CAROLINA CRICKETS

Stop buying
water with legs.

Most big-name feeder crickets are 17–18% protein and about 75% water. Ours were lab-tested at 27.4% protein. Same size cricket. More meat.

SHOP HIGH-PROTEIN CRICKETS

Independent analysis · Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories · June 2026

Your reptile is not trying to drink a cricket.

It is trying to eat one. Protein builds muscle, bone matrix, skin, and eggs. Water fills the stomach and leaves. If the cricket is three-quarters water, you are running more feedings to get the same meal.

High protein means the grams inside the cricket you just shook into the enclosure — not a slogan on a bag.

Look at the labels. Then look at the lab.

Protein as shipped — what the animal actually swallows.

Ours: MVTL sample 26-M102952, received 29 May 2026, reported 3 June 2026, official AOAC methods. As shipped = the live cricket, water included. Big Name figures: published guaranteed analyses from major feeder brands (minimums on their labels — not named here). About 50% more protein as shipped than those labels. Still dust with calcium.

What that means in the enclosure

The farm behind the number

Carolina Crickets is the Warren Cricket Farm legacy on Bait Road in Dunn — the Mid-Atlantic Acheta house that stayed virus-free when a lot of the industry did not. We raise them on a nutrient-dense, calcium-fortified diet and ship farm-direct.

• Third-party lab certificate
• Virus-free facility
• Calcium-fortified feed — and we still tell you to dust
• Live arrival focus, 1–2 day ground from North Carolina
• Retail packs and wholesale for stores, breeders, and bait shops

The honest small print

Calcium in our sample was 857 ppm as-fed. That is not a finished 2:1 Ca:P ratio. Gut-load 24–48 hours and dust.

One dated lab sample is not a promise that every cricket, every week, hits 27.4% on the nose. Size, life stage, and gut-load move the needle. It is a third-party snapshot the other labels on this page have not matched.

If you dry the water out of that same sample, protein is about 78% of what’s left. That is how studies compare insects. It is not what the lizard swallows. The swallow number is 27%.

This is a feeder analysis, not an FDA Nutrition Facts panel.

Questions people actually ask

So you’re saying their crickets are fake?

No. Their published numbers show a wetter, lower-protein cricket. Water with legs. Ours tested meatier.

Do I feed fewer crickets?

Feed for the animal’s size and body condition. Start with your normal count. Watch the animal.

Beardies, geckos, chameleons — same pitch?

If the pet needs a high-protein live staple, yes. Pair with greens and proper UVB.

Can I see the lab sheet?

Yes. Call 910.694.3025 and ask for the lab-verified nutrition PDF.

You can keep buying the watery ones.

Or you can feed the cricket that already has the protein in it.

SHOP LIVE CRICKETS

Wholesale or breeders: call 910.694.3025 — ask for the lab sheet.

Carolina Crickets · 212 Bait Road, Dunn, NC 28334 · carolinacricketfarm.com