Breeding crickets

I am considering breeding crickets for my daughters Lizards (Gecko's) and was wondering what is the life span of a cricket and how long does it take them to grow up she goes through 3-5 crickets per day per lizard 4 are small house geckos eating small crickets that are in for the winter and a leopard gecko eating large crickets we buy approximately 60 crickets a week from our local pet store and she is looking at spending her next savings on another leopard gecko so it is looking like it will in the long run be cheaper but from what I have read you have to remove the adults before the babies hatch too prevent cannibalizing of the babies or is this not necessary if there is plenty of room and food for the adults and babies. Any help appreciated or ideas and setups.

The only thing I know about crickets is that they stink :p

I breed roaches, B. dubia, for my spiders, frogs etc.
You can buy them as feeders or start your own colony. I used to hate roaches but now I enjoy raising them.

Very easy without the stink, more nutrition, less chitin.

Just putting that out there :p

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Originally Posted by 3skulls

The only thing I know about crickets is that they stink :p

I breed roaches, B. dubia, for my spiders, frogs etc.
You can buy them as feeders or start your own colony. I used to hate roaches but now I enjoy raising them.

Very easy without the stink, more nutrition, less chitin.

Just putting that out there :p

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I am not so sure I could grow roaches they creep me out even worse than worms do they are ummm unsanitary yes I know not necessarily true but its a roach LMAO I breed rats and euthanize and freeze them and I thought putting worms for the lizard in my fridge creeped me out but breeding roaches I think I will pass for now any way give me a while to think about it and I am sure I could convince my OCD and sanitary logic to shut off lol

Haha
Read up on them, might change your mind.

I do remember there were some videos on cricket breeding on YouTube.

I 2nd the roach idea. Especially b.dubia. Crickets smell bad!! And babies are the best escape artists.

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Originally Posted by ChrisS

I 2nd the roach idea. Especially b.dubia. Crickets smell bad!! And babies are the best escape artists.

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I cant I was just looking at several pictures and what if a lid gets left open by my daughter or worse if they get in my house I would move away literally I cant stand roaches in my house I am an obsessive cleaner to minimize the chances of even household roaches the thought of have hundreds and thousands that could one day just get out I would never sleep again I think I can live with crickets the cats chase those down and they would be housed outside my house crickets get out they wont try to find their way in roaches get out they are headed for my walls
sorry if it sounds way to girly but i cant do roaches not in the near future anyway maybe after a cricket experience it will be more logical in my brain my almost 6 year old daughter has turned many a cricket loose in my house and I was able to say ok its a cricket i couldnt do that with roaches

Dubias are much more nutritious than crickets as a feeder. Dubia roaches cannot climb surfaces either so you don have to worry about escaped roaches. Roaches are not dirty animals. They're found in dumps because there's a food source nearby and they hate light. Also dubia roaches are very slow moving and much cleaner than crickets.

I hear you there roaches are creepy and I hate them too! I've never liked them just a creepy little big I can't stand them walking on me

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Originally Posted by barbie.dragon

Dubias are much more nutritious than crickets as a feeder. Dubia roaches cannot climb surfaces either so you don have to worry about escaped roaches. Roaches are not dirty animals. They're found in dumps because there's a food source nearby and they hate light. Also dubia roaches are very slow moving and much cleaner than crickets.

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The roaches you're talking about are very different from dubias. Dubias are slow, non flying and non climbing roaches. Completely different from what you're thinking. Crickets are far nastier than dubias. Search up dubia roaches instead of just cockroach. If your daughter left the container open they would not be able to come out.

Like others have said...Dubia cannot climb smooth surfaces so even if the lid was left off they could not get out. Also, dubia are a tropical roach and cannot survive for long or reproduce in a non-tropical climate (like your house). I hated roaches too until I bred Dubia's for my beardie and my chameleon....they are VERY easy to work with and not dirty at all. I despise crickets because of the stink and the constant noise.

Breeding crix, (roaches are wicked illegal where I am so it is a silly point if you can't you can't move on) isn't super hard the first issue is cleaning they need clean and healthy conditions. Food and water and good quality. I use bug burger by rhapsody (sp?) as food and water. I have a few tubs filled with coco coir damp coco coir. I keep a bunch of crix adults in it and when after a while when they have been chirping a lot i'll just remove the males and leave the females in for an extra week then remove them to a cleaned new tub. The old one I'll put fresh cricket water in and a flat lid with bran and fish flakes for the hatchlings. I keep the whole works at or near the mid 80s and keep a FL light on them. You need to keep a ring of packing tape well stuck on the inside lip the pinheads can escape by walking up the walls. There are a lot of info out there this is a super basic method. I found it easier to keep a bunch together and then move than pick out females and give them a lay box. I loose tons of eggs to predation but I get enough for my beardie so it doesn't matter much. It may not be super efficient but it works for me.

