Keeping crickets
- Thread starter davon
- Start date
jannb
Chameleon Enthusiast
I keep mine in a large plastic tote with a few egg crates. I cut the center part out of the lid and hot glued some screen on for ventilation. I use the water crystals for hydration and feed them fruits and veggies and a good dry gutload. You have to keep them really clean of they will stink. 
cricketkilla
Member
Easy. Give them a dish of moist soil to lay eggs in then take it out and put it in a different tote and keep the soil moist and warm and you'll have tons of pinheads in a few weeks.
cricketkilla
Member
My cham is 4 months old and I was wondering how often should i calcium dust live food, she wont eat fruit or veg.
Calcium without d3 lightly every feeding, calcium with d3 bimonthly and a multivitamin like reptivite bimonthly as well. This is the schedule most people use. I take it your keeping a veiled?
cricketkilla
Member
Like jannB said, the plastic totes work best. You should really give dubia a try, I finally have and I love them, no smell, no noise, no die offs
B
busterboy
Guest
DAVON: best way to keep them is in a tote. Cut out the center of the plastic lid and add screening to allow ventilation. Or you can add a lot of holes to the top of lid if you dont want to go through all that. Ventilation helps decrease build of humidity and allows air flow. The build up of himidty can create mold and too much himidty can wipe out the whole colony. Also, if you have a lot of crickets, seperate them in different tubberwears. This can help the cannobolism problem. Ive noticed crickets eat each other when hungry and too many of of them in one container can cause them to walk all over each other and kill each other. put two dishes:
food: put cricket food, or carrots, mashed up dried oat meal, wheat bran, anything you want to gutload your crickets with.
water: cricket quencher, or you can put paper towel and waer it everyday
put some egg crates or toilet paper rolls or even paper towel rolls in it so they can have hides and have places to go.
CLEO: Dust crickets with regular calcium every other feeding.... dust crickets with calcium with D3 2-4 times a month.... and 2-4 times a month with multivitamins
CREATIVE: ill do my best to explain, but if you want further detail, message me and I will make you a video on how to do it this weekend for you. But in words, this is how you do it.
1)go buy adult crickets. feed off all the male crickets to your chams... (females are the ones with the black needle sticking out of their back) (males are the ones making all the noise and have no black needle)
....if you dont get rid of all the males, they will eat the eggs, while the females lay their eggs.
2)get a sandwhich container and fill it with damp soil.... damp, like you would for a chameleon breeding bin, not mud!
3) put it in the container with the females and have egg crates or something guiding the way to the top of the container so that the crickets can get to the container top part. Let sit for about 2 days and spray container with soil daily with water so it can stay moist ... (again moist, not mud)
4) remove container and put lid on so the container can be humid and not dry out.
5) in about 7 days you should see baby crickets coming out of their eggs and crawling to the top of the container. (they will be the size of ants)
6) put container into bin and open it. (make sure food and water are available or they will die)
7) dont put container in the bin with big crickets or your big crickets will eat themm....
message me in private if you guys need real detaile info about anything. I kind of tried to sum it all up best I could, while at school llol...
so if you need detailed help, I wil be more than happy to help.
food: put cricket food, or carrots, mashed up dried oat meal, wheat bran, anything you want to gutload your crickets with.
water: cricket quencher, or you can put paper towel and waer it everyday
put some egg crates or toilet paper rolls or even paper towel rolls in it so they can have hides and have places to go.
CLEO: Dust crickets with regular calcium every other feeding.... dust crickets with calcium with D3 2-4 times a month.... and 2-4 times a month with multivitamins
CREATIVE: ill do my best to explain, but if you want further detail, message me and I will make you a video on how to do it this weekend for you. But in words, this is how you do it.
1)go buy adult crickets. feed off all the male crickets to your chams... (females are the ones with the black needle sticking out of their back) (males are the ones making all the noise and have no black needle)
....if you dont get rid of all the males, they will eat the eggs, while the females lay their eggs.
2)get a sandwhich container and fill it with damp soil.... damp, like you would for a chameleon breeding bin, not mud!
3) put it in the container with the females and have egg crates or something guiding the way to the top of the container so that the crickets can get to the container top part. Let sit for about 2 days and spray container with soil daily with water so it can stay moist ... (again moist, not mud)
4) remove container and put lid on so the container can be humid and not dry out.
5) in about 7 days you should see baby crickets coming out of their eggs and crawling to the top of the container. (they will be the size of ants)
6) put container into bin and open it. (make sure food and water are available or they will die)
7) dont put container in the bin with big crickets or your big crickets will eat themm....
message me in private if you guys need real detaile info about anything. I kind of tried to sum it all up best I could, while at school llol...
so if you need detailed help, I wil be more than happy to help.
GabeCastro
Established Member
My cham is 4 months old and I was wondering how often should i calcium dust live food, she wont eat fruit or veg.
You should look up some threads on the forums to answer your questions. Asking questions on other members threads will make it harder for Davon to find his answer he's seeking
There's TONS of threads that explain calcium supplementing, gutloading, feeder insects, etc. This can also help Davon aswell.
Here's a few:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/calcium-d3-rep-cal-supplement-schedule-89752/
Good lucky! Be sure to read up on it and feel free to PM me if you have anymore questions about supplementing or other questions.
ON TO THE CRICKETS: make sure they're well ventilated or they'll start to smell...I use a large plastic container for mine. Something thats high enough so they can't jump out. I place a few cardboard cup holders you'd get at any fastfood restaurant (usually you can ask for a few and they'll give them to you without a problem) also w/ toilet paper rolls cut in half for coverage.
My clear container is SALMA brand, 22"x16"x15" and i picked it up from IKEA for $10 bucks and a lid for $2 bucks. Just drilled some holes in the lid for ventilation. I put fresh fruits/veggies topped with dry gutload, and some water crystals. I clean them out everyday and replace their food aswell. Usually i'll have anywhere from 100-200 crickets in there.
Hope this helped!
- Gabe
