Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok I just hatched out some crickets like a week ago. I now notice their are quite a few dead and seems to always happen. Now some how while feeding my ackie monitor some crickets must have laid some eggs in his cage. The few crickets that hatch in his tank all seem to thrive and grow really fast. Now 1 lady here in the forums said to use dirt for substrate for baby crickets while alot of people say not to. She said that the babies die because they dry out. In my monito cage it is humid so is this now the case for breeding crickets?

>>Ok I just hatched out some crickets like a week ago. I now notice their are quite a few dead and seems to always happen. Now some how while feeding my ackie monitor some crickets must have laid some eggs in his cage. The few crickets that hatch in his tank all seem to thrive and grow really fast. Now 1 lady here in the forums said to use dirt for substrate for baby crickets while alot of people say not to. She said that the babies die because they dry out. In my monito cage it is humid so is this now the case for breeding crickets?

I have tried breeding crickets in the past with horrible results. They had a high mortality rate which made breeding them small scale, worthless. I have a couple hundred crickets that are too big for my frogs so I am going to try breeding them again any day now. I plan to use large plastic containers as the holding bin for babies. In one corner I plan to leave some moist bed-a-beast which I will mist to keep it moist. I don't plan to cover the whole bottom with bed-a-beast though... I am not sure if baby crickets require more humidity than the adults do, but someone else long ago told me it works for him... Don't forget to have enough hiding places (aka egg flats laid vertically). Time will tell if things work out. My hope is that the extra humidity/moisture source and finely grounded food (using coffee grinder) that they will do better. If not, oh well. Hatching them is easy, getting them to live past a week is hard.
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

Monitor cages make excellent breeding grounds for crickets... Many people have noticed that phenomenon.. because the heat is good in the cages, the humidity is almost perfect and usually there's soil for them to lay eggs in...
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Lucien

1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
3.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 2 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)

how about you let them breed in the monitor cage, and he can eat them when ever he wants?

Not a good idea.. Hungry crickets can and will munch on your monitor... And your monitor won't do anything about it because he isn't hungry... and he can't get away from them. Just like with mice.. or rats.. both can and will take bites out of your animals and the animals won't do anything if they aren't hungry...they'll try to get away but can't hence why you should only feed f/t prey... though with my monitor she gets live mice.. simply because her hide is quite thick enough to stand a nip or two...
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Lucien

1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
3.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 2 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)

What has worked for me:
I house crickets in a deep rubber maid (cut out top and use hot glue gun to attach window screen on half of top) for air circulation. Use egg cartons 4 to 6 of them with two sheets of paper towel on one (this is misted lightly twice a week), papertowel rolls, water dispenser with sponge in dish, and a bowl with Cricket Food/Trical mix. Also feed them potatoes (raw), oranges cut, apples, green leaves from Romaine/Collared Greens/ect keeps them hydrated. I often use Oatmeal as a substrate. Crickets have laid eggs in oatmeal. So I only needed to change egg cartons that do not have larva attached. See if this works for you. As for Ackies, I would watch them eat and only feed them a small amout at atime to ensure all the crickets are eaten. Then you will get a feel for who is eating how much.