Female crickets

[mardithepanther]

I need gravid female crickets! These stupid petsmart ones wont lay anything!

 

[jdog1027]

Petsmart's crickets are typically not fully grown adults. If they don't have wings, their not going to lay eggs. You have to have winged adults. If you have a baitstore in your area that sells crickets for fishing bait, that is a good way to jumpstart a batch of eggs.

 

[mardithepanther]

even when they reach maturity they dont :/ arent they supposed to already be gravid? Ill try the bait store thanks and i should get about 100 or so females? will they seperate them for me?

 

[jdog1027]

even when they reach maturity they dont :/ arent they supposed to already be gravid? Ill try the bait store thanks and i should get about 100 or so females? will they seperate them for me?

No they wont seperate them for you. Get yourself about 200 adults and follow any of the half million techniques out there for breeding crickets. The females will be very fat if they are loaded with eggs. One time me and a friend took an exacto knife to a fat female cricket. We sat and tediously counted out 572 tiny eggs in that single female.

 

[mardithepanther]

wow. ive heard of them laying a hudred or so eggs but not 500!

 

[pssh]

Breeding crickets is gross to say the least. Just throwing that out there.

 

[mardithepanther]

Oddly enough. It hasnt been for me yet. maybe im just lucky :/

 

[jdog1027]

Yeah, crickets have an odor. Dubias are a lot better in respect to the smell, they just take alot longer to start a breeding colony. Plus Dubia nymphs are a little on the big side when it comes to feeding juvenile chameleons, depending on the species. My Jackson babies couldn't possibly eat Dubia nymphs. Crickets are my choice due to their prolific nature and quick yeild. Fruit flies are just a pain in the ass to me. I'm about to start some, but I prefer crickets. Also, I have an outdoor spot to breed them, which makes for not having to deal with the odor. This is of course if your breeding crickets simply for small crickets. If your wanting to breed them to feed an adult chameleon, you need about 200 sq. ft. to have the numbers you need to make it worth while. I had an entire shed about 12-13 years ago dedicated to cricket breeding. And it is NOT CHEAP. You'll go through some produce. One word I can say about breeding them- unpredictability. Sometimes I would hatch a batch and there would be tens of thousands, and another batch a week later might be a complete bust.

 

[junglejoe]

i personally have never had a problem breeding crickets.. i but 1,000 adult or 1" crickets.. dump them into tub with a few dirt trays.. let them do their thing for a week.. pull the trays out.. put into seperate container with heat pad.. just wait.. i have around 4-5,000 eggs incubating now.. honestly they dont stink if you change tubs once a week.. if you take care of them they save you money.. good luck

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

all you really need for personal use if you dont have many reptiles is mayb 1/2 to 1 dozen "Full Grown" females. crickets with wings and butt straw lol. when your pin heads hatch you can start the cycle again with another 1/2-1 dozen females. keep the pin heads well fed and warm to grow them quicker or keep it a little cooler to grow slower.