Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have over 50 dragons at times (babies, breeders, sub-adults, juveniles) and I need to learn how to breed crickets. I tried once, but all the crix died. I need to have thousands of crix available to me. I hate running out of crix when you have hungry animals to feed. So, what supplies would I need? How many crix would I need to end up with 3,000 little pin-head crix? Thanks for any other info you can give me thanks.

>>I have over 50 dragons at times (babies, breeders, sub-adults, juveniles) and I need to learn how to breed crickets. I tried once, but all the crix died. I need to have thousands of crix available to me. I hate running out of crix when you have hungry animals to feed. So, what supplies would I need? How many crix would I need to end up with 3,000 little pin-head crix? Thanks for any other info you can give me thanks.

I can't imagine having the room for the tubs and all to raise enough crix for you. I personally would get some lobster roaches and let them go at it. I can keep two tubs of roaches and keep up with two monitors and two dragons and 7 leo gex and 2 anoles and have booming surplus. The babies are small enough for baby anoles and get big enough for even the adult monitor to eat.
If I HAD to have 3000 pinheads crickets (a week? a month?...you didn't say) I would buy them. I personally don't have room for all the tubs that it would require for that number consistently.
-----
Sonya

>>I have over 50 dragons at times (babies, breeders, sub-adults, juveniles) and I need to learn how to breed crickets. I tried once, but all the crix died. I need to have thousands of crix available to me. I hate running out of crix when you have hungry animals to feed. So, what supplies would I need? How many crix would I need to end up with 3,000 little pin-head crix? Thanks for any other info you can give me thanks.

You would be better off continuing to buy the crickets than breeding them, unless you have alot of room you want to dedicate to them, don't mind the smell, and don't mind the noise the adults will produce which can be heard through walls. Crickets have a high mortality rate, so you have to raise a ton more than you acutally need and clean constantly. Too high a humidity, to many in one container, too hot, too cold, etc can affect them easily.

As suggested, maybe look into roaches? The initial purchase of a colony will be your largest expense but in time you have the choice of never bothering with crickets again or feeding a staple of roaches with occasional crickets. The thing with lobster roaches is that they can climb smooth surfaces, so not sure how you feed them to your bearded. The non-climbing species don't breed as well and don't have babies as small as lobsters, but the size of a baby bearded isn't exactly super tiny either.
-----
~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

I don't know if roaches would be a good thing to feed. I personally don't mind the noise of crix, but I hate the roaches. I really need to find a cheaper place for crix then. I am paying over $30 to have them shipped to my home. Over half of that price is the shipping cost. Thanks.

>>I don't know if roaches would be a good thing to feed. I personally don't mind the noise of crix, but I hate the roaches. I really need to find a cheaper place for crix then. I am paying over $30 to have them shipped to my home. Over half of that price is the shipping cost. Thanks.

Wow, $15 in shipping. Maybe get a new supplier? I used to have alot of geckos and had to order 2k crickets every two weeks. I know it was a pain, but it was worse just trying to breed crickets. Hatching pinheads is fine, but getting them to grow to a suitable size was difficult. You need big cages kept clean with lots of hiding for crickets. Baby crickets seem to do well with a bit more humidity and finely chopped foods. Probably best kept at upper 70s to low 80s. You are not likely to produce a significant ammount small scale. I have no idea how big an area is used by cricket suppliers. Try it small scale as a test with a certain number of female crickets, then find out how many babies you have at hatch, 1 week, 2 weeks, etc and see if you can replicate it to a larger scale to supply you with enough. But the reason most people don't do this and just buy crickets is because of the high mortality rate. It is simpler and consumes less time to let someone else bother with the breeding and raising. It is alot more convient to buy them in bulk then breed them.
-----
~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

Do you know of any good cricket breeders that sell for cheap?

>>Do you know of any good cricket breeders that sell for cheap?

I use Bassetts Cricket Ranch, because their prices are good and they have served me well in the past with good service. Since they are not far from me, shipping is only about $4 each time I order. That to me is not bad considering buying crickets from the local shop won't last long and is about $1 per dozen... Check the classifieds to see if you like the prices of any dealer and then check their reputation on quality and customer service.
-----
~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

A real good supplier is reptilefood.com. I have been using them for quite a while and they are great to work with.

If you are feeding pinhead crix a good alternitive would be fruitflies. I raise chameleons and go through thousands of crix a week. I raise my own but as everyone has mentioned it's hard to keep a constant supply. Heidei is the large species of fruit fly and they are pretty easy to set up and keep going. they don't take up much room. They do fine at room temperature, crix require 85-90*.
-----
Wade's Weptiles & Wodents

Hello,

So, you want to start breeding crickets? Sounds like everyone else is trying to talk you out of it??? Anyways, I understand that you are spending too much money on shipping, and breeding your own can be both $ rewarding and fun. Here is a basic set up of what you will need. First you will need breeders. Since you are already ordering from someone, order 500 adults and 500 1/2 grown. Put your adults in 1 cage and the 1/2 grown in another. As far as what we do for breeders, we use a plastic storage tub. The sides are smooth, so there is no need for a top, they can't climb out. You can get the tubs from Walmart for $10. I do not use any substrate. At one end of the tub, it is filled with rolls from either paper towels or toilet paper, or egg carton. There is a small tub of food in there. (For food, I use medicated chick feed. You can get it in a 25lb bag for about $4 from a feed store.) As far as water, I use an automatic chicken waterer, also from the feed store. You need to put some sponge in there to soak up the water and let the crickets drink without drowning. 500 adults will easily produce 3000 crickets weekly, if they are constantly replenished. This tub will need some heat to induce breeding. I use a small reptile heat pad from petsmart. You can use heat tape if you have it available.
Now you have the breeders set up, you need a nest spot. Using small storage tubs, I take a small plastic tub and fill it about 4 inches with potting soil. I do not use soil from outside, since it can carry parasites, and other insects. Pack the soil down a little, and keep it lightly damp. I usually have a few of these that I keep in rotation. I put the nesting box in with the breeders, and replace it weekly. Put the freshly removed nest box the rearing box. You can use 2 stacks that you get from Wal-Mart. They are made by Sterilite, and they are under $10 each. I put the nesting box in one of the drawers and leave it. It takes eggs 7-10 days to hatch. The racks and the breeders need to be heated. I have a heat pad I got from petsmart attached to the side of the racks. (It sits between them to warm them all at the same time. Each week, you will put a nesting box in each drawer. If it takes a week to hatch out, and you have 6 drawers total, (3 in each stack), you will have 5 drawers of crickets, You should have crickets about 1-4 weeks old in varying cages. If they are the right size to feed in 2 weeks, then use the other drawers to raise your replacement breeders. Once your crickets are too old to feed to your baby beardies, throw the rest of them back in with the breeders to replace the dead ones. You should average throwing back about 50 a week. That is saying you can afford to lose 10% of your breeders each week. This is basically the set up we use for our pinheads, (scaled down). The best thing is, when you sell all the babies, you can stop production. Once you know your female is gravid, you can start your colony again. You can also duplicate this over again if you need more. If you are needing to raise them to a larger size, 1/2 grown or more, you will need to use bigger tubs. These tubs are just high enough that the 1-3 or 4 week ones will not get out, for the most part. All in all, you are looking at $20 in racks, $10 for the breeder tub, the price of top soil, a heat pad, and your original breeders. It can be done for under $60, and you will have all the crickets you need. Good luck. Sorry for the super long post

Okay. Thanks. Another question, How much space will it take up? I don't have a ton of room now, but we may be moving in the spring.