Cricket breeding KIT...or home-made

cooper01 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-30-2008, 11:45 AM

I was able to find a small cricket breeding kit online and was wondering how it might compare to doing it myself. I have a Gekko gecko, and Paroedura pictus. I'm just getting into the gecko thing but already see that i will have issues with the cost of crickets. I would love to start breeding them if it means that i will save some money. I'm a molecular biologists so the difficulty is not an issue. I was really just wondering if a kit or personal set up was the way to go. Thanks for the help

lemonjello · #2 (**permalink**) 05-30-2008, 06:14 PM

Have you tried mealworms? They are great. You can refrigerate then until you use them, they don't smell, they don't make noise,.......

mh728 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-30-2008, 06:44 PM

Yeah mealworms are conveniant, unless of course your animals refuse to eat them like mine. As far as cricket breeding goes your probably better off researching how to keep and breed them rather than waste money on a so called 'kit'.

**Riverside Reptiles** · #4 (**permalink**) 05-31-2008, 12:02 AM

Roaches are far superior to either crickets or mealworms. And easy to breed too. I'd go the roach route if I were you.

audio · #5 (**permalink**) 06-06-2008, 12:53 AM

home made isn't hard

i would do roaches if i wasn't afraid of them, not to mention they adapt easily and if they escape i would assume that'd create a problem

just get a big plastic bin, cut a hole or 2 in the top and add screening, heat it if you live somewhere cold, put soil or something to lay eggs in as the substrate, crap to hide in (egg cartons), food and water, they do the rest.

as for really good tips, i don't have any, i'm new to this as well. i have a bunch in a 10 gallon with some soil for substrate, water pillows (if you've seen those), dish full of cricket feed, egg carton, and occasionally i mist it. i'll probably start heating it but i don't have an extra dome lamp right now or an extension cord to my closet. (that's the only place they shut up)

moswen · #6 (**permalink**) 06-06-2008, 01:20 AM

understandable on the being scared of roaches .....I keep crickets in shed out back very similar to what you are suggesting and they do what they gotta do....I however live in florida so I have to keep a fan or they cook.

tuppence03 · #7 (**permalink**) 08-24-2008, 11:33 AM

have you thought of a cricket keeper? they are great the crickets live in the tubes you just tip a bit of of calcium in a tube give it shake and tip out to gut load your crickets feed them cucumber and grated carrot and and if yo are lucky they can breed in these conditions cutting your costs down in the future

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mikey · #8 (**permalink**) 08-24-2008, 10:37 PM

Quote:

have you thought of a cricket keeper?

Back when I fed crickets to my geckos I used to keep large/medium crickets in a cricket keeper and to this day I still cannot figure out how they managed to escape. Every day there would be noticeably less crickets and I would find them all over my house. I'm not saying that cricket keepers are bad to use, I just know I would never risk it again - I don't know how they do it sometimes but crickets are great escape artists.

mh728 · #9 (**permalink**) 08-24-2008, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikey

Back when I fed crickets to my geckos I used to keep large/medium crickets in a cricket keeper and to this day I still cannot figure out how they managed to escape. Every day there would be noticeably less crickets and I would find them all over my house. I'm not saying that cricket keepers are bad to use, I just know I would never risk it again - I don't know how they do it sometimes but crickets are great escape artists.

Same here, all it takes is a few hops and they can get a grip and escape through the ventilation. I tried putting a piece of screen under the lid and they chewed right through it. Then I tried a piece of aluminum screen and they can't get through that. This was way back when I got my first crested, then I realized that a pathetic little KK wasn't going to be enough and I started using an aquarium with a steel screen lid.

Bottom line, Kricket/Kritter Keepers aren't worth the money. You're better off with a cheaper plastic bin. Now I'm not sure why I went and typed all this seeing how old this thread is and considering the fact that I'm pretty sure the OP went and started a roach colony but whatever.

cliff_f · #10 (**permalink**) 08-24-2008, 11:17 PM

Cricket breeding/keeping kits are easy to build. If you use the metal screen they can not chew threw the screen and get out. I wont keep roaches just because I dont like them and I DO NOT recomend meal worms as a primairy diet.

Here are a few pictures of how I have my crickets setup. I dont have any problems with them escaping (except when i drop some). I usually have 3-4k crickets at any given time and I dont have any problems with them being all over the house.