Tips on cricket breeding?

[BritJay]

Does anyone know how to breed crickets? I can't afford to keep buying crickets for my beardy and chameleons but I'm not quite sure how to do it. Tips?

 

[Hdrydr31]

Does anyone know how to breed crickets? I can't afford to keep buying crickets for my beardy and chameleons but I'm not quite sure how to do it. Tips?

Yep I can help you with that... question for you where do you live? have you considered dubia roaches? I ask as care and up keep is different 1 is hard and smelly and the other super easy

 

[Hdrydr31]

Best bet is to buy in bulk online let us know there are many different places to buy them and it's much more economical than buying from the local pet stores.. Here's the info I typed up for someone else needing it..

Get yourself 2- 30 gal storage bin with a lids, cut a large part of the top and put screen taped on...you should also do some rectangle holes in the bin covered in screen there too Place these holes towards the top....Get some egg flats or egg containers, paper towel rolls plenty for them to have space if too crowded they will fight with eachother. Water dish tops of mayo jars water crystals work really well same with the screw on top to peanut butter tubs, I use the bigger one for the food. What I used was rolled oats, white corn meal, carrots, romaine lettuce...you can feed them the same stuff as you feed your dragon... Afterall it's going for it anyways so gut loading.. They are SUPER sensitive to strong odors/chemicals. Heat I used reg light bulbs that give heat that are in those metal work lamp deals, for during the day and I used the red lights during the night. I had the lamps on timers. Temps they prefer 75-80F the humidity needs to be low! that's the biggest killer of them 30-40% lower on that # is the better, they need it to molt but when you buy in bulk (I used to do 500 at a time) they give off heat themselves..
I am OCD so I cleaned them daily shake out the egg containers, and remove everything dishes and food.. then all you need to do is tilt the container over the empty one and let them go into the waiting container (so not to dump out the dead ones or poop or molt...) then wipe down the bin with water make sure it's REALLY dry then arrange the tub again. the food and water should be on the cool side of the container..so arrange the lights to be coming from 1 end that's where the egg cartons should be. The poop and dead crickets are what make them smell bad that's why I cleaned them out every day..

Remember they are sensitive bugs, odors, high humidity, the egg cartons they will nibble on so be careful about recycled ones...pesticides (wash your greens and such) I gave mine organic veggies they did better. The males are the ones that make the noise. Remember to not leave any crickets in with your dragon at night as they can and will chew on your dragon..

Breeding: Once you get the adults that are of age I housed them in their own tub with flats of worm bedding (the soil one not the newspaper one) the plastic flats that I found worked really well are the ones that the suet for birds come in dampen the worm bedding and fill the container up almost to the top, set that in with the adults and within a few days you will see the females laying away. Once the container gets full (you can see the eggs thru the plastic its amazing how many you will get) each female can lay about 100-200 eggs!! not all of them will hatch.. once it's full put them in a container set up under heat lamps to incubate. if you look the eggs will get fatter and fatter and pretty soon you can see the eye's and not long after that you'll see the babies moving around.. You have to keep the flats moist or the eggs will dry out.. then put them in a grow up container not with the adults they will eat them..

enjoy!

 

[BritJay]

Yep I can help you with that... question for you where do you live? have you considered dubia roaches? I ask as care and up keep is different 1 is hard and smelly and the other super easy

I live in Ontario, Thunder Bay, and I don't think we sell those here I've never seen them at any pet store yet.

 

[BritJay]

Best bet is to buy in bulk online let us know there are many different places to buy them and it's much more economical than buying from the local pet stores.. Here's the info I typed up for someone else needing it..

Get yourself 2- 30 gal storage bin with a lids, cut a large part of the top and put screen taped on...you should also do some rectangle holes in the bin covered in screen there too Place these holes towards the top....Get some egg flats or egg containers, paper towel rolls plenty for them to have space if too crowded they will fight with eachother. Water dish tops of mayo jars water crystals work really well same with the screw on top to peanut butter tubs, I use the bigger one for the food. What I used was rolled oats, white corn meal, carrots, romaine lettuce...you can feed them the same stuff as you feed your dragon... Afterall it's going for it anyways so gut loading.. They are SUPER sensitive to strong odors/chemicals. Heat I used reg light bulbs that give heat that are in those metal work lamp deals, for during the day and I used the red lights during the night. I had the lamps on timers. Temps they prefer 75-80F the humidity needs to be low! that's the biggest killer of them 30-40% lower on that # is the better, they need it to molt but when you buy in bulk (I used to do 500 at a time) they give off heat themselves..
I am OCD so I cleaned them daily shake out the egg containers, and remove everything dishes and food.. then all you need to do is tilt the container over the empty one and let them go into the waiting container (so not to dump out the dead ones or poop or molt...) then wipe down the bin with water make sure it's REALLY dry then arrange the tub again. the food and water should be on the cool side of the container..so arrange the lights to be coming from 1 end that's where the egg cartons should be. The poop and dead crickets are what make them smell bad that's why I cleaned them out every day..

Remember they are sensitive bugs, odors, high humidity, the egg cartons they will nibble on so be careful about recycled ones...pesticides (wash your greens and such) I gave mine organic veggies they did better. The males are the ones that make the noise. Remember to not leave any crickets in with your dragon at night as they can and will chew on your dragon..

Breeding: Once you get the adults that are of age I housed them in their own tub with flats of worm bedding (the soil one not the newspaper one) the plastic flats that I found worked really well are the ones that the suet for birds come in dampen the worm bedding and fill the container up almost to the top, set that in with the adults and within a few days you will see the females laying away. Once the container gets full (you can see the eggs thru the plastic its amazing how many you will get) each female can lay about 100-200 eggs!! not all of them will hatch.. once it's full put them in a container set up under heat lamps to incubate. if you look the eggs will get fatter and fatter and pretty soon you can see the eye's and not long after that you'll see the babies moving around.. You have to keep the flats moist or the eggs will dry out.. then put them in a grow up container not with the adults they will eat them..

enjoy!

Thanks for the tips! This is really helpful and will defiantly try this method.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I live in Ontario, Thunder Bay, and I don't think we sell those here I've never seen them at any pet store yet.

hmm I'll see if I can do some research there are a couple states that don't allow dubia's but do allow driscoids

 

[Hdrydr31]

Thanks for the tips! This is really helpful and will defiantly try this method.

let me know if you need or have any questions...