Raising Crickets

DaStos208

New Member
Messages
29
Location
US
Hi, I am getting about 100 crickets from the pet store in a few days, I was wondering what to feed them if the petstore doesn't have any good quality cricket chow? would dry dogfood be fine? because i have a dog who eats kibble, these are the ingredients:
db45cec93b8555109a129d2f6653006a.jpg

Is this dog food okay, or are there any ingredients that would be bad for the crickets or gecko? Please give me any pointers or advise on how to set up this colony, as well as information on how to maintain it. I was in particular wondering what maintenance it needs, because they poop a lot and some die, so a lot of waste accumulates on the bottom. How do i remove this quickly without disturbing the whole colony? is there some sort of DIY mechanism i can build? Please share all your knowledge and experience on the subject, everything is appreciated! Thanks!

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acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,118
Location
Somerville, MA
All my knowledge is too long for a single post so I recommend you use google and read stuff that's already been written. In general I can say:
--I don't recommend dog food only. There is evidence that feeders who consume a high protein diet ultimately cause overproduction of uric acid in the geckos that eat them leading to gout which is fatal.
--get some rolled oats and unsweetened cereal (like shredded wheat --not the frosted variety), pulverize them in the blender and use that as bedding. Throw in vegetable scraps and parings (remove them if they start to mold)
--get some of those water crystals, hydrate them and put them in jar lids so the crickets have a source of moisture to hydrate
--gec some egg crate (you'll see it in the pet store) so the crickets have a place to stand and don't crush each other
--remember that crickets live only 9 weeks, so some of the large crickets may get to the end of their lives before you've fed them to anyone. Also, there does seem to be higher cricket mortality sometimes, darned if I know why.

Aliza
 

DaStos208

New Member
Messages
29
Location
US
All my knowledge is too long for a single post so I recommend you use google and read stuff that's already been written. In general I can say:
--I don't recommend dog food only. There is evidence that feeders who consume a high protein diet ultimately cause overproduction of uric acid in the geckos that eat them leading to gout which is fatal.
--get some rolled oats and unsweetened cereal (like shredded wheat --not the frosted variety), pulverize them in the blender and use that as bedding. Throw in vegetable scraps and parings (remove them if they start to mold)
--get some of those water crystals, hydrate them and put them in jar lids so the crickets have a source of moisture to hydrate
--gec some egg crate (you'll see it in the pet store) so the crickets have a place to stand and don't crush each other
--remember that crickets live only 9 weeks, so some of the large crickets may get to the end of their lives before you've fed them to anyone. Also, there does seem to be higher cricket mortality sometimes, darned if I know why.

Aliza
Thanks for the info! How many crickets are needed to start a colony? is 100 enough, or are more needed to prevent in breeding?

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acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,118
Location
Somerville, MA
I've been told not to worry about inbreeding with insects. There's some good info on the internet about cricket breeding setups. I'll bet you could do it with less than 20. I'm not interested because they tend to be smelly and take up a lot of space.

Aliza
 

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