# Crickets



## Blazed (Sep 9, 2014)

Hi all I'm thinking about getting my first gecko soon and I will probably end up bulk buying crickets. Obviously though I will need to feed and water them as to keep them alive. Anyone else have an advice or tips or a full set of instructions about cricket care/farming?

Thanks


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## rockethead (Sep 9, 2014)

I use a wet sponge in a water bowl to stop crickets from drowning in water.
food fresh thinly sliced carrots
there heaps of you tube videos with tips


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## Blazed (Sep 9, 2014)

rockethead said:


> I use a wet sponge in a water bowl to stop crickets from drowning in water.
> food fresh thinly sliced carrots
> there heaps of you tube videos with tips


Oh okay cool thanks.


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## Cypher69 (Sep 10, 2014)

As long as the bowl is shallow, I don't bother with a sponge. Too many times I find "maggots" festering in the sponge, fouling the water.
Gold fish flakes is the staple diet I gut load the crickets with.


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## kitten_pheonix (Sep 10, 2014)

if your only getting one gecko, a bulk lot of crickets will be far too much esp if its young you will find the crickets outgrow the gecko far too quickly.


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## Beans (Sep 10, 2014)

Mmm one gecko wont need that many crickets its too much and they will just die off. 

For one or 2 geckos just stick store brought crickets.


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## Piscineidiot (Sep 10, 2014)

Why don't you just breed woodies instead? I have a small colony going in a tupperware container and that's enough to keep my ackie monitor going. Started off with two boxes of large ones, and now only have to top up with a new box of woodies every few months (Even less often for you if you're only feeding a gecko). They're much easier to breed than crickets, and have smaller heads (i.e. less chance of impaction). You'll also have a range of sizes in your colony, which you can feed to your gecko as it grows. I mainly feed mine vegetable peel/scraps and dry cat food to gutload them, no need to have any standing water (they get water from their food). They're really very undemanding. The trick I find is to keep the colony DRY. Too much moisture is a REAL problem for them. The only problem is that they can climb pretty much anything, so you'll have to make sure your gecko eats everything, or that you have a very tightly sealed enclosure.


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## Chris82 (Sep 10, 2014)

Two threads with good info, try these!

https://aussiepythons.com/forum/showthread.php/211133-Cricket-issues

https://aussiepythons.com/forum/sho...ets-how-do-u-do-it?highlight=Cricket+breeding

Let me know if you need any other help

chris


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## kitten_pheonix (Sep 10, 2014)

Piscineidiot said:


> Why don't you just breed woodies instead? I have a small colony going in a tupperware container and that's enough to keep my ackie monitor going. Started off with two boxes of large ones, and now only have to top up with a new box of woodies every few months (Even less often for you if you're only feeding a gecko). They're much easier to breed than crickets, and have smaller heads (i.e. less chance of impaction). You'll also have a range of sizes in your colony, which you can feed to your gecko as it grows. I mainly feed mine vegetable peel/scraps and dry cat food to gutload them, no need to have any standing water (they get water from their food). They're really very undemanding. The trick I find is to keep the colony DRY. Too much moisture is a REAL problem for them. The only problem is that they can climb pretty much anything, so you'll have to make sure your gecko eats everything, or that you have a very tightly sealed enclosure.



Woodies cant climb vasoline or fluon run a ring around the top and voil? =)


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## Rogue5861 (Sep 10, 2014)

The only issue with woodies is they arnt accepted as easily as crickets. Ive had a colony going for the past 3 years and my geckos and frogs still refuse them, putting all your eggs in one basket isnt as easy as it seemed. Not saying all geckos and frogs refuse them or dont recognise them as food but my thick tails and red eye tree frogs just wont take them, my marsh frogs, beardies and monitors will eat whatever is put in front of them.


Rick


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## Blazed (Sep 11, 2014)

Thanks for all you help guys. Unfortunately the little guy I'm probably gunna get only eats crickets I'm told (by his current owner). Can i ask how long a pack of store bought crickets will last then? Like how often would i need to replenish do you think? Or is that something I'll work out over time? 


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## Beans (Sep 11, 2014)

The crickets I got from the store live for about a week.

It depends on how well the shop looks after them before you get em. Replace the carrot peices every 2 days or so, and make sure you dust the carrot with vitimins and calcium etc.

So between pet shop care, your care and how fast your guy will eat them. They can last from a few days, to about a week or 2


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## Blazed (Sep 11, 2014)

Okay thank you I'm off to get some today.


