Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am trying my hand at breeding crickets for my leos and it's a pain in the butt! the crickets wont grow up. they eat each other and i need help. i need to know if there is a way to speed up the growth so they don't lose so many and so i still have some by the time they grow up to be feeder size. i am starting to see it's much easier to just buy them. Are mealworms easier to breed??? thanx in advance! let me know.

If they are eating each other they don't have enough egg crate hides or enough food. One, the other or both. It depends on how big they are when you start as to how fast they reach breeding size.
I would cut to the chase and buy adults.
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Sonya

I had problems when I tried to breed crickets for some reptiles I had. I was excited when I saw how many pinheads hatched, but as they grew to one week size there was considerably less crickets. I talked with someone who had some success breeding crickets and he suggested that they need fine granual food items so it is easier for them to eat as well as keeping a moist pile of peat moss or similar in one corner which is misted to give them moisture and possibly humidity helped too. Either way, if you are trying to cut down costs of buying crickets to feed to your leopard gecko, I would suggest mealworm breeding instead. But if you wanted masses of pinheads for a baby or smaller lizard, breeding crickets help cut costs in feeding little lizards. I have no clue how these feeder companies breed en masses. Too much heat kills them. Too high humidity kills them. Not enough hiding may cause them to eat each other or just die. Too cold they don't move... You get the idea.

i have been told from a breeder/dealer that from hatch to adulthood is 45 days. can't verify it, its just what i was told when i asked the same question.

Breeding mealworms is MUCH simpler.. they almost thrive on neglect.. don't need anything but room temperature and can be fed in their small to medium sizes to anything about the same size as a leopard gecko hatchling. My hatchlings have never seen a cricket... Waxworms, mealworms yeah..no crickets..Got one 3 month old Leopard Gecko thats on superworms already (He's the biggest hatchling I've seen.. nearly 7 inches at 3 months)

n/p