Started my own cricket colony today!!

[Johnny84]

hELLO EVERYONE....jUST WONDERING (IN YOUR OPINION!) IS CRICKET BREEDING WORTH IT!! i PUT TOGETHER MY TUB AND EVERYTHING NEEDED TO BREED CRICKETS! aS SOON AS i PUT THE 20 CRICKETS IN THE BIN...i HAD 5 FEMALES LAYING EGGS IN THE SUBSTRATE I PUT IN THERE!! aND JUST A LIL WHILE AGO i JUST CHECKED AGAIN AND HAD 8 FEMALES LAYING EGGS!! sO IS THIS WORTH IT AND IS IT EASY TO DO AND EASY TO CLEAN??

 

[meleondollars]

Caps lock, its on.
I find it interesting that you are asking these questions after you started to do it. I do not think it is the easiest thing to do, it is dirty, smells and is overall not the most pleasant thing to do. YMMV.
The costs, for me, do not out way the hassle.

 

[Johnny84]

Ok..I didnt know CAPS was on!!! Also I did my studying before starting!! AND...I was asking to get peoples advice on BREEDING them!!!!

 

[Johnny84]

Does anyone have any advice while I'm Bredding these crickets? lol

 

[heartben]

i don't think its worth it. if you order them they are pretty cheap and you can buy them young enough to where you dont have to listen to them chirping.

if you have netflix look for dirty jobs and there is an episode for ghanns cricket farm thats pretty insightful in my opinion. obviously you arent going to do it at that scale but that would give you sort of an idea of the series of events.

 

[jdog1027]

.

A couple of things- First, how many and what size is/are the chameleon(s) that you are breeding crickets for? If you have a single or even two chameleons that are big enough to eat full grown crickets, it's not worth the time to breed your own crickets-it's much easier to just buy them, unless you live somewhere where it is difficult to find adult crickets locally. I'm very lucky in that I lve in the southeastern U.S. And I have 3 different places I can buy adult crickets locally year round. The biggest problem that I have found with ordering crickets is 1) the shipping costs usually are more expensive than the actual order of crickets itself and 2) you almost never really get the quantity or the correct size of crickets that you ordered.
On the other hand, if you have a very small chameleon or a clutch of chamleleons, it may be worthwhile to breed your own crickets. This way you may save a little money, and you won't have the problem of not getting the correct size. Most importantly you will not have to depend on a parcel carrier, worry about dead crickets in your shipment and won't have hefty shipping costs. However, you may still have to buy adults to breed your batches of crickets. If you think you can breed enough crickets to continue a colony full time, you might need to think again. You'll need at least 120 sq. Ft, about 15 or 20 20 gallon tubs (those are about $10-12 each) a lot of extra time and not to mention a small grocery bill. I sees many threads pertaining to breeding crickets, and people I think are led to believe it's easy to do. I plan on posting a how to video on a few different strategies for breeding crickets depending on how many chameleons you have and what size chameleons.