Easy Cricket Breeding Guide

[nachash]

Machiavelli

[Raptor]

..And he has to do with crickets how? Quite honestly, you're blowing this out of proportion. If you don't like the idea of trimming cricket wings, no one's forcing you to do it.

[Jay_Bunny]

Just saw this and thought I'd give a thanks for posting it up. I plan on expanding my gecko collection (from the mere 1 leo I have right now) in the next few years, and a steady supply of crickets and other feeders will be important. This method seems easy enough.

How many crickets did you start off with in the 10 gallon?

[Raptor]

I don't really know. I'd catch wild crickets and toss them in. Eventually, I added about 3 dozen feeder crickets. I have a bunch of babies running around, but my adults are starting to die off from age. I'm considering setting up a second 10 gal and getting about 500 from top hat crickets, once I have some money.

[Jay_Bunny]

Let me know how it works out for you. I got some feeder crickets today and I'm setting them up in a 10g.

Do female crickets lay eggs more than once, or do they die off once they've laid one set? Thanks again for the guide. I'll probably post a thread if I have any success.

[Raptor]

They just keep laying.

[jsmorphs2]

Good thread! I may have to start a small colony. I'm sick of running to the store just for two dozen crickets a week. I also trimmed feeder males' wings. In the past all my herps were in my bedroom and the chirping would drive me MAD! It didn't seem to hurt them and it was better than culling them completely. If they lived long enough to molt their wings were re-generated.

[Raptor]

My colony unfortunately died again. It tends to happen when the ambient air temperature hits the 90s during the day time. Mom wouldn't turn on the AC . I'll get my colony up and running (again!) once we move to the new house that will be much more temperature controlled.

[Loki1108]

Thanks for this

My bf is getting kinda tired running to the store to get his piggy of a Bearded Dragon crickets... And he just happens to have Uther's 10gal with no use, and an easy access top ( http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/...inged-door.htm ) from when he was in the 10gal.

Wrote it down so I can help him set it up next time too. It dosen't hurt to try and should be easier to catch the buggers this way too, instead of tryin to get your hand into the kricket keeper...

[Raptor]

As an update to the initial thread post.

Once the egg cup is full, pull it out and replace it. Make sure to have a fish air pump tube pushed down to the bottom of the container. This makes it easy to keep the soil damp without flooding the eggs. Put the container in say a 2 and a half to five gal tank, leave the bottom bare. Cover the top with ceran wrap, tape it down, and poke holes in the top for circulation. This helps trap moisture and heat. After 14-28 days, depending on temps, you should start seeing crickets around you cup. Like so:



At this point, tear off a small piece of paper towel, put it on the tank bottom away from the egg cup. Wet it down so it's saturated, add a kibble or two of cat food.

With any luck, you'll wake up one day to find this:



As a side note, the larger crickets in these pictures are about three weeks old. I'm still having crickets hatch today.