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Originally Posted by barbie.dragon

Dubias are much more nutritious than crickets as a feeder. Dubia roaches cannot climb surfaces either so you don have to worry about escaped roaches. Roaches are not dirty animals. They're found in dumps because there's a food source nearby and they hate light. Also dubia roaches are very slow moving and much cleaner than crickets.

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I will consider it and do more research also I would have to order them from somewhere do the adults get to large to feed to a leopard gecko I do not want to be breeding something that cant be feed tot he lizard throughout its lifespan with crickets I have never gotten any that where to large.

so life span of dubia is 1-2years with thousands of babies produced
life span of cricket ?? with up to a thousand babies produced

growth rate of dubia months
growth rate of crickets ????

please give me something to compare to

Dubias smell alot less then crickets because they do not die nearly as often. They are much cleaner then crickets in my opinion. Remember that these would be roaches feeding off of fresh veggies, dry/wet diet (I recommend Repashy bug burger) all of which is much cleaner then what you will see roaches in the "wild" eating. Some myths about dubias is that they do not climb and do not fly, this is not exactly true. Depending on the surface of the bin they can climb the rubbermaid type especially the smaller ones which have less mass to deal with. This can be solved by simply adding a few rings of clear packing tape around the walls, they can not climb the clear packing tape, that is certain. Also, male dubia certainly can glide and flutter fly, I know this isn't what most people want to hear but it is true. You have to get them really hot for them to flutter fly but they can reach about 6ft off the ground from inside the bin on the floor. So long as you keep the lid on though and turn the light on when you open the bin you should have no worries about one of them coming out, they absolutely hate light.

I'm not sure how many one lizard would eat in a weeks time or up to what size.
You would just allow your adults to breed, no need to feed them off. If you took the nymphs out a kept them at a cooler temp, they would grow pretty slow. The smaller they are the more you would feed off.
I think it takes about 6 months for them to reach adult size (that's off the top of my head)
I think once you had a system, knowing the numbers you need, you could control it so it doesn't get out of hand.

If you want to just try some small ones as feeders first, shoot me a PM

This is coming from a person that hated roaches as well :p

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Originally Posted by Dark Lady Kat

I will consider it and do more research also I would have to order them from somewhere do the adults get to large to feed to a leopard gecko I do not want to be breeding something that cant be feed tot he lizard throughout its lifespan with crickets I have never gotten any that where to large.

so life span of dubia is 1-2years with thousands of babies produced
life span of cricket ?? with up to a thousand babies produced

growth rate of dubia months
growth rate of crickets ????

please give me something to compare to

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Google has a lot of information. But here's a good website to start with:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bandung...dubiacare.html

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Originally Posted by OctagonGecko729

Dubias smell alot less then crickets because they do not die nearly as often. They are much cleaner then crickets in my opinion. Remember that these would be roaches feeding off of fresh veggies, dry/wet diet (I recommend Repashy bug burger) all of which is much cleaner then what you will see roaches in the "wild" eating. Some myths about dubias is that they do not climb and do not fly, this is not exactly true. Depending on the surface of the bin they can climb the rubbermaid type especially the smaller ones which have less mass to deal with. This can be solved by simply adding a few rings of clear packing tape around the walls, they can not climb the clear packing tape, that is certain. Also, male dubia certainly can glide and flutter fly, I know this isn't what most people want to hear but it is true. You have to get them really hot for them to flutter fly but they can reach about 6ft off the ground from inside the bin on the floor. So long as you keep the lid on though and turn the light on when you open the bin you should have no worries about one of them coming out, they absolutely hate light.

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I usually see them kept in those big plastic trash cans and aquariums :P but they are very poor climbers compared to other roaches. Well when I loved in Asia those roaches were like acrobats.

They can climb the silicon in glass tanks.
I use "Really Useful Boxes" slick sides and locking lids.

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Originally Posted by barbie.dragon

I usually see them kept in those big plastic trash cans and aquariums :P but they are very poor climbers compared to other roaches. Well when I loved in Asia those roaches were like acrobats.

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Yeah they are pretty clumbsy, the problem is that they have all day long everyday to figure it out. But yeah the clear packing tape works perfectly, you only "need" one layer but I've got three going, because they creep me out a little aswell :P.