Keeping crickets small scale

[bman123]

I'm gonna be getting a new Leo soon and want to keep the crickets alive. Was wondering what is the best way to keep them alive.
Room temp is 76 year round, Im thinking of getting one of those critter keeper plastic containers with the plastic vented lid. It is $5 for a medium sized one.

Do you think that is fine to use for say 60-100 crickets at a time? Also what do you use for a food and water bowl? I'm thinking of just getting that cricket quencher for water and putting it in a milk jug lid, also was thinking of using my normal bird food gut load in a milk jug lid also.

Do you think I need a bigger food/water bowl? The container is probably 10long 6 deep and 8 tall. They have a bigger size but it's huge and I think it's $15

I will continue to give them carrot apple and potatoe slices I just don't know if I should get the medium $5 container or the large $12-$15 container.
The large is probably 16 long, 8-10 wide and 10-12 tall.

I don't know what to use for a bowl lol, I would think a milk jug lid would be too small with that many crickets. I don't really have anything else laying around that would easily fit in there and I don't want to buy those small stone bowls that hold water for lizards but I think I may have to get one of those..

 

[bman123]

Well I went to the petstore lol. I got a small and a medium critter cage, I'll use the small for mealies and the medium for crickets.
I cut up some excedrin bottles to use as bowls for the food and water for the crickets. And I cut up 2 small flat pieces for the mealies.

I bought some of that cricket quencher stuff since it was only $2.48 for a huge bottle, I bought the blue kind as I heard alot of people say the yellow was killing the crix. I also bought some of the flukers dry cricket food for $3

I'm normally anti store bought stuff but with this surgery coming up I need to make things simpler on myself. I'll only have 1 Leo so the stuff I bought today should last awhile. Plus it was super cheap. The only thing I'm worried about is mealworms and the cricket quencher. I figure if anything I'll have to break it up or use the smallest pieces

 

[bman123]

I forgot I got some repashy calcium plus when I was there so no more calcium dish in the tank yay.. Just gotta wait til Sunday now for the show before I get my new Leo, the waiting game is gonna kill me.

 

[onemodog]

Hey bman...I use one of those keepers, small one, and keep about two dozen crickets max in it. As stated in an earlier post, I am now using the Flukers Orange and supplement with apple slices. I think the combo works for me as it is both easy and effective...I have less dead crickets it seems..though I wasnt offering water before as often when I wasnt using Flukers dry stuff.
Good luck on your Leo. We have had ours for a month now and he has gotten bigger, is getting a nice tail and seems more responsive to being held.

 

[Blacksupra94]

I use one of those cricket keepers also and I buy about 20 crickets at a time. I feed them pro gecko gutload and the yellow fluker squares, also throw in scrap veggies and fruits ( especially the skin )

Just FYI, I got a 10 gallon tank with paper towels taped down , I release about 5 crickets at a time in there and let my Leo have a fiesta , it is way easier than clearing out her cage :main_thumbsup:

 

[bman123]

We have a show Sunday and I'm gonna buy a box of 1,000 small crickets for $15
I know someone locally who has like 5 leos so I'm gonna see if she wants to split the box with me. I'd give her like 600 of them for $10
400 crickets would last me a long time. I got the largest critter keeper the store had and I should be able to keep 400 crickets in there as long as I provide enough eggcrate and food and water for them to stay alive.

My new Leo ate 6 small crickets today so if she keeps up this pace 400 crockets should las me a while til I feel better from my back surgery that I'm getting done on the 28th..

 

[bman123]

I went and got 100 small crickets for $2.99 at the local PS. I tell ya what I didn't realize how nasty and dirty crickets are until now. I have about 110 now as I had some left from before. I cleaned out the large critter keeper that the crickets live in and boy was that a nasty job.

I took them outside to transfer them to the small keeper and clean the large keeper out and it was gross lol. I had about 10 dead ones which ain't to bad. I've had some of them for almost a week now so I figured some of them would die.

Those crickets sure are sneaky, the dead ones I would grab and just toss in the driveway with my tongs. So some of the crickets started playing dead. I threw out two of them that weren't moving and soon as they hit the gravel they took off lol.

Needless to say I got the keeper all clean and pulled out all the dead ones. From now on I'm only buying 50 at a time. 100 is too much work in this large critter keeper. I have to tip my hat to those of you who breed or keep alot of crickets. It's a nasty time consuming job but someones gotta do it..

 

[jfreels]

I keep a couple hundred now. Usually I will go through with my tongs and take out the dead ones when I check on the reptiles. Takes me about 5 minutes.

I have found that they don't smell as much if you remove the dead ones every day and don't feed them fruits/vegs. Not only can the food you provide them mold, but they also hide the food. I have thrown an apple wedge in the cage and it will be gone the next day, but when I do a cleaning, I find little pieces of it all around. That would not help with the smell.

I have also tried bedding. I loved that at first but then I'd find some of the oddest things in the bedding.

Also, I use deep tubs, so I have some room to work with. I have 3-4 egg crates on the breeder tub and I can remove the food/water crystals and just shift the crates around to clean it out. That's my semi-daily routine to remove the dead.