Crickets are easy to keep alive and healthy if you provide them with a few items like food, water, and a dark dry home.
Many of the materials necessary to set up their food, water, and housing can be found in your recycling bin or can be requested from your neighbors, or a neighborhood restaurant.
In order to ensure that the crickets are as nutritious as possible when they are consumed, their diets should include:
Variety of "wet" foods(Suggestions listed above)
The idea is to provide hard veggies that will not degrade before they are consumed. Otherwise your job of cleaning will be more difficult and disgusting, odor will be worse.
Do not provide too much at one time to prevent molding.
Do not provide too many moist foods, crickets are sensitive to too much moisture.
NOTE: If bacteria or mold gets into your insect supply, the insects should be quarantined and fed clean, bacteria and mold free foods for a couple of days before feeding them to your kritters.
Insects exposed to significant contamination and all dead insects should be discarded.
Do Not feed unhealthy or dead insects to your pets.
You don't want to risk the health of your kritters due to contaminated food sources!
Calcium-rich gut load dry food diet.
Kricket's Kritters recommends making your own organic gutload using a mixture of the following ingredients: Organic multi-grain cereal, organic bran, organic oats, organic cornmeal, organic kelp meal, organic bone meal as well as any other organic dry pulverized grain or vegetable that you'd like to add.
Spoon the powder onto a plastic container lid or other shallow container. It should be refilled when empty.
Do not provide too much at one time to prevent mold/bacteria contamination
Many pet supply companies make cricket gut loads which are widely available, however, they contain mostly non-organic ingredients and a lot of preservatives and unnecessary ingredients.
(Note: Usually not needed when wet veggies are provided on a regular schedule)
Crickets can not swim, and can drown in even the smallest of droplets of water. Therefore they must be given water via "wicking" and/or by providing sufficiently moist foods.
NOTE: Kricket's Kritters does not recommend using cricket water bites and
other water gel products as they contain preservatives, dyes, sugars,
and other unnessary ingredients.
Necessary Materials:
Small plastic container with fitting lid
Filtered Water
Sponge (Clean/Untreated)
NOTE: Watch out for sponges treated with Triclosan or that have the warning "Not for aquarium use."
Triclosan is a harmful chemical used on nearly every sponge available.
Be aware of which sponges you use to do your household dishes too!
Cut a one inch (1") square hole in the lid of the container.
Fill the container with filtered tap water.
Cut a 1"x2" section of sponge.
Insert the sponge into the hole in the lid so that 1/4 of the sponge is sticking out, and 3/4 of the sponge is in the water.
Put the lid on the container.
The sponge will act as a wick and the crickets will drink the water off of the sponge.
Make sure you keep the sponge clean by rinsing it out every couple of days, it can be re-used and re-used as long as you keep it clean.
NOTE: If you don't clean the sponge regularly, the crickets will eat it, and then your kritters will eat the sponge too (via the cricket gut contents)!
Housing
Crickets need a dark, dry, clean environment to survive sucessfully in captivity.
Crickets are hardy insects that are easy to gutload and therefore can be quite nutritious for your pet reptiles and amphibians, as long as they are given a well balanced calcium rich diet.
Crickets are sensitive to overcrowding, stress, temperature, moisture, bacteria, mold, and chemicals.
Necessary Materials:
Large plastic/rubber bin with lid
Egg Crates/Flats
Place clean dry egg crates in the bin.
The egg crates create surface area for the the crickets to live on.
Provide enough egg crates in a large enough bin to allow the crickets to live without being overcrowded.
Cricket overcrowding leads to stress, stress can lead to cricket deaths.
Do not build more than halfway up the height of the bin; this limits the amount of escapes when the lid is removed.
Scatter the chopped up "wet" foods throughout the bin.
Do not provide too much wet food, you want it to be consumed before it goes bad.
Place the water container in the bin, if you're using one.
Ensure that the container is well balanced
Ensure that the egg crates are not touching the sponge.
Note: If the egg crates get wet, the crickets will eat them.
Place the gut load - dry food lid in the bin.
Ensure that the lid is well balanced to prevent spillage.
Add a few small sections of egg crate near the top of the bin, in order to collect the crickets and feed them to your kritters.
Remember to ensure the egg crates are not touching the sponge.
Dump the crickets into the bin.
Place the lid on the bin. (Note: You'll probably need to provide ventilation through the lid.
Cut a large hole in the lid, and hot glue wirewindow/door screen to the lid.
This will prevent escapes of all but the tiniest of crickets.
Do not use vinyl door/window screen. Crickets can chew through it!