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## kitten_pheonix (Sep 11, 2014)

If you grab a decent size cricket keeper they will last a bit longer. Crickets will die if not enough room is given. 
Feed them carrot peices/celery or water crystals for liquid and fish food for dry food and they should last a few weeks. 
Just make sure you dust the crickets with calcium and vitamins before feeding as well, geckos can suffer from MBD too.
We get a half bulk and keep them in a massive storage tub and they can last up to 4 weeks if kept with enough space (we have 40 geckos so bulks are required. Though we actually only buy half bulks at a time in one size and they generally last us 2 weeks on our feeding regeme)


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## Blazed (Sep 11, 2014)

Okay well yeah I only have one so maybe I don't need to bulk. I'll see how many he goes through first. Speaking of vitamins etc. I knew about the dusting so I got these, anyone know if they are decent brands or is there something else better?







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## Blazed (Sep 11, 2014)

Like I'm sure most are the same but i was only going to get the calcium with vita d but on the container it says it should be mixed with the herptivite.


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## kitten_pheonix (Sep 11, 2014)

We dont have those brands in any pet shops around here. But im sure its much of the same. We mix the vitamins with the calcium just incase the crickets have had a poor diet or not had the right stuff


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## Chris1 (Sep 11, 2014)

Thats the only brand i buy,...i only use the calcium though, i dont use multi vitamins but feed their insects a healthy diet instead.

Apparently you can overdose lizards on multivitamins, so i wouldnt mix them, just use the calcium a couple of times a week and the vitamins fortnightly if you feel the need to use them.


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## kitten_pheonix (Sep 11, 2014)

Chris1 said:


> Thats the only brand i buy,...i only use the calcium though, i dont use multi vitamins but feed their insects a healthy diet instead.
> 
> Apparently you can overdose lizards on multivitamins, so i wouldnt mix them, just use the calcium a couple of times a week and the vitamins fortnightly if you feel the need to use them.



I should of said I only mix in the vitamins if they are fresh bought that havent been fed by us yet due to not knowing how long pet shops havent fed them etc


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## Chris1 (Sep 11, 2014)

I wasnt referring to your comment [MENTION=26560]kitten_pheonix[/MENTION], i was referring to Miikamons comment that the label said it should be mixed with herptivite. 
you probably have a point of them benefitting from vitamins if they've been fed a poor diet!!!


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## Blazed (Sep 11, 2014)

Chris1 said:


> Thats the only brand i buy,...i only use the calcium though, i dont use multi vitamins but feed their insects a healthy diet instead.
> 
> Apparently you can overdose lizards on multivitamins, so i wouldnt mix them, just use the calcium a couple of times a week and the vitamins fortnightly if you feel the need to use them.




Okay see I was only going to get the calcium one but I wasn't entirely sure in that moment what vitamins specifically he will need so I got both. But yeah the label specifically says to mix them and that they didn't mix them themselves as doing so at the manufacturing process changes something in the calcium powder. Tonight when I feed him I'll use both as the crickets were bought today and there is only a single piece of carrot in the container. But in future I'll use the multivitamin sparingly.

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Chris1 said:


> Thats the only brand i buy,...i only use the calcium though, i dont use multi vitamins but feed their insects a healthy diet instead.
> 
> Apparently you can overdose lizards on multivitamins, so i wouldnt mix them, just use the calcium a couple of times a week and the vitamins fortnightly if you feel the need to use them.



Chris what would you consider the optimum diet for gut loading a cricket?


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## Chris1 (Sep 11, 2014)

you can use cricket food and veg, or dry dog food and veg, as veg i use leafy greens, carrot, pumpkin, brocolli stems etc, basically offcuts of what my vegetable eating lizards eat. The dry food is important, not only for protien and added vitamins, if its all wet food the cricket poo/pee makes everything soggy and they die off really fast, the trick is to keep the crickets tub well ventilated and DRY.


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## DeadlyDanny80 (Sep 13, 2014)

A good gutload recipe is dry dog food, dragon pellets, fish food flakes, vitamins & oats all ground together... Works a treat...


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## Unclewo-wo (Sep 16, 2014)

You can also place store brought tub in the fridge for 5 to 10 min prior to feeding as to slow crickets down to minimize escape.


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## Blazed (Sep 22, 2014)

Thanks Chris, and everyone. Thankfully the ones I buy are in a container that has this nifty corner open flap sorta thing and when it's time to grab a few out they all run away from that area so no escapees yet.


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