Chad Peace
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2016
- Messages
- 88
I bought crickets from the pet store to feed my 2 Ts and they just end up eating eachother, is there a way to prevent this?
I actually keep a 2 liter bottle cap (filled with rocks) with water in with my crickets. Whenever I first get them, you should see them pile in to get drinks. I've literally never had a single one drown.Yup just feed them. Foods gotta eat. As @cold blood said a couple pieces of kibble and maybe a carrot slice for water and you're gold
With as dirty as they are, misting isn't an avenue I'd ever go down with crickets....I use water, most simply use lettuce.Don't use those gel foods. They're junk. Went into the pet store two weeks after buying 40 or so crickets and the cashier remembered me. He was shocked mine were still alive and I didn't need more. I told him, "You just gotta feed 'em actual food!" I give mine fish food and carrots. Mist the side of thier home once or twice a day for them to drink.
About 2 months ago my sub adult female A. Hentzi laid a sac. After reaching out to a few trusted hobbyists, they all reassured me it would be a phantom sac & to toss it. I couldn’t. She carried it around with her everywhere. After 50 days she started leaving it. I snatched it & decided to open it, expecting dirt or infertile eggs. Nope!! Eggs with legs!! Moving eggs with legs!! I searched on here & saw a thread about keeping them in a container with a coffee filter suspended above water for humidity. I didn’t expect any to survive. After 2 weeks I have a decent amount of little ones starting to walk around! 1. What in the world am I going to do with these if they survive? & 2. Omg how exciting!! I’m a bit bummed that she is probably wild caught as I have never paired her & the vendor I got her from was one I reached out to & assured me it would be a phantom sac. Plus, she’s rather small (just at 3 inches). How long before I need to separate them? Picture to show how amazingly cute these little ones are & they already have tiny hairs!!!
I thought she was way too small too! We’re in S. Illinois just outside of St. Louis. I’ve heard Hentzi have crossed the River & have been seen in the Shawnee National Forrest. I’d love to see them in “the wild”.I never that they were able to produce or mate at 3 inches that’s crazy (also I love to see fellow Tarantula hobbyists in Missour)
Thank you! Think I should remove the bad eggs or just leave them until they start changing colors? I did take out the dark eggs or ones that looked bad. I mean the ones that just didn’t develop.so much for sub-adult...haha...lets just say adult...hehe.
Glad you had success. Another month pus and they will all blacken, dont worry, this is normal before molting....once they molt again, you can then re house them....start collecting condiment cups, they work perfect. After they molt it will be another week or two before they start eating. At this point, you can start selling them off, either yourself, of you can wholesale them to a seller all at once or in large bungles.
I've given up on breeding crickets. I have no problem getting them to breed and getting thousands of pin heads, and once they have molted 3 times or so they are very hardy but I lose about 95% of them in the first 2 molts so its not worth it. Care to share anytips on how you get them past the first 2 molts. I'm guessing my problem is a combination of temperature and humidity.As others have said, both food and hydration are needed to keep cricket cannibalism down.
That said, crickets will still cannibalize to some extent, even with all the food and water they need.
I have been breeding crickets for a while, and they inevitably nibble on each other a bit. I still produce plenty of crickets to feed my pets, as long as I keep the crickets well fed and hydrated.
I would be happy to share how I do it, hopefully something will help. I keep my cricket bin warm with a nocturnal reptile light, wattage varies with the season from 75-150. The hotspot (where I keep the eggcrate) gets up to the 90s F in the summer, mid 80s in winter. The cool side gets down to the mid 70s in the winter, and is usually 78-82 F in the summer. (I use a temp gun to check temps).I've given up on breeding crickets. I have no problem getting them to breed and getting thousands of pin heads, and once they have molted 3 times or so they are very hardy but I lose about 95% of them in the first 2 molts so its not worth it. Care to share anytips on how you get them past the first 2 molts. I'm guessing my problem is a combination of temperature and humidity.