Crickets..?

[geckogirl171]

I have a ?? about keeping crix. I would like to buy them in bulk and keep them in an aquarium. I had previously kept them in a trash can with a lid and they had too much humidity :-(
I don't know what type of substrate to put in to keep the moisture down?? Also, I have always used raw potato for the crix to eat, is that good enough or should I feed them something else?? (i always dust with calcium powder when feeding)
Do they need any heat or is an aquarium with a screen top okay?
That's all I can think of right now, Thanks in advance for advice!! :D

[Crested_Freak]

My questions are of the same nature. Are there any condition that crickets favor to breeding? Same question for mealworms to. also what do you keep millies in?

Mitch

[flaming_lizard]

I don't use any substrate, because I want the adults to lay their eggs in the provided container instead of the substrate that I would throw away. But I do use some egg crates even the ones they came in. The best way to keep the moisture down is to ventilate it well and an aquarium with a screen top will work great. They don't need heat but the more heat the faster they grow. With food I have made my own from recipes on the web, and have bought some from cricketfood.com ( a pound goes a long ... way). The cool thing that happened to me is the better I fed the crickets the less crickets that my geckos consumed because they received more nutrients per cricket. If you make your own it needs to be high in protein if not crickets will sometimes cannabalize to gain protein. I hope that helps for now.

Crested Freak: No specific conditions are required for breeding except that it helps if they are warm such as 80 to 85 degrees. Also when you hear them chirping that usally means that the males have came to adulthood and the females are likely to be adults also. They will lay eggs in whatever moist substrate they can find even their water dish. Hope this helps also.

[Crested_Freak]

Thanks for the info. Ill get an aquarium next Time I go to the pet store and put the crickets in with it. I have a little plastic container here that would be great for them to lay eggs in. Thanks again!

Mitch

[Taylormaid]

August's Reptile magazine had a great article on keeping crickets.

I feed mine dog food, fish food and cricket food. The article reccommended these as well as apples, potatoes and oranges for moisture and alfalfa sprouts, cantaloupe, grapes,yams, zucchini. It said to avoid dark greens like kale, spinach, broccoli because they either promote hypothyroidism or affect calcium absorption. It also said avoid high calcium gutloading cricket food because it can impact and kill the cricket after 48 hrs and also, they tend to ignore high calcium food.

I keep mine in plastic critter keepers. I briefly tried a paper towel substrate to make cleaning easy, but they kept hiding under it and getting trapped, now i use nothing. I havent tried to breed yet, I might have to to keep my 5 hungry mouths fed.

[Crested_Freak]

Where does everyone keep their crickets at? Outside or inside?

[Taylormaid]

I keep mine inside, they are sensitive to temp change, and the weather changes all the time here....

[geckogirl171]

I am going to get a screen top today. :) Thank you. I will let you know how it works. If I am just keeping and not breeding, can I use dry vermiculte or pearlite for the substrate? I was just wondering b/c they seem to smell awful and I was trying to keep the smell down. How do you clean you containers if you always have crix in them?

[Taylormaid]

oh they do smell awful. I found that the small like dog poo when I used the cricket gel. They don't smell as bad on what i feed them now. I think half of the smell is their rotting carrots etc.

I clean my keepers when they're empty.... so, not very often :P i keep them in the corner of the room so i cant smell them

[flaming_lizard]

I agree they smell bad. Vermiculite or perlite would work, but you might want to go with aspen shavings to help the smell. I keep mine in rubbermaid containers, so cleaning is a little easier. I have one that is clean and empty and one that holds my crickets, so I take them outside and transfer them from one to the other with some losses. Then I clean the dirty one. Aquariums work well, because they cannot climb the glass as with the rubbermaids there can be escapees. Depending on the size cleaning can be more difficult for aquariums. Good luck.

[alexhue]

the best way to keep crickets as prey items is to purchase a 55 gallon tall plastic garbage can for 500 thru 3000 crickets. All you do is open up the crickt box directly into the can...egg crates and all. Arrange the egg crates so they are stacked horizontally until you have enough to go half way up the can. No top is needed as the crickets will not be able to jump out from half way down into the can. toss in a garden variety salad along with a few potatoes twice a week (per thousand) and voila....crickets that are always fresh and gut loaded. We go through 10,000 or more crickets per week and this is how we house them :wink:

[ta2dshtrbug]

Alex, how do you keep them from climbing? My crickets climb right up the side of their rubbermaids. If I can get your way to work, it would be much easier than trying to get crickets out of a rubbermaid. dave

[alexhue]

you must get the plastic cans with the shiniest/smoothest plastic on the inside...crickets slide right off off them. The cans with the coarse/bumpy plastic also have many many many small pores in them that the crickets can get a hold of.

[ta2dshtrbug]

Thanx Alex, Ill go to Wal-Mart today, dave

[Crested_Freak]

Alex, where do you keep your crikets? Around here we have lizards and ants that can get into the garbage can if we keep them outside. Any suggestions?

Mitch

[alexhue]

Hey Mitch,
We keep all of our crickets in the basement where it tends to stay 70-72 degrees or so.

[JEP101202]

Hey Mitch,
We keep all of our crickets in the basement where it tends to stay 70-72 degrees or so.

