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Q:
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How do I keep crickets?
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Okay I now have 3 Crested Gecko's, and a Tokay Gecko, which all eat bugs. Even my Uromastyx eat an occasional cricket! I have 2 dozen crickets of differant sizes in an 8"x8"x 5"deep plastic tub with lid. I put small holes all over it with fork, then put in egg crate, and i gave them Total Bites for feeder insects to keep them gut loaded with vitamins. am i doing this right? I don't wanna have to run to the store everyday for crickets! can you tell me how to keep crickets?
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Member Comment
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8/18/2009 10:12:35 PM
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FieldTrialTrainer
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Sounds good. You can even cut out the lid nd replace with screen too just for more ventilation. But if you are feeding two different size crickets you might want to have two different set ups. Up to you, unless you really want to fish out the small vs big.
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Member Comment
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8/18/2009 10:45:56 PM
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Sparkle
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If you want to breed them, here's the best "care sheet" I've found online. I bought a bunch of large crickets, put Eco-Earth in the bottom (helps keep the smell down too) and they went nuts laying eggs all over. http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html
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Author Comment
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8/18/2009 10:47:22 PM
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hupababy83
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never thought of breeding! that thought kinda scares me lol ANYONE GOT CRICKET BIRTHCONTROL?!?!?!?!
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Accepted Answer
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8/19/2009 10:44:54 AM
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Herpetological_Girl
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Betty! Why didn't you just email me?? lol. I agree with FieldTrialTrianer in that the 2 sizes should be kept separately. It just makes things easier. And yes! Breeding them is extremely easy, and saves me a lot of money lol. I went to target and bought some cheap bins that were on sale by Sterlite. For the big bin that will house the adults, the 2 longer sides and the top were replaced with screen. The screen MUST be metal, not nylon, as they can chew through nylon. Keep shallow dishes of "cricket water" and slices of apple, sweet potato, and cucumber in there. They also like cat food :) You can do slices of regular potatoes as well. The size of this bin should be about the size of a large rubbermaid bin-> something you would keep an avg size snake in.
To breed them: In a separate container, add moist coconut husk, crickets, and a little egg carton. This bin can be slightly smaller than the bin you house them in. Leave them overnight. Take them out the next morning, wait 2 weeks, and voila! You now have baby crickets. The pinheads are perfect for dart frogs, and very small insectivorious reptiles (baby williamsi, baby mourning geckos, etc). You do not need to cut holes into this bin, the eggs need the humidity from the coconut husk so that they don't dry out.
What I do: I needed more than just adults, so what I did was buy a 3 drawer plastic bin...thing... from Target and threw 1/3 of the pinheads into each drawer (I get THOUSANDS on average per hatch). I feed from the top drawer, and let the other 2 grow out (they grow rather quickly, as they reach adult size in 5 weeks). I only have to buy adult crickets once a month!! I have a constant supply of pinheads, 1/8in, and 5/8in. I also have 3 bins dedicated for egg laying bins that I rotate out. You don't have to worry about them getting out either since they can't climb the plastic :) Once a week I throw adults from their bin into the egg laying bin so that I have a hatch of pinheads every week (I go through them so fast it's not funny.... Lots of dart frogs! lol). Once the eggs hatch, wait 48 hours before you take out the substrate to be sure you got most of them out. After that, you can put the substrate in a 11x13" glass cake pan with water (so that it doesn't catch fire) and throw it in the oven to sterilize it and re-use it :D
If you want, I can show you pictures of how I have everything set up via email (I don't have any that I can upload from work). Let me know if this answers your questions! And drop me a line if you have any more ;)
~Abby
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Member Comment
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8/19/2009 10:47:13 AM
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Krestie Kate
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I would look into breed roaches and forget the crickets all together. Crickets smell and can escape. Not to mention how loud and anoying they are. I have a good how to for how you can set up your bin for your crickets but i'd seriously consider roaches. You can buy a dozen or so off of me if you wanna try them out.
http://iherp.com/Public/Blog/Detail.aspx?uid=21638
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Member Comment
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8/19/2009 10:55:10 AM
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shellboa
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Abby, Wow.
