Reptile & Amphibian Forums

has anyone ever tried this before? with 52 eggs incubating, much more than i expected, the cost of crickets is going to kill me! i need to figure out a way to produce thousands upon thousands of crickets.........
-----
groups.msn.com/JEChameleons
2.1 Chameleo Calyptratus
1 Chameleo Melleri

try this
Link

I found the hardest part with my crix was between pinheads and adults. With a ton in one tub it's impossible to clean them, and they get out easily. If all you want is pinheads piece of cake.
Here's how I did it.
1) use either a ten gallon aquarium with screen lid, or get a rubbermaid tub and cut out most of the lid and glue in aluminum screen.
2) Buy 200 adult crix. If you want your pinheads for when your eggs are ready, keep in mind that some stores sell adult crix befor they are really full grown. It may take a week for them to start singing (when they are ready to mate)
3) Give them good food and lots of water
4) Get little tupperware tubs (the dollar store is great for these) and fill most of the way with soil (I used peat.)
5) make soil nice and moist note- if you over water it it will get moldy, and if the crix eat the mold it will probably kill your babies. Keep it damp like you would for a houseplant.
6) put soil in cricket tub, and put some of the egg crates over it so they can go in and out.
7) keep moist. If it dries out the eggs will die. You have to spray it at least every other day.
8) after a week take out soil and put it in a separate tub like what you have your crix in. In 2 weeks about you will see tiny grey cricket babies. They don't hatch, but rather the egg grows legs etc and becomes a cricket. They look really funny. In another week or so they will be larger and pinheads.
9) Replace soil with another one, and you'll have lots of crix for your babies
10) repeat over and over and over. You can keep a the babies in the same tub. I find that it works well to just dump the soil into the tub once the eggs hatch. you hav to keep it moist, so they don't dry out. The babies are easy to kill.
To keep the baby crix growing well, make sure you spray every other day, same as the eggs. Also, use a margarine lid and give them lots of food. Grated carrots work really well as well as cricket food, just be careful the carrots don't get moldy.
If you want the process to go as quickly as possible keep a 50W light over your breeding crix, and one over your eggs/babies. Or, keep the tubs in the sun. You'll have more pinheads than you'll know what to do with. I think female crix lay about 300 eggs each.
~Lindsay