# keeping/breeding crickets



## khayman918 (May 31, 2003)

Is it a good idea to keep lots of crickets in a small tank with some cricket food, so I dont have to keep buying them?  Are there any other methods anyone suggests?  

And if I kept a bunch of them together Im assuming they would reproduce just find on their own.  Or is there something else I should do for them?

Thx!


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## sunnymarcie (May 31, 2003)

Do not put baby crickets in with the adults, they will eat them.

You can reduce the amount of cannibalism by feeding your 
crickets cat food.

A simple dry container with air holes on the top only.
This will prevent most escapes.
A water dish with cotton balls in it, because they can't swim.
(I have found the females laying their eggs in the cotton)
Then a dish of dry cat food. 

Change the water every day or so and keep the cotton in
another container, if there are any eggs they will hatch if
you keep them moist. The eggs are in a capsule that looks
like a piece of rice. I think they hatch in about 10 days, not
sure on that one:?

As long as you add a group of adults every week or two,
you will have tons of crickets in no time


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## genious_gr (May 31, 2003)

I think the water idea is not so good. A piece of fruit sounds better, a fruit like apple, or you can try potato as it wont rot as easy. The cat'dog food is a good tip. Here are a couple of links...


http://pages.yahoo.com/nhrp?o=rocv_99&p=index.html&pos=7&f=all&h=/science/biology/animals/insects

http://skylab.org/~chugga/cricket/


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## khayman918 (May 31, 2003)

I have seen a couple cricket products at the pet store.  One is for moisture and the other is cricket food.  The moisture one is like a gel, so they cant drown and the food is supposed to load them up with nutrients so they are like little crawling viatmins

Has anyone had any experience with that?  Also how long to crickets live on average....maybe I should wait until I add a few more T's to the collection before I get this involved with the crickets.  

Thx for the help!


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## atmosphere (May 31, 2003)

U can set up a cricket breeding farm pretty easy. This is what I read can't remeber the link. You can use a large pet pal for adults. For the babies or pin heads you need a enclosure with smaller holes though. In your adult cricket enclosure you can use corn flakes,oates, and fishflakes any combination as bedding.Use a couple of toilet paper rolls for them to hide reduceing canibalism.They will feed on this put a dish with rocks basicaly like your T's dish. Feed them fresh fruit in a seperate bowl as it can quikly mold and will need cleaning daily. To breed place a bowl of wet peat or soil not soak just moist leave that in the adults cage a week. After that move it to your babies enclosure keep it moist and warm 75-80 . when they get large enough about 3 weeks put them in the adult enclosure and start all over. That way you got crickets all the time !!!!


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## Neo (May 31, 2003)

K, I happen to be pretty good at this, I think :?  . I've raised crickets for friends and for myself. 

Temperature: 75-80F =Fast reproduction
Humidity: 70%-75% not too much now
Substrate: Normal Soil: not plant food kind of soil, they got chemicals sometimes. 3-4 inch
Tank: Glass, larger the better, ground space is much more important than height, height is so that they don't simply jump out. =D .
Food: Grain Items like cheerios or oatmeal. I feed mines TOTALS, extra vitamines and they like it. They love a little bit of fruit here and there, don't really like the really sweet or sour ones, lettuce, sliced up vegetables and fruits, experiment.

Always take out the dead crickets, molds come in and there will be problems. Or parasites and other unwanted visitors. Clean up uneaten food as well 2 days after. 

Heating method: A Zoo Med is good. Divide the tank in half, one half heater one half none heated so they can lay eggs and regulate themselves. 3 inch substrate or less or you will have fire issues. 

Lighting: You should give them a light bulb to sit around. Thats what mines do, when I turn on the light, they all come out and sit and bask. Who wanna live in complete darkness? 

Decorations: Not alot, just enough so they can hide, should be put around the heated section....
Small branch for them to climb.

Males make sound females don't. They just walk around and have sex and lay eggs. Damn them... hehe. 

Any other questions ask. This is my method so....up to you to take it or not.


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## khayman918 (May 31, 2003)

Thx for all the info and ideas everyone 

I might give this a try shortly or I might wait until I have a few more T's, but either way I will post my method on this subject once I develope one


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## LPacker79 (Jun 1, 2003)

My breeding colony is set up in two 14 gallon rubbermaid tubs and 1 ten gallon tank.  Ventilation is very important, too much moisture will kill your crickets.  I drilled hundreds of holes in the lid and higher up on the sides.  Some people cut out the center of the lid and hot glue a mesh screen in that area, but I'm cheap. I don't cover the whole floor with substrate, I have a shallow dish with moist potting soil instead.  I leave the potting soil with the adults for a little over a week and then I take it out and move it to the 10 gallon tank before the eggs hatch.  Then I add another dish of potting soil to the adult container.  When I take that container out and put it in the 10 gallon, I move the smaller crix to the remaining 14 gallon tub.  The cycle continues like that.  I go through crickets pretty quick between the T's and frogs.

Instead of buying the expensive cricket supplies at the pet store, I go to my local livestock feed store and buy chicken laying feed and to the garden supply store for "water saving crystals" which is the exact same thing as the cricket gel they sell at the pet store without the coloring.  

Make sure you give the crix lots of hiding places, such as empty toilet paper rolls, or they'll cannabalize each other pretty quick.  I actually end up with more crickets than I need, but my local pet store buys the excess from me.


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## Olan (Jun 1, 2003)

I've heard that you can start a cockroach farm for use as T food as well.  Does anyone know how good this is?

-Olan


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## genious_gr (Jun 1, 2003)

> _Originally posted by LPacker79 _
> *to the garden supply store for "water saving crystals" which is the exact same thing as the cricket gel they sell at the pet store without the coloring.
> *


I've thought of this stuff but I thought that it'd be full of bad chemicals. So its safe...... is it expensive?????

I've also thought of using in the cricket "house" as substrate that sand they use for cat-toilets. What do you guys think??


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## Wade (Jun 1, 2003)

You can use plain, uncented CLAY cat litter as a bottom layer in a cricket bin. It dessicates the feces and dead crickets so the smell is better, BUT it will also dessicate the cricket eggs.

I usually just put an 8 oz deli cup full of moist sand or vermiculite in with the crickets far a few days, allowing time for the females to lay eggs, and then remove this to a different container for hatching.  

The gel stuff works but is expensive. I feed mine unmedicated chicken feed. For water, I buy the dry form of the gel (with no nutrients) from Home Depot (sold as a soil additive) and hydrate it at home. About 3 tablespoons makes a gallon of gel!

Wade


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## sunnymarcie (Jun 2, 2003)

...The gel stuff works but is expensive...it sure is! 


I just started my cricket colony this week. Some of the females
have laid their eggs on the cotton, in the water dish.
This is my first colony and I'm working with what I have read.

Do you think the eggs will be ok? :?
I know you are suppose to use wet dirt or sand.

If it works out I should have babies in a week or 2


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## Buspirone (Jun 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Olan _
> *I've heard that you can start a cockroach farm for use as T food as well.  Does anyone know how good this is?
> 
> -Olan *


This is a pretty good site to get you started:

http://www.geocities.com/lflank/roaches.html


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## Olan (Jun 2, 2003)

Thanks for the info.  I'll probably try that.  It sounds a lot better than crickets.  

-Olan


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