# sustaining colonies of feeder crickets



## skool_uo (Jul 28, 2006)

Well i am only keeping about 100 crickets at a time which i know is a very small group. i am having trouble with the crickets dying off. i provide them with fresh greens every other day. i have tried a small water dish to hydrate them but they decided to just drown instead. any ideas on keeping these suckers alive and to get them healthy for my scaley friend?


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## blackmaskelongatus (May 25, 2007)

it's inposible to keep crickets unlike meal worm are easer i hae 200 meal worms and in 1 month i only lost one!


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## skool_uo (Jul 28, 2006)

thanks for the mealworm advice
any on crickets would be appreciated


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## blackmaskelongatus (May 25, 2007)

well mist them that will help! well for water a spunge would be best!


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

thay might drowned in open water a spong style water dish is way safer

i feed mine cat food...
what kinda litter you got?


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I've always kept mine in the basement where it's cooler. This slows down their metabolism and keeps 'em slower in general. I've usually used aspen for bedding, provided a TON of cardboard eggcrate for them to climb over for surface area, gave a mixture of greens and dried pellet food for gutload and provided water through mistings (never water dishes). I was able to keep 100-200 crickets in a 10 gal this way without issue.

Now, that's not to say I didn't lose some. You'll always lose some. Crickets are stupid and eat each other sometimes. But bottom line is you shouldn't be suffering huge losses.


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## skool_uo (Jul 28, 2006)

thank you all. i will try to implement these new ideas very soon. i use cardboard rolls from TP and paper towels, is that enough room for them to climb on? i will try the misting idea. and unfortunately for me i have to keep my crickets in my room. the temp is around 74 will that slow them down metabolically?

Why do they need bedding? wont they burrow and ill have to dig to find them? how often do u change the bedding? 100+ crickets produce a lot of waste would they not?


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## blackmaskelongatus (May 25, 2007)

you don't need much bedding and you change it all the crickets are gone! i say!


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

i would try coragated cardboard cut in to strips mabe a spelled that rong but you get the point... i would think it would work , for the young to hide in , so thay dont get eaten..just my little input good luck


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

100 crickets can produce a lot of waste. But it also depends on how quickly you go through them.

I found the aspen helped with the smell. Never use pine or cedar though - those are toxic to reptiles.


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## skool_uo (Jul 28, 2006)

excellent idea to try and cover some of the smell. i hadnt thought of that. they are rather smelly.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I hate crickets for that reason. They are disgusting, smelly little things. Horrible to deal with for sure.


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## dark FrOsT (Sep 23, 2006)

i kept 500-1000 i use egg cartans feed them a cricket feed povide water in a dish but put a sponage in the water then they can drink from that and not drown and here the tip of a life time oranges i cut up a few oranges and 500 crickets easily can last me a month.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

You just always have to be conscious of what types of foods you're giving to your crickets. Because that's what your reptile in turn will be eating. Proper gut loading goes a long way towards proper nutritional intakes.


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