Help with cricket breeding

[qdude46]

I want to save some money and time by breeding crickets so can you tell me or post a link on which ways works the best but nothing super expensive but anyways I have a plastic bin some aspen wood shavings for rats but can it be used as a cricket substrate and I have egg crate and some flukers water gel/calcium gutload, what else do I need or what shouldn't I use and how many crickets should I buy, etc. let me know! Thank you!

 

[ealizard]

crickets

I buy 500 once a month ,and have leftovers ,when I buy more, and just use egg creats ,no wood chips, feed stape of the flukes like feed and add fruit on the side , and found chicken waters, add spunge, so they dont drown, got fron ghanns cricket farm, I will be breeding them once chameleon babies start coming, I use a screen covers container with dirt to the top, so screen touches ,crickets wont dig, , good luck,

 

[qdude46]

well i dont want just buy them every month, thats why i want to breed, have you seen any good websites on how to do it because every time i look it's nothing really related to actual breeding

 

[Jon114]

Don't use a substrate for the crickets, just make sure they can get around fine if they're on something such as slick glass. Once you run out of the cricket gel, buy your own water crystals in bulk on ebay or something, it's cheaper in the long run. Screen over the egg laying container is a very good idea. If you're not looking to feed a lot of animals, 50 or so adult crickets should be enough.

 

[qdude46]

do you mean to start with and then have them breed or buy 50 every week

 

[qdude46]

oh and im feeding a fish that eats 1 cricket everyday and probably this saturday im getting an ambilobe male thats 2-2.5 years old so that means about 7-10 crickets every other day plus the fish

 

[little leaf]

I just set up another breeding tote tonight - there are also many good blogs on how to breed crix, but this is how I do it....
( i start with 1000 - that is wayyyyyy over kill- lol but I like alot of babies , I am feeding mantis the pin heads, and the adults to chams )
get a plastic bin, like a rubber maid - cut the whole center out of the lid, so you just have the edge basically - fill the pan with at least 2" of dirt ( I will only use my yard dirt- I tried to do the peat moss thing, and it molded on me, so I just go get dirt from my yard-( but DO NOT USE DIRT TREATED FOR BUGS OR WEEDS)
put a screen over the pan, cut to fit just inside the pan- put he lid on- the male crix will eat the eggs if you dont - the female can lay threw the screen- if you do not know, the females have little spikes on their butts- also, the crax must be chirping, only chirping ones are old enough to breed - I leave my dirt in for a week at a time- but they say you can pull it in a few days- keep in mind every females lays 10 eggs a day - so how ever many females you have, X that by 10 a day- that is about how many eggs you will have when you pull the dirt - I hatch about 1000 pin heads a week , BUT - keep an eye on your heat ( about 90 is good) I just baked 30 days worth of eggs - my heat pad some how got turned up ( kids ??) to 130 and it killed all of them - even the few who had hatched- so now I have to start over- but you can see the eggs in your dirt - they will be little white rice looking things about 1/8 " long -
here is a pic of my last batch

https://www.chameleonforums.com/do-i-need-thin-bin-100680/

you can see the eggs in the dirt - keep your egg bin moist, but not wet - and allow for air flow - I buy a pack of the same containers- then I just take off the lid w/ the screen, and add a new pan of dirt once a week- I keep mine on a heating pad, they take ( for me anyway- ) about 2 to 4 weeks to hatch but your time may vary oh, I also put a pantyhose over my dirt while I wait for it to hatch so they dont get out