hi! i'm new to this forum and i would really need some help with keeping crickets... i've been keeping crickets for a month or so and it seems like i'm doing something wrong. i buy around 60 at a time and after 3 to 4 days HALF of them die and they're not adults yet... I put them in a 20 gal. rubbermaid container(i keep the lid off because its too high for them to get out) i make sure the temp stays at around 80-85 by using a heat pad under the container, i use paper towel as substrate, i provide them fish flakes, rolled oats supplemented with calcium in a margarine lid and fresh fruits in another one, and a damp paper towel in a small shallow bowl for water. i also keep a good amount of egg crates for them to hide. what do i do wrong? why are they dying at this rate? is it because i by them at the local pet shop and they dont take care of them? i think i did everything to keep them healthy but apparently something's wrong... by the way i keep crickets because i feed them to my leopard gecko i'll try to put some pictures soon! thanks, Channy
i only put the temps at 80 and up when breeding them. you dont the heat that high. 70-75. but i dont think that would kill them .
85 is a bit high but i dont think it wuld do that much damage either. hmmmmmmm............... im not sure. give some more details like specific foods u give or anything else
Hmmm, it sounds like your doing everything right - except may be the heat. Where do u keep the container? Cricks like dark/shady places, away from light. Do u pick out the dead guys right away? I've heard (can't remember where) that the dead bodies emit some gases which are not good for the living cricks. Also, make sure the enclosure is dry (except for their water source) and clean. It cld just be that u ae buying inferior cricks. When I buy cricks from Petco they die pretty quickly too. The bulk cricks I buy from a local herp specialist do fine.
i always keep my container extremely clean, remove any dead crickets daily on sight. but i think i might have the answer to my problem... too much sunlight!!! thanks alot! i was misinformed, i heard that crickets need light! even the guy at the petstore told me... man he tricked me. lol again thanks alot! ps: i have a 5.5 gal aquarium set up for breeding now i was able to save 3 males and about 7 females... and boy its a good thing that i love the sound of crickets
Some problems are pet stores are offle at taking care of there crickets. The crickets I have seen in my pet store are always doubled up walking over eachother or on top of 1inch layer of thre sheds with no food. I would get rid of the papertowel and shallow bowl of water. Alot of crickets take weeks even months to grow alittle bit. This all depends on your gutload. For a water source just use some semi thick slices of potatoes and whole baby carrots. The problem with papertowels and water bowls are that bacteria falls into them quite easily with the cricket waste and everything else. So they are pretty much drinking there own waste. The temps are another problem, 80-85 will kill them probably. I don't know if its exactly true but it may be. In a minute I will find my cricket breeding help pages for you. I use cricketfood.com gutload. I have bought some crickets form the pet store before and used this gutload, none of them died for 2 months. I have used this on my huge colony of over 10k crickets and only some of them died. Not even 100 hundred have died yet for the month I have had some of them. The main problem is your calcium supplements! These crickets do not need them. if you have a proper gutload they will get it out of there. Besides they rely on phosphuros more. if you continue calcium supplements th phosphuros or not they will probably die quickly.
thanks alot for your detailed info... so i should probably get rid of the rolled oats too because it's naturally supplemented with calcium... i didnt put any.. anyways thats what the box says lol. about the paper towel and water, is it still a problem if i change it every two days? i would have to change the veggies every two days anyway. how can i make my own gutload instead of bying it?
http://www.drgecko.com/insectdiet.htm but look for cricket gutload instead. You probably should change the veggies every day. Mold can buildup easily without being in substrate. Paper towel, and water dish should be taken out immediatly. This can cause mold, bacteria, too much humidity, and death too your crickets.
thanks alot. what could i use as a water source if i'm away for a couple days? what can be changed every other day?
thats all it does? smell? i heard it was bad for them... alot of ppl use a water dispenser. do you know one that works well?
hi... just wanted to say that all my crickets are dead now i think its the petstore i bought them from. because i dont think i did much harm and the container was always spotless! even with the water source i had. i dont think thats what killed them. anyways.. i dont use the water anymore. i will try again with another batch and i wont ever by from the last store i went!
don't forget to sterilize the enclosure befoer u put new cricks, just in cases they all died of some infection or disease or seomthing.
I own a Cricket Farm in Missouri near Branson. Dont use anything but hot water to clean your tub. The soaps if not cleaned off can kill your Crickets. Also never use fly strips in the same room.
another thing that kills crix that many people overlook is soap residue from cleaning the cricket enclosure. They are extremely sensitive and even if you think you have washed out all the soap, there could still be enough of a residue to kill them. Also if the water you are using is tap water they may be dying from the chlorine or other water impurities. I use the vitamin-supplemented cricket quencher cubes for hydration, grains and finely chopped veggies for food, and I keep them in the biggest version of those plastic cricket keepers with the black hide tubes which easily slide out for dispensing crickets. I also remove the dead daily and wash the enclosure between cricket batches using just hot water, no soap. Using these methods I generally attain about a 90% survival rate until they get eaten, and i never buy more than a week's worth at a time.
