Ive been breeding my crickets for a while now, and i use 20qt sterilite containers. I have 2 baby veileds and they each seem to eat 20 crix a day. I buy mature crix and let them lay before i feed them off to my big male, but these little guys eat the crix faster than i can grow them... couldnt imagine having 50 or so hungry mouths to feed. any tips on speeding the growing speed besides temp?
Crickets/ How do cham breeders do it???
- Thread starter spencer k
- Start date
dodolah
Retired Moderator
unfortunately, there is nothing you can do except buy more mature crix.. how about 500 of them?
vtecdreamer
New Member
you should by more and make another enclosure for the crickets and you should be able to keep up.......
Dyesub Dave
New Member
I read that they eat and grow faster at higher temps. Then when they're close to adults if you lower their temps a bit their metabolism will slow down and they won't grow as fast.
I haven't tried this myself however to ensure that it works. Let us know if you find any solutions!
Dyesub Dave.
I haven't tried this myself however to ensure that it works. Let us know if you find any solutions!
Dyesub Dave.
Vibrant Chameleons
Avid Member
Buy in bulk. That's the best way to do it. Buy 500 or 1000 1/4-1/2 inch crickets and that should last a little while (since the crickets will still be growing and not dying). When you notice you're running low, order more.
Or start a colony of Blaptica Dubia roaches. They bred with no effort as long as you keep them between 85-95 degrees and well fed.
Or start a colony of Blaptica Dubia roaches. They bred with no effort as long as you keep them between 85-95 degrees and well fed.
pohchunyee
Avid Member
i am bias toward dubias.... crickets are noisy and smelly!!!! Dubias is the best!!!!!!! breed like rabbit, not smelly....cute tooo!!!! They are bigger; less to feed your chameleon!
dodolah
Retired Moderator
cute??!!!
lol... i find it's a bit too hard to believe la
jk.. to each his own i guess
Chameleons Northwest
Avid Member
In the adult breeding container, are you placing a separate egg laying container, or do you have the adults laying there eggs in a substrate? If they are laying in a separate container, how long do you leave the container with the adults? My guess is that you either are not starting off with enough adults, or you are leaving the egg laying chamber in with the adults so long that they are beginning to eat the hatchling crickets.
Start with at least 200 adult crickets. Keep them at about 90F, by placing a human heating pad on their container. Place the laying container in with them, full to the rim with moistened soil, or soil/sand, or peatmoss (we use peatmoss). Leave it in there for 8-12 hours. Remove it. (Replace it with another one a week before you'll be ready for more pinheads, or replace it immediately, and by the time your babies need them the crickets will be a little larger and more filling, and your babies won't need to eat as many.)
Place the first one on top of the heating pad and cover it with a damp paper towel. Check this egg container regularly to keep the towel and substrate moist (not wet). If it helps, you can place the egg container in a slightly larger container that has a lid and place both on the heating pad (to help retain moisture- but don't let it get too wet). The crickets should hatch in 9 days. When they begin to hatch, place the egg laying chamber, by itself, in a larger sterlite container, place a large leaf of romaine lettuce on top of the egg laying container's soil, and place a damp paper towel over that. (there are 2 additional steps we add to this but they are a little complicated and not necessary.) Replace the Romaine with fresh every day or so. As the baby crickets age, sprinkle milled dry food around the edges of the sterlite container.
Keep all of this set on top of a portion of the heating pad. Keep the paper towel moist. You will have many hundreds of crickets, maybe even a thousand. Enough to last at least a couple of weeks, if you are feeding out 40 a day. In another 9 days your next batch of crickets will be ready. If I remember correctly, each female cricket can lay 100 eggs in her lifetime. If you feed out a lot of your adults, then start with a larger colony.
You will also want to preserve some of the hatchlings for your future batches of adults. We rotate through their life-cycle with 4 different containers. Adult, hatchling, several weeks old, and a little older. We feed out to our various chameleons from each container.
Here is a link that may help you: http://www.anapsid.org/crickets.html
Vibrant Chameleons
Avid Member
I agree 100%! My Blaptica Dubia colony is my staple feeder for all my chameleons along with superworms. I buy a few dozen crickets here and there as variety. They do love chasing crickets but, I'd rather keep only 1/8 inch crickets for feeding the baby chams. Everyone has their own way, and this way is my way.
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Chameleons Northwest
Avid Member
I agree with the dubia thing, too, but we keep up the cricket thing for the pygmys and (hopefully) for future neonates. I would be thrilled to get our pygmys hooked on tiny dubia nymphs, but so far it hasn't worked out.
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