Cricket care


I keep my crickets in big plastic containers in the kitchen. I don't have a very big apartment so I have nowhere else to put them. Do not keep your crickets in a dark closet or something like that. They need light and fresh air to stay healthy.


My Crickets

Substrates
In the cricket cage I usually use "Reptibark" as a substrate. You can also use papertowels or newspaper. Then I add empty egg boxes in layers as shelter. It is important to provide places for the crickets to hide from each other. If they can't do that - they kill and eat each other.


Thirsty crickets

Cricket food
I feed my crickets' "fishflakes" for tropical fish, "baby pig food", dandelion leaves, some other kind of "dark leafed salad, carrots and slices of orange as a liquid source. That is enough. I don't provide water, since I think it is too much work to keep it clean and to prevent the crickets from drowning. I haven't provided water for my crickets for over 2 years and they do fine. If you want to provide water - don't forget to place a piece of cotton wool in the bowl (just make sure the cotton doesn't contain chemicals) - if you don't do that the stupid crickets will drown - even if the water isn't deep.

I change the slice of orange every second day and check that there is enough food in the cricket cage. If you don't provide food and fluid they will feed on each other.

When you buy crickets - make sure to feed (gutload) them before you offer them to your dragon. If the crickets haven't eaten recently (and you don't know if they have) they aren't nutritious to your beardie.



Cleaning
I clean the cricket terrarium quite often. Crickets that eat fish food - smells of fish. In other words - not nice. If I clean the "cricket cage" every 10-14 days or so, I haven't noticed any smell.

When I clean I simply "pour" all the crickets into another plastic terrarium, I do this calmly but still quite fast - if you pour too slowly the crickets will jump out, if you do it too fast you'll hurt the crickets.