Breeding cave crickets?

[Fredrik]

Hi! I am trying to breed Tanzanian cave crickets (phaeophilacris bredoides). I have set them up as ordinary field crickets. Any suggestions or experiences about this?

 

[Hisserdude]

Oooh, never kept that species, I am however keeping a native species of Ceuthophilus. These guys need protein in their diet, dog food works well, other wise these guys will cannibalize. I would keep yours moist, give them plenty of room, and consider giving them bark to hide under.

Got any pictures?

 

[Tenevanica]

Hi! I am trying to breed Tanzanian cave crickets (phaeophilacris bredoides). I have set them up as ordinary field crickets. Any suggestions or experiences about this?

I could be wrong here, but I believe that cave crickets live in foliage, and not on the ground. Therefore, they should be given vertical space they can cling to and molt from.

 

[Galapoheros]

I found some local cave crickets/camel crickets here in tx. These do live in caves and under rocks, logs, boards, just about anything they can get under. I was hiking around, looked under a board, saw a few and thought, "what the diddly, guess grab a couple of females and a male." and I took them home. There are also caves in the area. I put them in a hat box I found at The Container store. They are a little expensive for a plastic container but they make great little terrs for things, nothing is getting out of these things. Downside is that they scratch easily. These crickets are big hoppers so the container seemed perfect. I cut pottery in halves for them to crawl around on, have several babies in there now. I feed them fish flakes, a bit of fruit, maybe a small amount of greens now and then. I think they are used to moisture so I keep that little container in the full of water. I put about an inch of substrate in there, some sand, coco fiber, some leaves, pretty simple. I saw that some use egg crates.

 

[Hisserdude]

I could be wrong here, but I believe that cave crickets live in foliage, and not on the ground. Therefore, they should be given vertical space they can cling to and molt from.

I only know of a few camel crickets that live on foliage, for the most part these guys like to hide under things, like @Galapoheros said. Some vertical space couldn't hurt, but it is not necessary.

I found some local cave crickets/camel crickets here in tx. These do live in caves and under rocks, logs, boards, just about anything they can get under. I was hiking around, looked under a board, saw a few and thought, "what the diddly, guess grab a couple of females and a male." and I took them home. There are also caves in the area. I put them in a hat box I found at The Container store. They are a little expensive for a plastic container but they make great little terrs for things, nothing is getting out of these things. Downside is that they scratch easily. These crickets are big hoppers so the container seemed perfect. I cut pottery in halves for them to crawl around on, have several babies in there now. I feed them fish flakes, a bit of fruit, maybe a small amount of greens now and then. I think they are used to moisture so I keep that little container in the full of water. I put about an inch of substrate in there, some sand, coco fiber, some leaves, pretty simple. I saw that some use egg crates.

Cool setup! These guys are indeed jumpers, I always dread misting their cage for fear of them jumping out!

 

[Fredrik]

Tanks for the response but i don't know how similar or different they are to base anything on Ceuthophilus. I live in Sweden and i dont think any one in EU got Ceuthophilus.

 

[Fredrik]

My setup is a petbox / faunarium with chicken feed Subtract mixed with cat food and egg crates and a lay box with coco husk. I feed them with fruit or beetle jelly about once a week. And spray them every other day.

 

[Hisserdude]

My setup is a petbox / faunarium with chicken feed Subtract mixed with cat food and egg crates and a lay box with coco husk. I feed them with fruit or beetle jelly about once a week. And spray them every other day.

Well camel crickets are quite different in care from the normal feeder crickets, I would not use chicken feed as a substrate, coconut fiber should be the base substrate, maybe mixed in with some sand. They are probably not going to eat too much of the chicken feed, at least not enough to make it a substrate and risk a major mite infestation.

Other than that your care sounds good!

 

[Fredrik]

Well camel crickets are quite different in care from the normal feeder crickets, I would not use chicken feed as a substrate, coconut fiber should be the base substrate, maybe mixed in with some sand. They are probably not going to eat too much of the chicken feed, at least not enough to make it a substrate and risk a major mite infestation.

Other than that your care sounds good!

Thanks for your concerns but i don't have camel crickets.

 

[Hisserdude]

Thanks for your concerns but i don't have camel crickets.

Oops, thought these were in the same family, turns out I was wrong. Well, let us know how they do, looks like a very cool species to keep!