Keep bin at room temperature (65*F-75*F)
Crickets are sensitive to extreme cold and heat, keeping them at a moderate temperature works best.
Maintenance
The cricket bin should be cleaned about one time per week or as needed.
This includes removing all carcasses, old food and waste, as well as cleaning of the bin, lid, food, and water dishes.
Vinegar and baking soda mixed make a great cleaner and it's safe for the environment.
Do not use bleach or other cleansers.
The bin should be set back up according to the instructions above, and water and all food sources should be replenished as needed.
This schedule keeps crickets healthy, die-off numbers low, limits bacteria and mold, and also helps with odors.
Remember:
Crickets need a dark, dry, clean environment to survive successfully in captivity.
Crickets
are hardy insects that are easy to gutload and therefore can be quite
nutritious for your pet reptiles and amphibians, as long as they are
given a well balanced calcium rich diet.
Crickets are sensitive to overcrowding, stress, temperature, moisture, bacteria, mold, and chemicals.
If you're having trouble with your crickets, check out the Cricket FAQ's below!
1) What size crickets should I choose to feed my pet?
Feeder cricket size should be determined based on the amount space between your lizards eyes. This is true for nearly all amphibians and reptiles, not just Bearded Dragons.
Do not feed crickets that are too large, this may cause impactions and potentially death.
The lifespan of a cricket is 6-8 weeks. Female crickets lay about 10 eggs per day for the last 10 days of her life, therefore producing approximately 100 eggs. Hatchling crickets come out of the egg at approximately 1/8" and will grow to about 1" over the course of their lifespan.
3) Why are my crickets dying? Why do my crickets smell so bad?
(This is my #1 cricket question!)
Generally, cricket die-off occurs due to moisture or mold/bacteria issues.
If you crickets are dying on their backs with their legs twitching and are quite crunchy, or they are eating each other, then they are likely not receiving enough moisture.
If your crickets are dying and they are quite dark in color, and smell bad, you are probably providing too much moisture.
Too much moisture often makes the crickets smell, poor ventilation also causes odors to accumulate.
Try providing less food each time you feed them, or try using foods that aren't as moist, such as potatoes, carrots, yams, sweet potatoes, and vegetable stems from dragon salads.
4) What should I feed to my crickets and how often?
Use a calcium-rich gut load dry food diet, as well as certified-organic carrots, potato, and sweet potato/yams, and stems from the dragon veggies or your family meals.
Note: These particular vegetables mentioned provide moisture, but to not mold and decompose quickly.
Crickets should be fed 1-2 times per week depending on how many crickets you are housing and how much and how fast they consume what you provide.
Do not feed more than can be consumed before the food dries out or goes bad as this can cause mold and bacterial contamination. Allowing the foods to go bad can also lead to mites, maggots, ants, and other unwanted insects.
Make sure you do not feed any insects that have eaten moldy foods to your lizards, this could cause health issues in the lizard.
5) Where is all of that noise coming from? How and why do crickets make noise?
Female and male crickets begin to develop their wings around their 4th week of life or around 1/2" in length.
Male crickets create their "songs" by rubbing their wings together. Male crickets wings have a special "pocket" in their wings that resonates and chirps when the wings vibrate together.
Female crickets do not sing.
Male crickets make these songs in order to establish territory and to communicate with females and let them know of their location.
Songs are abruptly stopped when a predator is present.
You may notice that many of the crickets will go silent when you open the lid or disturb the cricket bin.
Crickets do not rub their legs together to make noise, this is a myth.
Mealworms (especially Giant mealworms) are not recommended as a staple in the diet of captive Bearded Dragons. If the are used, they should be considered a very occasional snack or treat as they have a hard to digest exoskeleton, are quite fatty, and have poor if any nutritional value.
Giant mealworms attain their "giant" size due to being fed growth hormones. Growth hormones interupt their normal life cycle and prevents them from pupating into their larval stage. Instead, they spend their energy on growing.
This is the only way that mealworms can attain the "Giant Mealworm" size, and when growth hormone foods is removed from the diet, the mealworm will resume its pupation cycle from the worm to the larvae to the beetle.
Kricket's Kritters does not recommend the use of any mealworms or other food products which contain hormones due to their unknown effects on reptiles and other living organisms.
Large size mealworm - 1" (left)
Giant size mealworm - 1.5" - 1.75" (right)
Food Source
Necessary Materials:
Dry food/gut load
"Wet" foods (see table below)
Potatoes
Apples
Squash
Zucchini
Carrots
Yams
Lettuce (any type)
Vegetable Stems (from salad preparation)
In order to ensure that the mealworms are as nutritious as possible when they are consumed, their diets should include a calcium-rich gut load dry food diet, this can be the same as what you use for your crickets.
