Cricket Colony Up-Keep

[ISA my Veiled]

Alright guys, so I have 10 reptiles including my 1 Veiled Chameleon (hopefully two soon ) and I am sure you all know what it takes to feed that many animals, so how in the world do you keep your cricket colonies up if you have them. I have had the hardest time with them breeding and chirping like crazy and breeding but the eggs never seem to hatch or anything, they have a constant supply of food, water and hides. The only thing I do not put with them would be heat due to the constant death rate that I hear from people. I also do the method of the larger rubber maids with top soil all in the bottom instead of one area. Let me know what you think guys it would be well appreciated

Thank you

 

[SpartyTessy]

I just started breeding some about 5 days ago. I figured I might as well breed my own instead of keeping to go to the pet store buying them. It is recommended to keep them between 80-80 degrees as they tend to breed more and the mortality rate is lower at those temp ranges and will also hatch sooner. So you may need a heat pad depending on the temp you are at now. Also you do not want to the soil that the eggs are in to completely dry out as that can kill the eggs so I keep the soil damp spraying them with a spray bottle when they start to get dry. I am sure the soil is no problem but will be harder to clean and also eggs will be everywhere instead of being contained into smaller soil containers.

The point is you want them to lay the eggs in a bowl with soil you then move out into a separate container after about 4 days. If not and you leave the eggs in the same container then most likely the adults will eat the eggs and babies if they even hatch. This way you change out the soil with new soil which will then be full of eggs. The cycle will produce hundreds or thousands of babies in no time.

 

[reptoman]

Dubia Blaptica!!! Much easier to breed than crickets and dont make any noise. They live for a couple of years, are live bearing, don't climb smooth surfaces, and are a good swap for crickets. One of the drawback is that they run to the first shadow and stop so it may take a few attempts to get your chams used to eating them but putting them on the top screen so they crawl across over their head is almost always successful. Gutloading and feeding is pretty much the same a crickets but you must provide heat for them to breed.
I still feed crickets, supers, horns, silks, bluebottles and WC grasshoppers. But my dubia colonies are always there for feeding month old panthers and all the adults. Its a good investment when you have many reps to care for. Our beardy loves them as well and can eat full grown dubia easily.

If you are still set on breeding crickets, start with around 500 full size (5 week) crickets. You must have heat on the bottom, put wet eco earth in an empty butter tub placed on the bottom of the cricket bin and cover it with an piece of egg crate. Take the tub out after 2 days and put it in its own tub over some heat and keep the eco earth moist by spraying it everyday (dont soak it) Depending on how warm you keep the butter tub and if you dont let the eggs dry out you will have a tub encrusted with thousands of pinheads in about a week. You can repeat this and have several tubs of eco earth loaded with eggs until you feed off the first adult 500 (or they all die, whichever comes first)
Hope this helps

 

[ISA my Veiled]

Dubia Blaptica!!! Much easier to breed than crickets and dont make any noise. They live for a couple of years, are live bearing, don't climb smooth surfaces, and are a good swap for crickets. One of the drawback is that they run to the first shadow and stop so it may take a few attempts to get your chams used to eating them but putting them on the top screen so they crawl across over their head is almost always successful. Gutloading and feeding is pretty much the same a crickets but you must provide heat for them to breed.
I still feed crickets, supers, horns, silks, bluebottles and WC grasshoppers. But my dubia colonies are always there for feeding month old panthers and all the adults. Its a good investment when you have many reps to care for. Our beardy loves them as well and can eat full grown dubia easily.

If you are still set on breeding crickets, start with around 500 full size (5 week) crickets. You must have heat on the bottom, put wet eco earth in an empty butter tub placed on the bottom of the cricket bin and cover it with an piece of egg crate. Take the tub out after 2 days and put it in its own tub over some heat and keep the eco earth moist by spraying it everyday (dont soak it) Depending on how warm you keep the butter tub and if you dont let the eggs dry out you will have a tub encrusted with thousands of pinheads in about a week. You can repeat this and have several tubs of eco earth loaded with eggs until you feed off the first adult 500 (or they all die, whichever comes first)
Hope this helps

I have definitely thought about dubia roaches believe me lol but my girlfriends mom (we do not have our own place yet) said hell to the no for the roaches lol she is extremely grossed out by them and she would freak if there were to be one that escaped. But thank you, earlier today i bought some new top soil and i believe i am going to do what you said and use a couple of move over butter containers and set them in with the 500 I'm getting tomorrow afternoon. Well I am going to have to split them up because 500 crickets in one container even with enough food would probably not go very well. Thank you!!

 

[ASublimeDay]

I tell my fiance they're south american beetles and if they escape they die within a week. She's no less grossed out than by crickets. Both live in the garage.