Storing Crickets

[jondavis30]

I have found an online store where i can get crickets at a reasonable price, the only issue i have is that they come as a minimum order of 500 for £1.49.

I want to know if / how i can house that many and stop them from breeding, because i don't want hundreds and thousands of crickets to deal with and 500 i imagine will last around 10 weeks if not longer.

I know i haven't got a cham yet and i'm a newbie to chameleon ownership and keep asking lots of questions, but i'm just finding knowledge gaps and trying to fill them to make sure i know what i'm doing.

Thanks

 

[drcrossfire]

I keep 1000 in a glass 20 gallon aquarium. As long as they don't have a substrate to lay eggs, they won't breed (from my exp)

 

[lisagr07]

I keep 1000 in a glass 20 gallon aquarium. As long as they don't have a substrate to lay eggs, they won't breed (from my exp)

ditto , except that mine are in a 10 gallon, eggcrate for "comfort" and a screen top to limit escapees!!!

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I keep 500 at at time in this setup:

They need substrate to lay eggs in and it has to be kept moist so as long as you don't have that then they won't breed. And if you do want them to breed and give them everything they need they still won't in my experience.

 

[Jweezy]

what do you use for them to drink?

I have a moist paper towel been working well

 

[Ozzie2011]

Do you keep that many in the house? If so how do you sleep with the crickets singing LOL!

 

[drcrossfire]

Do you keep that many in the house? If so how do you sleep with the crickets singing LOL!

They live in the basement!

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

I order a mine few weeks younger than adults so about the time they start getting wings I'm feeding off the last of them! This last time my vendor didn't have that size thou so now they're living outside and attracting all the tree frogs across the neighborhood. I like to feed the frogs when they visit.

 

[jondavis30]

So as long as they don''t have a substrate and as long as i don't keep the temps high, they should be ok ?

What is the lifetime of crickets, when i get a baby cham im gonna need to know what size to buy etc, how do i know what size to buy ?

I don't wana end up buying say 500 Crickets, which would last 10 weeks in theory, and having half of them die because their lifetime has ended!

What size should i aim to get and how many so they don't die etc.

Thanks

 

[dagy24]

The size and sex of your chameleon would determine how much they eat weekly and therefore, how many crickets to buy at a time. When you DO get him, a general rule of thumb is to not buy crickets that are wider than the distance between his eyes.

Do you know the age and type of cham you'll be getting. A young one can eat between 10-15 crickets a day. But, crickets grow kindof fast, so for one chameleon buying TOO many at a time can be problematic. Crickets are often aged by the week and by six weeks they're pretty large.

 

[jondavis30]

yeah i'm getting a yemen chameleon, a baby one but not sure how old it will be yet. around 6 months maybe from what i've seen in reptile stores.

Although i'm way off finishing the enclosure so far.

I Have a flexarium which is made of a nylon mesh, but having trouble finding something sufficient to use as a base, so i thought i could use a shower curtain to stop the water going through the bottom and just wipe that over with some paper towel every day or something.

Otherwise, i'm in the process of getting live plants.

I understand you have to feed crickets aka gut loading. What's the best thing to feed them and how much ?

I know you can feed mealworms to chams too, but how often / how many ?

Cheers.