Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As you know from below I am looking to purchase a few Geckos for my girlfriend. My biggest hang up with helpng her keep them is this...(crickets)... and here comes the question...

When only owning a few Leopard Geckos like many of you do, how do you keep crickets? What i mean is what have you found to be the easiest method to store and supply them in?
What do you house them in?
What do you feed them?
How many do you buy at a time?

In the past i used to keep them in a critter keeper, i would make a little dish for the blue water stuff and another for the cricket meal. I would buy 60 at a time and it seemed like by the time i got to the last few i would notice that i had lost about 30% of what i bought (dead). Then every so often i would have to clean their plastic critter keeper and that was a hassle. To me the whole thing was a big pain in the be-hind! Do you guys have any tips or suggestions to make this less of a hassle?

and only get enough crickets to last a week, that way they aren't overcrowded and aren't in there for too long. I feed the crickets Fluker's orange cubes (or whatever they're called...lol). I have VERY low loss of the crickets (less than 10 normally of about a hundred small crickets). Also, since they are gone within the week, the keeper is empty before I get new crickets so I can clean the container before I get more. Oh, and I usually add a piece of egg carton or toilet paper tube to the keeper so they have more space to hide (and remove when the numbers get low).
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Christina

Leopard Gecko Morph Descriptions

2.3 leos
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-1.0 tremper albino (Spitfire)
-1.0 tangerine rainwater albino (Bronx)

-ignorance is not to be punished when one is trying to gain knowledge...what scares me is the vast number of people who, when given the information to gain knowledge, choose to ignore it.

I use a large rubbermaid container with holes driled in the lid, it has paper towel rolls in it and a container or cricket quencher for water and a container of turtle food for them to eat,the turtle food has a lot of protien init and keeps them from eating each other. So far I've noticed minimal losses in the crickets I've done this with, maybe 1 cricket lost out of 3 dozen crckets.
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http://joshmilliken.tripod.com/

Well, I always worry about the little stinkers jumping out of a small container like a critter keeper...sooo I store mine in a 10 gallon aquarium....yea its big but when im getting them out I dont worry to much about them jumping out....I feed mine store bought gut load,baby cereal flakes,romaine lettuce and oranges to drink....I only have one leo and shes a juvie and eats ALOT so just for her I buy about 45 at a time...they last for a week or 2...and ofcourse some die.

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KRISTI Mommy 2 Autumn Rose (daughter) 2 1/2 yrs
Reign Michael(son) 6 months
Duncan (Budgie) almost 7 years
Asia (Juvie Leopard Gecko)
Russia (NEW Baby Albino Cornsnake)
OH, And Ron the geckos #1 FAN!!! (owned by BlizzardGecko)

Hi

I use a ten gallon tall aquarium for mine and I buy my crickets of the internet. I just received 3,000 crickets, and I put them in the tank. I use the egg carton material that comes in with the boxes and I ripe it up into different sizes, and then I arrange them in the tank, up to a certain height. I leave the cent side front of the tank empty,so I can put water dishes and food there. They are lids form containers and I put cotton balls in them and fill them with water and they such it right up, I use cricket gut load stuff. Last but not least a screen lid.

Also for food, I will buy a bag of monkey chow at the pet store and put them all around the top of the egg cartons and then put toilet paper rolls on top of them and then just shake out what I need. Yes, they love the monkey chow and it has good stuff in it. The pieces remind you of tatter totes that mom would buy you at the store kind of.

TLB

Sorry I'm not sure if someone already mentioned this. If you use any sort of gutload with calcium in it the crickets will die faster. I cannot remember the reasons why but I have them here somewhere. I have spoken to someone who specializes in reptile diets and has written a bunch of articles on the different issues regarding them. But other than that I use the same little cricket keeper you have and I love it. I am a baby who hates touching bugs, so it works wonders for me. I also use a homemade gutload made by my insect supplier and a clear water gel.