Keeping Crickets Alive

becca81

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I've had trouble in the past (and I've seen several posts about) keeping crickets alive for very long. It seemed that almost all the crickets I bought would die within a week at the most and I'd end up wasting money and have to go back to buy more.

I think I've finally figured out a way for someone with a smaller collection (like myself) to keep them long enough to get your money's worth. I'm only buying crickets every few weeks now and when I buy smaller crickets they live for around 3 weeks or so.

The best thing, though, is that the smell seems to be all but gone. Even when I open the lid to get a cricket out, I don't smell the usual "cricket smell."

Here's what I've been doing. If anyone has any suggestions or advice that could help me out even more, I'd appreciate it. :)

I use two different containers, one for my small crickets and one for my large. I just used two containers I had around the house (one is a margarine tub) and made holes in them.





In the containers, I put several pieces of egg carton, an OJ lid for water bites, and a yogurt lid for dry food.



For water, I've tried just using water and I've also tried using potatoes and/or apples. The potatoes and apples go bad quickly and my crickets still kept dying. The water dries up quickly and I'm usually too busy to keep checking on it (I'd rather focus on my Ts). My solution was to buy "Fluker's Calcium Fortified Cricket Quencher." It lasts for at least week in the lid and doesn't cause too much moisture in the tub. I've been using the same container of it for about 6 months now, so it does last a good while.



For dry food, I've been using grits (http://www.grits.com/discript.htm) which are cheap and we usually keep them in house anyways. I sometimes use plain oatmeal. I put them in the yogurt lid, but as the crickets move around they usually get out of the lid and only the floor. Works just fine, though.



One thing I've found that makes them live longer is making sure to change the egg cartons and clean the container each time you get new crickets. Everytime we buy eggs I save the carton and cut it up so I can use it later. I've tried leaving the same egg carton in the container, but my crickets didn't last as long and began to smell after a week or so.

I hope this can help someone who is having the same problems that I've had. I know this probably doesn't work well for someone with a large number of spiders, but for a small collector (I have 18 and it works well) it seems to work. This has saved me money and has been very inexpensive to maintain.
I buy 50 or 60 crickets at a time this way

Does anyone else have any ideas that have worked well for them?
 

shogun804

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my crickets will stay alive for at least 2 weeks usually longer, i usually by 80-90 crickets at a time and keep them in a 10 gallon tank with no top and no substrate, i always have fresh water availble to them, feeding them i use a blender to blend up dog biscuits there are 2 large dishes with food in them all the time, when keeping crickets alive i think ventalation is the biggest part of most peoples problems that is why i do not even have a top for the 10gallon tank, i do have those big sheets of egg crate stuff i have been using the same ones for about 3 months now :eek: , i think i wll change them soon, of course there are the excepetions and about 5-10 of them die within a few days, but the rest of them thrive very well.
 

becca81

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Dark Raptor said:
Why not starting your own "mass production" colony?
Because I promised my husband that the roaches and the mealworms would be the last things I'd try to breed for awhile. :)
 

Dark Raptor

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becca81 said:
Because I promised my husband that the roaches and the mealworms would be the last things I'd try to breed for awhile. :)
That's funny... I had always problems with my "second half" hating roaches, mealworms, spiders ect. ;)
 
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smokejuan

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I do the same thing as Becca and I use either fluker food or rep-cal cricket food. They seem to waste less Rep-cal food as it comes in granules rather than a powder like substance of Fluker. Both are good. Rep-cal is also more expensive and you get less in the bottle. I will eventually make my own food formula to save money on feed but it so handy to grab a bottle of the food when I get a bottle of cricket quencher. I aways us the cricket quencher but I have moved from Fluker to the ESU reptile Gut Load poly cricket drink. The poly crystals are very small and makes it easier for young and older crickets to drink and easier to handle in small drink lids, etc. After several days of the quencher in the cricket keep and drying up a bit, I will use an eye dropper and add a few drops of water to sorta reconstitute the poly crytstals before changing them out.
 

Spiderling LT

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I sugest you to put for your crickets more vegetables (carot, beetroot, snap-beans my crickets and roches love them, cucumber ) and fruit like apple, pear or grass and lettuce.
And if temperature is less then 85-75 is to cold for crickets and then need heating.

Sory for mistakes in my engkish
Julius
 
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smokejuan

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Cricket suppliers

Note: I have three places in a 15 mile radius to buy crickets. Petco crickets are a nice fatter and light colored cricket that seem to not hop as high as others (losing them in the house). Down side is even when I pick them up right after they get them I still have higher losses than is acceptable to me no matter size/age. Like to many generations of inbreeding causing weakness. I know some will argue this point. Another place has a much darker colored crickets very high jumpers (lose them all the time) they are not as heavy bodied and seem to have an unusual amount of males. Males have little body fat and spend most of their time "love tuning" the females and making a lot of noise. They are kinda like trying to catch and eat a bantam rooster. The final place I most often get them has a medium to light brown cricket fairly good jumpers and take on a reasonable amount of body weight with lower death rate factor. Just food for thought! :D
 
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smokejuan

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I feed mine shredded veggies about once a week that I use on salads I frequently eat. after that they are eaten by my T's ( kinda last supper thing) {D Rep-cal is based on apples, grains, alfalfa and vitamin fortified. :}
 

moricollins

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i feed my crickets fish food (any kind of flake food) and oatmeal. Baby Carrots for water source, keep on peat moss (or whatever substrate i have available).

Seem to live alright like that, but i hate the little vermin.

Mori
 

packer43064

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The fish flakes are very good for the crix because their very nutrious.

I have over 2000 baby crix now, so i'm pretty good at breeding them now. I have never had a problem with smell at all just take out the dead crix and the egg crates that get bad and if you use apple and potatoes take out them when they start to smell and mold.
 

JohnxII

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I think your problem is ventilation. Crix need even more ventilation than versi's in order to thrive. By the look of the lid of your "Cl*d" box, are you seeing condensation when you use water bites?

Metal screens work best for crickets. In fact, if you can't find any, use a tall container with no lid. If you only keep small amount of adult crix, a small kritter keeper would do. That way your crix lifespan should then be measured in months, not weeks.
 

becca81

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JohnxII said:
I think your problem is ventilation. Crix need even more ventilation than versi's in order to thrive. By the look of the lid of your "Cl*d" box, are you seeing condensation when you use water bites?

Metal screens work best for crickets. In fact, if you can't find any, use a tall container with no lid. If you only keep small amount of adult crix, a small kritter keeper would do. That way your crix lifespan should then be measured in months, not weeks.
Ventilation hasn't been a problem - I also thought so, initially.

The only reason the lifespan is measured in weeks instead of months is because they are all gone at that point. :)

Feeding 18 tarantulas and 2 leopard geckos doesn't make them last too long. This way, I've found, doesn't take up a lot of space.
 

JohnxII

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Ah good good, then all is well. My collection of T:Leo:crix is the same as yours (about 3x in fact), and the recent addition of the Leos is making me buying crix a lot more frequently as well! I've given up hatching pinhead crix, since I want to save up more space. So I just have 1 box of adult crix and 1 box of small/medium crix for temporary keeping. When the number starts to go down in a few weeks, I buy more to top up.
 
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