Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there!
I got a great deal of good info from Spawn...thank you so much! Question...I currently get my crickets from a local pet store. I give them the green cricket food, and dust them before feeding them to my pair of anoles. They have bred a few times, but no eggs yet, that I can detect.
When I get eggs, I intend to remove, incubate, and feed. This is my question: When I get the crickets from my local store, they don't seem to have what I think are referred to as pinheads. The crickets are small, granted, but not "ant" size. What are my options? I could order them by internet, but a friend told me he did that and most of them died before he could use them because he'd had to order so many (500 or so I think). Should I try to raise my own crickets (something I am considering if it's not too difficult)? I want to be prepared when and if the time arises that I have little anoles.
Also, how many eggs is average, and when they hatch, what does one do with them if there isn't sufficient habitat for them all? Do the pet stores take them? Can one sell them to private parties? I'm sorry, I love snakes too, but I don't want them to be sold for snake food. Even though if I let them go to a pet shop (or private buyer) I have little control, is there any little hints I can use to help prevent this?
Thanks for your patience.
Elaine in California

I would suggest flightless fruit flies for feeding babies. There are two sizes, so you can use them for quite a while. You can order these online - you get a group of four vials (from the place I got them from), which works out well. You feed from one, then move on to the next to let the previous ones re-populate.

As for what to do with the babies....well, that's something that *should* be considered before breeding. I had an accidental breeding (thought it was two females) and had a monster time trying to get rid of the babies - they hatched out right in the terrarium. No one in my herp society had any interest whatsoever (except as feeders) and no one I knew wanted one. I finally searched out the local pet store that treated their stock better than anywhere else, and gave them away. I had no control over what happened to them afterwards, but I tried to make sure it was a place that gave good information to customers.

All your questions on breeding/incubation, etc, should be answered here: Under the Leaves

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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Tank, Turtle, and Spike)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
2.1.2 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Felis domesticus (Roscolux and Jenny)

Crickets are pretty easy to breed. The females have two small appendages (cerci) on the sides of the end of the abdomen and a long ovipositor in the middle at the end of the abdomen...males only have those two cerci on the sides. You can put several females in with one male and they will start laying eggs pretty quick. it takes about a month for the eggs to start hatching, but then you should have some hatching every day because the females would have been laying eggs every day.

If you can, use more than one container (those little critter carriers work well) and rotate the adults through each container. This way you will have a container with nothing but the substrate (you can use potting soil) which will contain the cricket eggs. After the eggs stop hatching, you can clean it out and add more soil and adult crickets.

Keep the soil moist, but not soaking wet.