Nice so given that we LIVE in a basement apt....anywhere would be good :lol: However i know were doing something wrong, were buying 4-6 dozen every few days to feed Boga (water monitor). We also throw 3-4 crix to the spider every few days but we ALWAYS have at least 1 doz bodies (i got hip to the "shedding" after awhile :lol:) in the container. We are using a LARGE Kritter Keeper to keep them in and using the gel for water and taters for food. Any ideas guys?

[Haroldo]

Hey Mitch,
We keep all of our crickets in the basement where it tends to stay 70-72 degrees or so.

Nice so given that we LIVE in a basement apt....anywhere would be good :lol: However i know were doing something wrong, were buying 4-6 dozen every few days to feed Boga (water monitor). We also throw 3-4 crix to the spider every few days but we ALWAYS have at least 1 doz bodies (i got hip to the "shedding" after awhile :lol:) in the container. We are using a LARGE Kritter Keeper to keep them in and using the gel for water and taters for food. Any ideas guys?

Umm, The only thing I can suggest is getting a larger container or providing more shelters in the form of eggcrates either horizontal or vertical. I go through roughly 1000 crickets every 2 weeks; and I only have about 50-75 dead bodies at the end of those 2 weeks. 100 is a rare number. Not bad in my opinion, but I house them in a modified rubbermaid container.

[Oldnavy]

were does everyone get there cirx from??? living as far north as i do it is hard for me to get a company to send them to me. Does anyone one know about a company that heat packs their cirx or something along those lines.

I normally use LLLReptiles, but during the winter i have to buy them for the local pet store and at 10 cents a cricket, going through 1,000 crix a week.... it starts to really add up...

Oldnavy

[Oldnavy]

well, i guess that it must be one of the herper secrets since nobody is willing to share their cricket sources...

Oldnavy

[markface]

i dont know where everyone is getting their crickets from but a suggestion would be to check out your local fishing bait and tackle shop . the one i used to work at sold crickets and they were about 2.50 for about 100 crickets(we had a plastic tube we used to measure them out with) .

[waterfaller1]

You can buy crix online, as well as others. I keep my crix in a tall plastic container with two egg crates from the brown eggs{cardboard}. I have a small bowl of water w/ natural sponge which I change out to avoid mold or bacteria, every few days. I let the wet sponge dry after washing and swap w/ another. Since I started using cricketfood.com's gutload, my leos' colors have gotten incredible. I have the luxury of going right to his business, as he lives about 20 min. from me. Cricketfood.com's gutload is the best..in my opinion. I buy $20. worth, and keep the extra in an airtight bag in the freezer. It has no preservatives. I don't think potato or carrot in and of itself is enough to gutload crix for optimum health.
I do have a cricket question though, for those of you who handle any small geckos..if I may. How do you go about feeding pinheads? They are so tiny! I have been grabbing the feed bowl, and letting what is in there loose into another container with calcium in it. Then I have to pretty much dump all that calcium into the viv to get them out. Any better suggestions?{BTW Alex, those viper gecko babies are quick and good at catching the pinheads! They are doing really well.:smile: }

[Chandler Rep]

How do you go about feeding pinheads? They are so tiny! I have been grabbing the feed bowl, and letting what is in there loose into another container with calcium in it. Then I have to pretty much dump all that calcium into the viv to get them out. Any better suggestions?{BTW Alex, those viper gecko babies are quick and good at catching the pinheads! They are doing really well.:smile: }

Alex may want to respond but in my playing with the little viper geckos they did just fine on 1/4" crickets. I was reading a bunch about them and they seem to have no problem catching eating and passing these. They grow so damn fast and those pinheads are a pain. If you want to go small I would go with the fruit flies instead. They don't seem to get out as fast. Just my 2 cents but Alex would be the better one to ask with the vipers I may have just not had any problems.

[Otter_23]

When I kept crickets I kept them in a big rubber maid. I also took a small dish and would put damp paper towels on it. I would feed them gut load and they seemed to do great. I just hated cleaning up after they were gone. They stink and their left overs are pretty nasty (I had newspaper for substrate but they go under it and poo).

As for where to get crickets in North Dakota. I got mine from the Bug company out of Minnesota. They sell gutload by the pound which lasted a long time for me and worked great. They also did a great job with packing.

[jstu_3]

were does everyone get there cirx from??? living as far north as i do it is hard for me to get a company to send them to me. Does anyone one know about a company that heat packs their cirx or something along those lines.

I normally use LLLReptiles, but during the winter i have to buy them for the local pet store and at 10 cents a cricket, going through 1,000 crix a week.... it starts to really add up...

Oldnavy


i get my crix from reptilefood.com, $10.00/1000, also get waxworms from them as well, $10.00/500, they will ship with heat/cold packs as needed

[geckofiend]

When you get to about too much over 80 degrees, they start to die off, and that can really stink. I go through 1000 every 2 weeks, so I just clean it out then. It's too much of a pain to sort out all the living from the molts and dead ones.

I buy them smaller than I need, so I can go through them faster, and then they have time to grow. Otherwise, if you buy adults, they'll start to die almost right away because they're at the end of their lifespan. Dead crix=smelly crix.

I feed them carrots, potatos, and whatever kind of pellets I have laying around at the time.

[jstu_3]

[QUOTE=Babamba]

I buy them smaller than I need, so I can go through them faster, and then they have time to grow. Otherwise, if you buy adults, they'll start to die almost right away because they're at the end of their lifespan. Dead crix=smelly crix


QUOTE]

i agree, i buy 1/2 inch and feed them carrots, potatoes, oranges, etc.