What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Do you keep crickets?

I've been wanting a leopard gecko for some time, but can't bear the thought of frequent shopping for crickets or paying more to feed a lizard then I spend to feed the family.  So I'm wondering, how difficult is it to maintain a population of crickets?

I've seen sources online that sell them by the box and I've seen descriptions of what they eat and so on.  Other than for the risk of year round chirping, are there any other problems to be aware of?  If you keep crickets, how do you do it?
 
I wouldn't keep crickets unless you have a place outside your house that you can keep them. They stink. I buy 2 dozen small and 2 dozen large crickets every week. I pay $2 for them.
 
I keep crickets in my apartment. I have no problem with smell. I order 2000 crickets a month for my pair of veiled chameleons and my Jacksons chameleons. I keep the crickets in large Tupperware bins that I got at Wal-Mart. I put lots of egg crate in there for them to climb on, a put a few chunks of potato in once a week. I get my crickets from reptiledepot.com; they seem to have the best prices around. Shipping in the winter isn't a big problem, I think they charge a few dollars more and throw in a heat pack. I can keep crickets until I use all of them and they never die. If you looking to keep large crickets you have to be careful because they will die out fast but if you put a dish of wet peat in the bin they will lay eggs and would will have hundreds of pinheads. Hope this helped.
Nick
 
I also Buy my crix from reptile depot. I buy 350 a week.

I keep em in the garage.
smile.gif
 
you could always try mealworms too, thats what i feed mine and they are much cheaper and even easier to keep. I breed my own and it cost like less than a dollar a month, just throw in a potato or carrot or some other fruit or vegatable and you are set. they will breed like mad and before you konw it you will have more than you know what to do with. oh and they dont smell or make noise

i would suppliment with other feeder insects for variety and a balanced diet, but i would do that with crickets too.

Ktulu
 
If you are fine with heating a large number of sweater boxes to grow out lots of young crickets...then a "culture" might be fine for you. Its pretty much essential if you are keeping something like small frogs which require pinhead crickets.

On A sidenote...adult crickets only live about 2-3 weeks so don't buy more than ukin use.
 
How warm do crickets need to be? I was thinking I'd keep them in the basement, which drops into the upper 40s in midwinter.

My wife and daughter have been wanting a gecko and I told them it looks like the gecko is the easy one. It's the crickets who are difficult.
 
Like 80 degrees or so to keep them breeding. They can be cooled to slow down the lifecycle though.
 
I keep crickets, but I don't breed them.. but I have a pretty good idea how it goes, because I knew someone who raised them.. put males and females (females have a stinger-like black ovipositor protruding from their hind end) in a large container with hiding places and anything wet and porus, like oranges or a sponge you can dampen every day. They will lay eggs in that and the baby crickets ("pinheads") are extremely small, so make sure there is a foot or so between the highest climbable object and the top of the container so the pinheads can't reach the top to escape. It's virtually impossible to find a cover that they can't get through without suffocating the crickets, so don't try that. Once the pinheads grow large enough, they can be used to feeding. Also be sure that there's always cricket food or sometimes less expensive tropical fish flakes so they are well fed for the leo.

Good luck!
 
  • #11
Hi Bruce -

We have an Ambanja Panther Chameleon so we raise both crickets and mealworms. We originaly got him from LLL Reptile in California.

See if your library can interlibrary loan you a book called "Eat This Bug". The Wallingford library bought it when I requested it. The crickets do stink. They grow faster if warm, so we put the tank on top of one of the CP flourescents. The top is open, covered with screen door mesh. In there we keep two 4-inch pots full of potting soil that we make sure stays damp. That's where they lay the eggs. We feed them anything; cheerios, bran flakes, dog food, broccoli, carrots, other veggy scraps, etc.

Do you know of that pet shop, Slither And Swim, in West Haven? They have crickets, waxworms, etc. Thats where we 'kennel' our chameleon when we go on vacation. They are very knowledgeable about reptiles.

Have you guys gone to the reptile shows in White Plains? NY Reptile Expo You can buy boxes of crickets there and I bet your wife and daughter would have a great time.

Bill
 
  • #12
Hmmm.. I gotta try those other food options for my crix.. sounds interesting.

Yes, the crix do stink, but after a while your sense of smell becomes unbelievably numb to the stink.. for the four years I've had this leo, I've had the crickets in a ten-gallon glass aquarium in the same room as the leo, in my bedroom. My grandfather swears every time he comes in, it stinks like hell, but I can't smell it, since I spend most of my time in my room (even though the computer is in the living room.. go figure) and I've become totally used to it. Even the constant, loud, breeding-season chirping is tuned out by your brain after a while. They chirp all the time, but I hear it so much I just tune it out completely. I'm used to alot of noise in my room.. two fishtank filters, one air pump, the crickets chirping, Interstate 90 half a block away, and two nights a week, the humming noise of the VCR recording The X-Files for some of the hours between 12 and 6 AM. I just tune it all out. I actually wake up when the power goes out, just from the sheer LACK of noise (even the crickets shut up out of fear of the sudden silence). So apparently the human body can adapt to just about anything and can become so used to something that a lack of that is insanely abnormal.
 
  • #13
I think you might be able to get away with dead crickets. For cp w/o a doubt, but one of the reptile companies makes a vibrating food dish that makes the dead bugs move around enough to get attention.

Cheers,

Joe
 
  • #14
Btw, I think 1 ft for pinheads is any overkill. I bred crickets just for fun and the pinheads stayed in a 6 inch critter keeper just fine. Providing warmth and humidity was more difficult. I fed most of them to the fish.
 
Back
Top