Crickets breeding instead of buying???
- Thread starter Chill
- Start date
Phatturk
New Member
I am sure that someone will eventually say don't breed crickets breed roaches instead cuz the don't stink and they breed fast and have live offspring. Also they can't climb things as well as a cricket so they stay in the cups. I personally am not doing this yet ... still a bit concerned about keeping 100's of roaches (not exactly a crowd pleaser with the ladies as you probably guessed).
ChromaChameleons
New Member
booshified
New Member
and keeping crickets is any better?
Phatturk
New Member
LOL point taken! Well actually I think that yes crickets are a bit more girl friendly than roaches. I would say roaches are like top 3 of the grossest things to girls. Especially the ones you would breed for your cham cuz they are huge! Maybe its just my area here by Chicago, we don't get bugs much bigger than a house fly.
Will Hayward
New Member
I've done it twice. Evven to sustain soem of the babies I had at the time. I should say Iuve done it more unsucessful times though- where Ive lost all the eggs to mold, or provided too little moisture to have many hatch. It's tricky but it can be done.
Chamero
New Member
Woudl it be a good idea to breed crickets for a 3-4 month veiled? Should i just buy them..and how many. Say I bought 100, which I plan to do... How long do you think they would last of fed with premium blend gutload and lettuce, corn-cob for moisture? Should i just follow all breeding criteria just to keep them just without the dirt so they cant breed? Any ideas?
Orin
New Member
Short form:
Some roaches like Macropanesthia rhinoceros are extremely difficult to keep and can run more than your chameleon, up to $300 each.
Lobster roaches or green banana roaches are your best bet. Feeding method is a little different than crickets.
Energetic, non climbing nymphs of Gyna lurida would work better but getting a starter colony costs $$ Yellow form adult:
Crickets are loud and hop and generally produce a lot more dust and pests than roaches. Many people have a hard time rearing crickets and multiple cages are necessary to have them in different sizes as needed whereas 1 5-gallon bucket-cage can produce enough lobsters to feed a few chameleons (ton of babies).
Some roaches like Macropanesthia rhinoceros are extremely difficult to keep and can run more than your chameleon, up to $300 each.
Lobster roaches or green banana roaches are your best bet. Feeding method is a little different than crickets.
Energetic, non climbing nymphs of Gyna lurida would work better but getting a starter colony costs $$ Yellow form adult:
Crickets are loud and hop and generally produce a lot more dust and pests than roaches. Many people have a hard time rearing crickets and multiple cages are necessary to have them in different sizes as needed whereas 1 5-gallon bucket-cage can produce enough lobsters to feed a few chameleons (ton of babies).
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titan501x
New Member
i am interested in trying something other than crickets for a staple food. But i need to feed a leopard gecko, 2 red eye tree frogs, and a common snapping turtle and of corse my veiled chameleon. so i need something that is simple to take care of and to feed out, and that is small enough for the red eyes or leopard gecko to eat. Would roaches work?
Jeweledchameleons
Avid Member
Forget lobster roaches
They stink.
Aside from that, they run around way too quickly for many of my animals to track properly
so IF you leave them inside the cage they'll quickly run around until they find someplace safe
never get eaten and start breeding
and that's what you don't want to have happening
The only way around it is to rip off their legs (more difficult than it sounds)
and place them into some sort of feed cup that they can't get out of.
You're MUCH better off with this species:
BLAPTICA DUBIA ROACHES
or BLABERUS DISCOID ROACHES
you can buy them from dexter @ doubled's
or mulberry farms
I have both as well as some hissers. There's no smell
they don't climb glass or even the walls of the plastic tubs I keep them in.
they'll eat my scraps and home made cricket chow
there's also no noise or foul reek!
quite unlike crickets that have all those bad traits.
You can feed your cams either the young or the white soft ones that have newly molted
they're slower moving and have more meat on them that makes it worth the trouble.
all go down easy enough and they don't survive in the home environment
(at least not yet to my knowedge)
all the veileds will gobble them up
although, my panthers are a tad more selective and rather wait for the mealworms... sigh.
They stink.
Aside from that, they run around way too quickly for many of my animals to track properly
so IF you leave them inside the cage they'll quickly run around until they find someplace safe
never get eaten and start breeding
and that's what you don't want to have happening
The only way around it is to rip off their legs (more difficult than it sounds)
and place them into some sort of feed cup that they can't get out of.
You're MUCH better off with this species:
BLAPTICA DUBIA ROACHES
or BLABERUS DISCOID ROACHES
you can buy them from dexter @ doubled's
or mulberry farms
I have both as well as some hissers. There's no smell
they don't climb glass or even the walls of the plastic tubs I keep them in.
they'll eat my scraps and home made cricket chow
there's also no noise or foul reek!
quite unlike crickets that have all those bad traits.
You can feed your cams either the young or the white soft ones that have newly molted
they're slower moving and have more meat on them that makes it worth the trouble.
all go down easy enough and they don't survive in the home environment
(at least not yet to my knowedge)
all the veileds will gobble them up
although, my panthers are a tad more selective and rather wait for the mealworms... sigh.
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im actually tryn to breed crickets i took 6 crickets 2 males 4 females and put them in a cricket holder the ones u can get at a pet store i feilled it up with soil and misted the soild came bac in an hr and saw 2 crickets buried half of their boday in the soild and just sit there i assume they were layn eggs b.c their lower part of their body was buried i guess ill have to see but i read somewhere that its very easy to breed them
stevereecy
New Member
Once when I starting raising my first chameleon, a Senegal, I put him in a 20-gallon aquarium with a low wattage heatbulb. I misted him a few times a day, and fed him free range crickets. I had a couple of inches of potting soil as a substrate.
The crickets bred so well in there that eventually, I stopped adding crickets completely because the whole thing was self sustaining.
So apparently, a thin layer of soil in the bottom of an aquarium with a heat bulb and misting a few times a day will do the trick.
Steve
Chill
New Member
reading all the comments it seems like its kind of a mixed review. So what i might do is buy a couple of crickets and jus keep em in soil who knows maybe itll work out. But next time i buy crickets online ill maybe try to get some roaches lol. moms gonna love that. Where do you guys get your crickets from.
Orin
New Member
You are right they should be a better choice but many chameleons refuse to eat them (more than once anyway). I've not seen any chameleon refuse lobsters or green banana nymphs.
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