Calcium-rich gut load dry food diet:
Kricket's
Kritters recommends making your own organic gutload using a mixture of
the following ingredients: Organic multi-grain cereal, organic bran,
organic oats, organic corn meal, organic kelp meal, organic bone meal
as well as any other organic dry pulverized grain or vegetable that
you'd like to add.
Many
pet supply companies do sell insect gut loads which are widely available,
however, they contain mostly non-organic ingredients and a lot of
preservatives and unnecessary ingredients.
Spoon the powder directly into the substrate.
It should be replenished as necessary.
Do not provide too much at one time to prevent mold/bacteria contamination
Chop up a variety of "wet" foods listed above.
Do not provide too much at one time to prevent molding and mealworms are sensitive to too much moisture.
NOTE: On the other hand, if mealworms and superworms are Not provided with enough moisture and food they will eat each other!
If you notice this, add more veggies or feed more frequently!
Water Source (Optional)
Necessary Materials:
Thin fabric scraps made from natural fibers like cotton or hemp
Water
NOTE: Do not use paper towels or newspaper. The mealworms and superworms will eat it, even if it is not wet.
I've seen numerous fluorescent pink superworms after they ate through a valentine's day ad (see photo in superworm section).
NOTE: These worms stayed flourescent pink for 3 months, their pupae were also pink!
You don't want your kritters eating ink and paper via their food sources!
Mealworms generally receive sufficient moisture as long as they are provided with fresh vegetables on a regular basis.
If you find that you mealworms do however seem like they might need some additional moisture, you can use a thin fabric rag, or strips. Dampen the fabric with filtered water and lay it directly on the top of the substrate. Make sure that the fabric or paper towel will dry out overnight, you don't want it to stay wet because molding will occur. The fabric should be re-wet daily, the substrate should be mixed well daily in order to ensure proper aeration and drying, and then the towel or fabric should be rinsed out well and re-placed in the worm bin.
Remember: If mealworms and superworms are not provided with enough moisture and food they will eat each other!
If you notice this, add more veggies or feed more frequently!
Housing
Necessary Materials:
Small-medium sized plastic/rubber bin with lid
Mealworm substrate
Put the mealworms into the bin with the substrate. Kricket's Kritters recommends using Certified-Organic Oats and Bran as a worm substrate. Ensure that there is enough mealworm substrate in the bin to just barely cover the worms.
NOTE: Do not use paper towels or newspaper. The mealworms and superworms will eat it, even if it is not wet.
I've seen numerous fluorescent pink superworms after they ate through a valentine's day ad (see photo in superworm section).
NOTE: These worms stayed flourescent pink for 3 months, their pupae were also pink!
You don't want your kritters eating ink and paper via their food sources!
Spoon a bit of gutload into the bin of substrate and mix it in. The mealworms will eat the gutload and the substrate that they live in.
Toss in some "wet" foods.
Place the lid on the bin. (Note: You may need to provide additional ventilation. If so, cut a large hole in the lid, and hot glue wire window/door screen to the lid. This will prevent escapes of all but the tiniest of crickets. Do not use vinyl door/window screen, the worms and crickets can chew through it!)
Keep bin at room temperature (65-75*F) or preferably cooler. You can keep your mealworms in your refrigerator if you would like, this will prevent them from pupating and will slow down their growth rate.
Do not keep super worms in the refrigerator, the cold temps will kill them.
Maintenance
The mealworm bin should be cleaned about once every 2 weeks or as needed.
This includes sifting all subtrate with a colander (strainer) to remove all carcasses, shed exoskeletons, old food, substrate, and waste.
The bin and lid should also be cleaned and dried out.
Vinegar and baking soda mixed make a great cleaner and it's safe for the environment.
Do not use bleach or other cleaners.
The bin should be set back up according to the instructions above, and the substrate and food sources should be replaced.
This schedule keeps mealworms healthy, die-off numbers low, limits bacteria and mold, and also helps with odors.
Superworms are not recommended as a staple in the diet of captive lizards. They should be considered as a very occasional snack or treat as they contain a hard to digest exoskeleton, are quite fatty, and have poor nutritional value.
Superworms should not be given to any lizard less than 10-12" in length due to impaction risks. They should also not be given to unhealthy bearded dragons or dragons who have eating problems.
NOTE: If mealworms and superworms are not provided with enough moisture and food they will eat each other! If you notice this, add more veggies or feed more frequently!
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Insects
NOTE: Do not use paper towels or newspaper. The mealworms and superworms will eat it, even if it is not wet. 