Do a lot of people breed their own crickets for food?

rachelk

rachelk

New Member
I've been thinking about breeding my own crickets because it has started to get pretty expensive to buy them all the time, and I was wondering if a lot of people do that and how should it be done? thanks!!
 
You know, I don't breed my own crickets for food. I don't have the patience. I maintain two roach colonies instead. They do all the work for me.
 
Crickets are too much of a hassle to breed and they stink. Roaches are much more cost effective and don't smell.
 
you should make this a poll to see what the ratio of people who actually breed crickets is. Count me in for a big no on crickets.
 
Same here. I dont breed crickets because the smell and are noisy.
Roaches, kingworms (superworms), isopods, phasmids are all easy to breed, inexpensive to breed, quiet and not smelly

I still buy crickets, for sake of variety
 
ocdirtyjerz said:
What type of Roaches do some of you breed? What are the Pro's & Con's with breeding certain feeders?
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Dubia (blaptica dubia- guyana orange spotted roach, I think) are the most common roach people breed on the board- they are one of the best species of roaches to keep because they don't get huge, are very slow moving, docile, will not infest if they get loose (some species will like lobsters), can't climb well, aren't prone to cannibalism (some species are), reproduce quickly and are quiet. They also have less shell, more meat and larger stomachs than crickets.

I also have Madagascar hissers, discoids (blaberus discoidalis?), Turkestan reds (ew- I can't wait to feed the last of these guys of), and lobsters (same as the turks- I don't like these guys at all). The discoids are huge, winged and skittery- I don't like them but have them to feed the nymphs off. The hissers aren't bad but not my favorite, either.

Roaches are superior to crickets if you are going to breed your own feeders. You just need to supply heat and food and they will produce.

I also have snails, stick insects, flightless fruit flies (for babies), and isopods breeding and will start breeding superworms as well. You have Jacksons so you should try to get a hold of some houseflies if you want to give them a treat- they LOVE them.
 
Oh thats what i thought they were, thats pretty cool, See whenever i have bug questions i just go to Nikki XD
 
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will roaches eat cricket crack? what are the cold tolerances of roaches? can they be shipped safley in winter?
 
Grizz said:
will roaches eat cricket crack? what are the cold tolerances of roaches? can they be shipped safley in winter?
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Roches will eat ANYTHING. Cricket Crack is great for gutloading them from what I hear. (I make my own gutload so haven't tried Cricket Crack)

Most roaches that you will be dealing with for cham food need warmth to thrive and slow down when cooler...I am sure you could get away with shipping them so long as they don't sit outside along the way and have a heatpack. Basically, they are the same as you would ship a cham but you can user two or three day shipping in better weather.
 
thanks, i will try. i got some from one of this forums members. it has alot of good stuff in it. i was having problem of large variety of organic fruits and veg going bad before i could use it all. now i just put a little in for moisture. mostly acorn squash, it takes a long time to dry up.
 
Grizz said:
thanks, i will try. i got some from one of this forums members. it has alot of good stuff in it. i was having problem of large variety of organic fruits and veg going bad before i could use it all. now i just put a little in for moisture. mostly acorn squash, it takes a long time to dry up.
Click to expand...

Check out my gutload in this thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/baby-food-w-additives-17310/ (the title is misleading, lol)

That should help you out some!
 
We have tried breeding crickets and its a huge hassle for me!!! But, we do have roaches and they are AWESOME!!!!!!!! And they do eat almost ANYTHING!!!!!! I put a quarter of a cantaloupe in there last night and today it is GONE!!!!! They usually just eat chicken feed as a staple then feed some good greens and fruit before I feed them off.
 
I wish I wasn't terrified of roaches, they gross me out so much, otherwise I would for sure feed them to my cham, maybe some day I can get over how sick they are..or have someone else feed them to him..
 
rachelk said:
I wish I wasn't terrified of roaches, they gross me out so much, otherwise I would for sure feed them to my cham, maybe some day I can get over how sick they are..or have someone else feed them to him..
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Dubia are actually really cute. It helps that they are slow moving. The babies will follow the adult females around in little family groups, even :) I don't like roaches much either (especially the turks and discoids) but I kind of like the dubia. You should see and handle some in real life and you may not mind them as much as you think.
 
I am also toying with the idea of doing dubias but I as well have a terrible fear of roaches.... If they are not fast and gross, I may consider... lol... I have been reading on them and they sound really easy to do... much easier then crickets which I have also been thinking about doing...
 
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