Cricket Care Sheet
I know crickets can be costly that’s why I breed most of my food myself.
They can be tricky and time consuming but with trial and error and this care sheet you will be breeding in no time.
Feeding
Crickets eat a wide range of food including fruits veges and have found they love ice cream cones as a treat .I stick to a simple diet of dog biscuits,rat pellets,carrot,pumpkin,apple and oranges.
You don’t have to feed this to them every day. I always have some dry food in with them and either some fruit or veges for moisture or as their water. I go through the tubs every 3 days and get out any uneaten fruit or veg to prevent mould.Once you have it set up you can now ready start breeding.
You don’t have to feed this to them every day. I always have some dry food in with them and either some fruit or veges for moisture or as their water. I go through the tubs every 3 days and get out any uneaten fruit or veg to prevent mould.Once you have it set up you can now ready start breeding.
Breeding Setup
First off you will need to get yourself some adult crickets.You can spot the adults out easy as there the ones with wings.You will need males and females to breed successfully.It is easy to tell apart the males from females as males don’t grow as big and females develop an eggs laying tube that is easily seen.She uses this to insert into the moist soil and deposits the eggs.
Crickets are happy with a temp between 20 and 30 degrees.
The warmer the temps the quicker they will grow and really low temps they go dormant.If temps get above 35 they might become heat stressed and will often die.
You will need damp peat moss for the crickets to lay their eggs in.It also has to be chemical and fertilizer free. I buy it from Bunnings in a hard block form, you have to soak it in water and it expands making a few bucket fulls.Sqeeze out all the excess water and place it into chinese containers. Place them in with your adult cricket and leave overnight.
Check them the next day and if its drying out give it a spray and leave in another night. I leave them in 2 nights in a row so they can pump out all their eggs.Then give them a 3 day break to let them build up more eggs and put fresh peat moss containers back in.
Eggs will look like little thin grains of rice that are easily seen through the side of the container.
I then put a lid on (no holes needed) and incubate them at 28-30 degrees.They will hatch in around 10-15 days at this temp.When the babies start hatching I then sit the container in a newly set up tub as larger crickets eat the smaller ones.
Fresh hatched crickets or pin heads need a bit of extra attention.You will need to keep up the moisture a lot more. I place wet tissue balls around the tub for added moisture and replace them everyday.Also on hot days give the pin heads a fine quick mist.This will decrease a lot of deaths.Feed them the same foods as the adults though in smaller pieces.If kept correctly they will reach adult size in 3 months.
Cricket Setup
Crickets are happy with a temp between 20 and 30 degrees.
The warmer the temps the quicker they will grow and really low temps they go dormant.If temps get above 35 they might become heat stressed and will often die.
You will need damp peat moss for the crickets to lay their eggs in.It also has to be chemical and fertilizer free. I buy it from Bunnings in a hard block form, you have to soak it in water and it expands making a few bucket fulls.Sqeeze out all the excess water and place it into chinese containers. Place them in with your adult cricket and leave overnight.
Check them the next day and if its drying out give it a spray and leave in another night. I leave them in 2 nights in a row so they can pump out all their eggs.Then give them a 3 day break to let them build up more eggs and put fresh peat moss containers back in.
Eggs will look like little thin grains of rice that are easily seen through the side of the container.
I then put a lid on (no holes needed) and incubate them at 28-30 degrees.They will hatch in around 10-15 days at this temp.When the babies start hatching I then sit the container in a newly set up tub as larger crickets eat the smaller ones.
Fresh hatched crickets or pin heads need a bit of extra attention.You will need to keep up the moisture a lot more. I place wet tissue balls around the tub for added moisture and replace them everyday.Also on hot days give the pin heads a fine quick mist.This will decrease a lot of deaths.Feed them the same foods as the adults though in smaller pieces.If kept correctly they will reach adult size in 3 months.
Cricket Setup