dont mind the topic title, AT the moment my local pet stores sells cricket @ high price(10 cents for each cricket) so i would i like to know wats stuffs i need to breed crickets, so i can have a large chain of food supply for my bearded dragon and not have to worry about buying crickets from stores....
When I first got Teenie, the baby, her original owner found Mulberry farms: http://www.mulberryfarms.com/ I bought silks there for many months and never ever got a shipment where I had dead ones or ones that died soon after I got them. They were always healthy. I can't help but think their crix would be the same way. I know many members buy in bulk and it's the way to go if you don't mind having a bunch of crix in the house. I bought silks for Teenie and I buy supers at the store (great supply and very healthy) for my adult, Nessi. It works well for me as they are both eating mostly salad now. You can also breed and raise your own feeders pretty easily from what I hear.
Yeah Petsmart/Petco are way too much for crickets. Buy a big batch of Larges, and make sure to leave over like ten of them after you feed your dragon. The females are the ones with the long black poker out the back, it's for laying eggs down in the dirt. Keep mostly females and a couple males, give them a little dish with dirt in it and mist the dirt lightly a couple times a day. Keep them in a relatively warm spot (we put ours behind my bf's laptop). Voila, baby crickets.
Can't feed the larges to a baby dragon. Only feed that which fits between the space between his eyes. Crix that are too large will not only impact the beardie but have also been known to bite baby beardies (which can be fatal). Better to buy in bulk, buy silks (small ones) or buy the bigger ones only to breed. When you buy the small silks, they say there are 50 in a pod, but with the small ones, you always get way more than 50. I was feeding Teenie about 15 a day. Two pods lasted me almost a month. She would eat 15-20 one day and then be full the next and not want them at all. On the next day, she would eat 15-20 more.