I keep my crickets in a big ol rubber maid with no lid, I have very few get out as they generally need angle to get heigth and can't in the tub. I keep the egg crate they were shipped with and add carrots and that gel gunk that stays moist. If it gets really warm I mist them lightly and add big chunks of potato dusted with cricket gut load. It is truly easy to breed them as the adults that the chameleons don't eat tend to be quite prolific and there are always a bazillion little runts in their enclosure (first time I saw them I thought they were ants and had a fit, sanitized the whole enclosure and went and bought a new live plant! lol ) You do need to be on top of removing the adults as they really chow on the little ones. Other than that I think Abby is like way on the ball.
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Member Comment
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8/19/2009 11:06:45 AM
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Herpetological_Girl
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Hahaha sorry. It was more than anyone probably needed to know about crickets.... like... EVER. They're such a staple food item for all my guys that I needed to find the most systematic way to keep my sanity with these things rofl.
Now I feel like such a NERD! :x hahaha
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Member Comment
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8/19/2009 1:06:31 PM
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Nicky2303
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lol i just keep mine in a cricket carrier, lol it has tubes in it where the crickets climb in and i just shake the tube in my tank so i dont have to touch the creepy insects, i just drop the food in the top if the carrier for the crickets and if i have to shake them in calcium i have a shaker where i put the crickets in one end and then the calcium sifts through and goes to the other end so i never have to touch the crickets, lol its perfect, hahahaha but sounds like ur way is good to you just might want more ventilation because they are smelly.
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Member Comment
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8/19/2009 1:10:15 PM
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JohnJohn
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I definitely agree with Miss Sparkle! I've followed the instructions at http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html. This system really works great. I tried to follow it down to the letter and I've had great sucess! Make the buckets EXACTLY as they descrivbe and the ventilation is good. This is important to keep the moisture low and the smell down. Mine have very little smell as long as I keep everything dry. I put the moistened eco earth in a cottage cheese tub and place that in there for the breeding bucket. After about a week and a half of breeding I transfer the breeding tub to a separate tub and put a fresh one in with the breeders. The only problem with this is that you will end up with several tubs! I have four big tubs going which supplies me with LOTS of crickets (free crickets!).
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Member Comment
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8/19/2009 1:17:42 PM
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JohnJohn
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By the way, the breeding won't take place until the crickets are old enough. You will know if they are beeding age if you hear them "chirping". If they're too young, you just need to wait a few weeks. You will know if they are breeding because you can actually see the breeding tubs fill up with little whitish eggs.
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Member Comment
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8/19/2009 8:44:03 PM
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Krestie Kate
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Wow that sounds like so much work to breed stupid crickets. Sorry to those who feed crickets but they suck as a staple food item. The diet too easyly the jump they small and there just a flat out hassle. Atleast with the dubia roaches they give birth to live young,you never have to worry about them dieing,they don't eat eat each other,there not loud, they don't smell,they don't eat that much and there more meat than shell. All crickets are, are legs. Theres hardly any meat on them. Plus there high in phosphorus. Crickets suck as a food item. HerpGirl if you wanna breed something more nutritional than crickets but still as small as pin heads look into breeding blatta lateralis.
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Member Comment
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8/20/2009 11:22:41 AM
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JohnJohn
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Hey Katie,
Raising crickets isn't bad if you set it up right. And, I disagree that crickets suck as a staple. My geckos do great with them, and I think my collared lizards couldn't live without it. Raising my own crickets has saved me a huge amount of money already. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a lot of lizards. Roaches sound good though. I've been thinking about setting some up. I'll always stick to my crickets as a staple though, with a weekly dusting of calcium and vitamins. :)
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