Most cricket eaters get internal parasites! Crickets carry things such as pinworms. Pinworms can be a simple thing to treat if caught soon enough. If the reptile is not treated, it can be LIFE THREATENING.

We recommend that you have your vet check fecal samples of your cricket eater every six months to a year. It is inexpensive and easy procedure to check for parasites and treat reptiles that have them. Save the life of your pet and call your veterinarian! Types of reptiles that eat crickets and are highly susceptible: Leopard Geckos, Crested Geckos, Skinks, Bearded Dragons, Rough Green Snakes--all cricket eaters are susceptible.LIVE RODENTS (including rabbits) often carry parasites. Therefore, if you are feeding your snake or monitor live rodents, then they too are highly susceptible to internal parasites and must have fecal checks performed periodically by a vet. You can feed FROZEN, then THAWED, rodents without this worry. Freezing the rodents kills most all parasites and harmful bacteria that can affect the mammal eaters. Using an infrared lamp will warm the rodents after thawing. Only heat it up in the amount of time it takes to return the rodent's body temperature to normal.This is another reason to consider your source of food for your reptiles, including snakes. You don't feed your dogs live food, do you? No, you feed them commercialized food. It is just important to find lab quality rodents for your snakes. There are also many rabbit suppliers that offer rabbits approved for human consumption. Feel free to visit our "Links" section for the link to the rodent supplier we use.PENTASTOMIDS are another alarming parasite that can infect your reptiles! They too enter through food items like fish and rodents. Therefore, aquatic turtles and other fish eaters are just as susceptible as rodent eaters. They are very hard to identify and must be treated properly. Usually, fenbendazole will work. However, if the infestation is too bad by the time it is noticed, then an ivermectin* injection may be necessary. We do not recommend you try this on your own. Ivermectin* can be life threating if the dose is too high and useless if the dose is too low.*Ivermectin is more than often fatal in chelonians.

Check out some of these links for more information on parasites:

http://www.drgecko.com/therapeutics.htm

http://www.icomm.ca/dragon/parasite.htm#parasite

http://www.anapsid.org/parasites.html

http://www.eman-rese.ca/eman/ecotools/protocols/terrestrial/herp_parasites/page2.html