AmenBrotherBen
Member
Can someone please give me step by step directions for breeding crickets? I've tried like three times but still haven't gotum...
Step by step breeding crickets?
- Thread starter AmenBrotherBen
- Start date
Holy cow, I hate crickets. I use them only when I have to which is maybe 3-4 times a week I use dubia roaches, horn worms, silk worms, super worms, and mice (this is for tegus, Chinese water dragons, iguanas, and geckos)
I highly suggest dubia roaches as feeder insects over crickets any day. They are more cost efficient, don't smell like death, don't have to be cleaned every day, and breed much more efficiently and easily. Not to mention they have a better meat to shell ratio and are 100x better than crickets inmy opinion. Yes I clear out petstores every time I buy crickets but I feed them all within a few days. My dubia roach colony is enough that I could ever feed. I have over 1000$ woth of roaches and it all started with 5 males and 30 females.
Roaches freak a lot of people out, but in reality they are cleaner than crickets and not the disgusting creatures they are made out to be. If someone where to hand me a cricket in one hand and a roach in the other and say eat it I would choose the roach. Just to put that into perspective for you.
Dubia roaches are relatively easy to care for. Use a bunch of egg cartons for hides and what not and a simple heat mat to start them breeding. For water I use the water crystals used for crickets, and for food I use nutritious greens fruits and grains. Also unlike crickets roaches can digest calcium thus not killing them if you suppliment their food with calcium.
http://youtu.be/nedCYxxfd5g this is the YouTube video that I learned everything I need to know about roaches and what made me decide to start breeding them.
I know this isn't the info you where looking for, but I hope it helps.
I highly suggest dubia roaches as feeder insects over crickets any day. They are more cost efficient, don't smell like death, don't have to be cleaned every day, and breed much more efficiently and easily. Not to mention they have a better meat to shell ratio and are 100x better than crickets inmy opinion. Yes I clear out petstores every time I buy crickets but I feed them all within a few days. My dubia roach colony is enough that I could ever feed. I have over 1000$ woth of roaches and it all started with 5 males and 30 females.
Roaches freak a lot of people out, but in reality they are cleaner than crickets and not the disgusting creatures they are made out to be. If someone where to hand me a cricket in one hand and a roach in the other and say eat it I would choose the roach. Just to put that into perspective for you.
Dubia roaches are relatively easy to care for. Use a bunch of egg cartons for hides and what not and a simple heat mat to start them breeding. For water I use the water crystals used for crickets, and for food I use nutritious greens fruits and grains. Also unlike crickets roaches can digest calcium thus not killing them if you suppliment their food with calcium.
http://youtu.be/nedCYxxfd5g this is the YouTube video that I learned everything I need to know about roaches and what made me decide to start breeding them.
I know this isn't the info you where looking for, but I hope it helps.
Saldarya
Established Member
Clearly you have never had to feed off 2500+ crickets a day to a ton of baby mouths! Dubuas simply don't cut it with neonate/juvenilles at scale. That being said, if the OP is keeping 1 or 2 animals, I would agree with you in general.
Use the search button, there are a ton of threads on how to breed them. Check threads by SMCNARY, Steve has put up some good guides.
I have 20+ mouths to feed I have gone through tons and tons of crickets. I think I would know what I'm talking about since I have kept and bred reptiles for 15 years. Depending on how you house your dubias and how many males and females you have breeding at once you can have as many nymphs as you need and they keep reproducing and reproducing.
Psychedelic Chams
Established Member
Whats sone other roaches dubias are illegal in florida..
AmenBrotherBen
Member
Yeah I wouldn't mind lookin into roaches if you think they're that much better and easier to breed. Where do you get them though?
fluxlizard
Avid Member
How about explaining step by step what you are doing and then I'll point out where you are going wrong?
In FL look for discoid roaches.
http://aaronpauling.com/
Roaches are a bit easier and take up less space. Crickets aren't hard though.
I breed both, plus mealworms, superworms, and soldier fly larvae. You don't want to rely on a single feeder.
AmenBrotherBen
Member
So far I just have a ten gallon tank with some food in there and a little reptile dish with some organic dirt in there. And so you think I should try roaches too?
fluxlizard
Avid Member
For crickets- you need a heat source if you don't have one. I keep mine on a 12" wide heat tape set at 85 degrees.
For laying eggs, I use food storage containers (rubbermaid rectangles they are called- about an inch or two high and several inches long and a few inches wide).
Inside the storage container, I use 1 part vermiculite to 3 parts water, by weight. I leave the container in with the adults for 24 hours, then remove it and put the lid on it and put it in the incubator at 85 degrees. It takes 10-14 days before the pinheads hatch. I keep the container sealed the whole time. When they hatch, the container is set again over heat tape in the cricket tub so the eggs stay warm as they continue to hatch for a day or two after starting. Because of the amount of water I start with (3x the weight of the vermiculite) I never have to re-dampen the substrate. It is good to go from start to finish. The eggs have to be kept damp and warm to remain good and hatch.
Every day, after removing the old egg container, I place a new one in with the adults. Containers left in too long will dry up or the eggs will be eaten by the adults.
Roaches- they are worth while and easy to breed. They are livebearing so there is no messing about with eggs- you just feed them, keep them warm, and they do the rest- babies just appear in with the adults, and in turn grow into adults- they don't have to be kept seperately. Choose dubia or discoids as species to work with. I breed dubia, but had discoids at one point in the past and kind of prefer them I think- they are a bit more active than dubia in the food bowl and I think breed a bit faster. Care is pretty much identical. Dubia are far more popular nowadays though. You can't go wrong with either species.
For laying eggs, I use food storage containers (rubbermaid rectangles they are called- about an inch or two high and several inches long and a few inches wide).
Inside the storage container, I use 1 part vermiculite to 3 parts water, by weight. I leave the container in with the adults for 24 hours, then remove it and put the lid on it and put it in the incubator at 85 degrees. It takes 10-14 days before the pinheads hatch. I keep the container sealed the whole time. When they hatch, the container is set again over heat tape in the cricket tub so the eggs stay warm as they continue to hatch for a day or two after starting. Because of the amount of water I start with (3x the weight of the vermiculite) I never have to re-dampen the substrate. It is good to go from start to finish. The eggs have to be kept damp and warm to remain good and hatch.
Every day, after removing the old egg container, I place a new one in with the adults. Containers left in too long will dry up or the eggs will be eaten by the adults.
Roaches- they are worth while and easy to breed. They are livebearing so there is no messing about with eggs- you just feed them, keep them warm, and they do the rest- babies just appear in with the adults, and in turn grow into adults- they don't have to be kept seperately. Choose dubia or discoids as species to work with. I breed dubia, but had discoids at one point in the past and kind of prefer them I think- they are a bit more active than dubia in the food bowl and I think breed a bit faster. Care is pretty much identical. Dubia are far more popular nowadays though. You can't go wrong with either species.
