Keeping crickets

[Crunchewy]

We are getting tired of buying crickets every 2 or 3 days and are thinking of trying to keep a larger amount in a cricket keeper in the basement. What do you need to put in with crickets for feeding, and what do you put in for gut loading, or is that the same thing? Anything else I need to know?

 

[marauderhex]

I would suggest dubia roaches over crickets. They are easier to maintain (diet of greens, veggies, dog food (I use beneful), and egg laying chicken feed (adds calcium)), don't smell, don't chirp, and don't escape their enclosure nearly as often as crickets.

 

[garner63080]

Personally i wouldn't mess with a.cricket keeper,look up home made cricket enclosures using a rubbermade.tub. More room. My crickets.keep dying.from all being stuffed in one cricket keeper.

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[Dimidiata]

Ditto, id use a 5gal or 10gal sized bin or spare tank with good lid. These guys, stink, make noise, exscape, and most of all DIE. However, a good enclosure will reduce all of this. What about superworms? Does your lps have them??

 

[euan]

from what research ive done, crickets need a lot of room or they'll start to canabalize each other.

I've got a 24 litre tub and keep around 50 crickets good and healthy for a week or so, till i run out or they get to big for my gecko (they can grow really fast)

Feed them mainly on dry dog food (high protein) and slices of orange (good for hydration & vitamins and also keeps the smell at bay)

 

[Crunchewy]

I think the store has super worms. We like to feed him crickets, and he seems to especially like them. It is sounding like a pain, though, keeping them. Still am considering it, though. Thanks for the info on a larger enclosure. I was looking at the cricket keepers and thought the large one was too big. We just want to reduce our trips to the store. What if we kept 16-20 crickets at a time in a large cricket keeper and fed them those orange cubes? Would that be OK? Basically just cutting our trip to the store down to once a week.

 

[Dimidiata]

That may work. Get some egg cartons ready in it, get a small small dish for the cubes(a soda cap may work) and a small super shallow bowl with a sponge in it for water.

 

[Crunchewy]

What do the egg cartons do? I was wondering why they put them in there at the store.

 

[Dimidiata]

Makes the most of the space provided. The crixs need space to climb. You dont want them climbing on eachother, that leads to canabalism. Also, at no point should even a milimeter of water be standing in the enclosure, only a damp pappertowel or sponge, if there is standing water they will find away to drown in it, always.

 

[TokayKeeper]

the cubes are crap, and sponge will be a breeding ground for bacteria and possible mold which in turn can equate to toxins building up in the crickets and then transferred to the geckos.

If you want to save yourself the constant trips for crickets goto Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc:

- pick yourself up a sterilite tub in the 20 quart (19 liter) size
- METAL window screen
- a high-temp rated hot glue gun
- wheat germ (kind of pricey) or some oatmeal (not the baggy packaged stuff, but the oatmeal in cylinders...stuff you'd use for oatmeal cookies)

Centered...carefully cut out a rectangular hole in the sterilite lid roughly 4 inches x 10 inches. Cut the metal window screen 6 inches by 12 inches (this will give a 1 inch border). Hot glue the screen to the inside of the lid starting at a corner and working 1 side. The screen will get hot! I use a small flat-headed screw driver to hold the screen in place as I glue. Work in 2-3 inch sections of glue then pressing screen into glue.

Fill tub about 1/2 to 3/4 inch full of wheat germ or oatmeal. This is something nutritional for the crickets to eat and also helps with odor control. Clean it as needed (usually once every 1 to 2 weeks). If you use oatmeal, keep the plastic lid and place the extra oatmeal in a ziplock bag.

If you have a dog or cat, take 5-10 pieces of their dry kibble and soak in water until a soggy cereal like consistency, drain off excess water. Finely chop up some fresh fruits and veggies (I like to use carrots, butternut squash [HIGH in beta carotene which is a precursor to vitamin A) and mash together with the kibble. Portion out about 1/4 of mash onto plastic lid from oatmeal container, instant high quality gutload for crickets (can also be used for mealworms and superworms). Place remaining 3/4 of mash into some sort of food storage container and refrigerate. Mash will keep for about 5 days. Keep crickets on days you don't feed the gecko, thus allowing for a 24 hour gutloading cycle. Mash can easily be cleaned off of the plastic lid, lid can easily be disinfected, and mash serves as a gutload and moisture source.

The setup will easily house 1000 2-3 week old crickets (about 1/8 to 3/8 inch in size) or about 200 4 to 5 week old crickets (aka large or adult crickets). Adjust mash proportions according to cricket needs.

I do the same thing for my mealworm and superworm colonies. Unless I neglect my cricket bins (which are much larger than setup above) they typically don't smell. Crickets are much lower in fat (5.5% vs mealworm's 14%) and chitin content than mealies, thus easier to digest, their calcium to phosphorus ratio (0.33:1 vs mealworms at 0.07 to 0.33:1) is higher and thus easier to bring them to the proper 2:1 CA, facilitate natural hunting behavior, which all in hand promotes a leaner, healthier gecko that gets excersize through actively hunting it's prey vs eating it out of a dish.

Part of the reason why I feed mealworms ONLY as a treat...

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES - Adult bearded dragon postmortem - death caused from mealworm impaction. The tech also mentioned the excess fat deposits.

EDIT: Ask the pet store for egg crate as Dimidiata mentioned. You can ask for a large piece appropriate for your tub.

 

[Crunchewy]

What is "crap" about the orange cubes, especially if its for short term? I'm going to get about a weeks worth of crickets, use them up, clean the keeper and repeat.