idea, don't feed your pets the dead crickets that might come in the mail.  Because you can cause some serious harm to your favorite pet.  

6 comments


  • My 1 yr old dragon just ate a dead rotten cricket that fell outta the tube 1st. Is he gonna be okay?🐲❣💀

    Michelle Holbert on

  • I feed the crickets, and I do everything I can to keep them alive, but they just die! How do I keep this from happening!?

    Izzy on

  • i have a baby bearded. she ate three dead ones but they died about 5 seconds before. is that okay??

    Alina on

  • I have a juvenile bearded dragon. And he ate three dead crickets. How meany crickets does it take for a juvenile bearded dragon to die?

    Pedro Rodriguez on

  • I have the same question as Christina. I don’t order them online, I bought them from a pet store. I bought fresh live crickets yesterday evening and when I woke up this morning, they had died. The bag is deflated, so my guess is my cat punctured the bag. It just happened over night and it’s a weeks worth of crickets for her. Can I freeze the rest? Or do I have to throw them out?

    Elena on

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