# Cricket eggs



## Guest (Aug 20, 2004)

This is something that I've been doing for about 8 months now and my frogs REALLY dig it. When I purchase crickets for my moorish gecko, I keep out 4 or 5 adults and set them up in a plastic shoebox. The plastic shoebox has enough room for several cardboard toilet tubes (for the crix to hide in), a small water dish with a sponge (so they don't drown), and some food - I use fish food, since fruits and vegetables attract the wild type of fruitlflies. I also put in a small sandwich size tupperware container filled within an inch of the top with damp coco-peat. I put a small lid across the top of that to help keep it moist and give access to the crix.

After all of this is put together, I set it on a heating pad near a light. After about a week, I trade the coco-peat container with a fresh container. I dump the contents of the old container into my frogs' tank. After about another week, I notice nearly ALL of my frogs are hanging around the area where the old coco-peat was placed. I place it in an area where the humidifier keeps it damp. The frogs FEAST on the hatchling crickets - I've never seen a large cricket in their tank, so I know they are getting all of them. The coco-peat looks like it has hundreds of tiny grains of rice in it. I've watched it when the humidifier comes on and the tiny crickets start to emerge and ZAP!! they're frogfood.

I continue to cycle the coco-peat out of the cricket cage and dump it into my tanks and my guys absolutely love it. I still supplement with dusted fruitflies. All of my frogs are fat and healthy and active and an absolute delight to watch.

Since I haven't seen anybody else mention this method of feeding crix, I though I'd share . . .

Kristi
******************
orange splashbacks
leucs
powderblues
cobalts
azureus
turqouise/bronze auratus
kalhua/creme auratus


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## Derek Benson (Feb 19, 2004)

That's what I do, but I rasie most up for feeding to alrger frogs.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

*raising crix*

When I bred leopard geckos (and before I developed serious allergies) I used to breed crix in mass. I'd order a box of prewing large crickets (if I got adults they are usually old breeders and won't produce nearly as many eggs) wait the week or two until they became adults (winged) and give them gladwares with dirt and peat to lay eggs in. After a couple days I take out the gladware and feed out the adults. In about two weeks I have thousands of pinheads to feed out to frogs or raise up to larger sizes for my geckos. With the smallest gladware I can just put it in my froglet or heavily populated tanks and let the frogs eat the newly hatched pinheads as they hatch out. These are easily removed and I don't have the dirt pile it sounds like you are building up in your tanks.

Other foods that are great and don't attract FFs (or spoil as quickly) are dark, leafy romaine lettuce and sweet potato. There are also commercial diets, but I use them as suppliments to the above food especially since they can be pricey. When the crix are two weeks old I'll give them water pillows (petsmart) for water, I'm not fond of the various gels.


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## Guest (Aug 22, 2004)

Those are some great ideas! I hadn't thought about water pillows. We seldom have greens in the house, but I might have to start picking up some.

You are correct about the buildup of coco-peat. I forgot to mention that most of my frogs reside in a 150 gallon vivarium, but I will eventually have to move some of the substrate around.

I tried ordering pinheads once and they came in too large for my froglets (at the time). I'm not very good at catching the little bugs, either. This type of cricket raising is a lot less smellier than a full scale production. The good news is that my frogs get something other than fruitflies and they sure do enjoy it.

seeya!


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## pa.walt (Feb 16, 2004)

the few times i hatched out crickets i would use those deli cups that had holes in the sides like when you get frogs at a show.
once they started hatching you could just put it in the tank with the lid on and they would come out of the holes on the side. work good for me. 
walt


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

*Cricket size*

Yeah, you can't order true pinheads online, the ones you get are one weeks at least. Real pinheads don't ship well, sometimes you can ship eggs with some success and then hatch them out, thats the only way I could think of to be able to get the day old to couple day old size.

Because of my bearded dragon, I have the ultimate salads. Iceburg is not allowed in my fridge (if its used its considered a water source, not a food source), and you should see my veggie drawer! A lot of the veggies I have from the salads get tossed in to the crickets, so my crickets get a ton of variety, but the basics I buy specifically for them are romaine and sweet potatoes. I also eat a ton healthier and have been known to munch out of the 'dragon salad' container I mix up once a week... mind you I add the dragon food powder mix (from herpnutrition.com) and vits/cal/miner-al just before I feed the dragon, not when I make up the salad  So hey, you'll eat healthier! Eat your veggies!

For our frogs, you might eat ramen, but for my dragon I get a damn good salad on the side, and something to eat the adult crickets after I've gotten eggs from them. Handy and cute little buggers. Too bad I think he thinks my frogs are candy...

Awsome idea about those containers. Would also work for a mini FF culture... no worries about the frog getting in the dirt or medium. I'll have to try it with FFs.


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## Derek Benson (Feb 19, 2004)

I am with Corey, no ice berg lettuce. I have a russina tortoise and our fridge is also full of veggies, greens, etc. Mym mom has figured out that romaine is actually a very good lettuce, so she uses it quite a bit. A lot better for you as well.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

*Veggie bin*

I'm still trying to convince my mom about iceburg lettuce, she doesn't seem to understand why I'm disgusted with her iceburg lettece salad! She thinks I turned into a health nut... until she sees me scarf half a large pizza...

Lol, herps and their food items for a healthier diet!


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2004)

After reading this I went out to buy some peat moss and put it in a small gladware container and then place that in the 10 gal for my crickets to lay there eggs in. After about 5 minutes I went back and saw that there were alot of the crickets already laying there eggs.... What I was curious about was how would you incubate them or how long would it take for them to hatch out?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

*cricket incubation*

You can stick the eggs in either a warm part of the house, or sit them on a heat pad/heat tape (this is what I do). They should start hatching out 10-14 days later, just make sure the dirt doesn't dry out. I use little gladware containers with a large hole cut in the lid (around 1/3 of it) and use the fruit fly cloth I got from ED's (which they aren't selling anymore I think, but you can find it at a craft store). Or you could fill the hole with the sponges used for fruit fly cultures. This allows a little bit of air flow so the eggs don't fungus over but don't dry out too quickly either.


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## dartsanddragons (Jun 6, 2004)

I use Superwormfarm and pay 10.00 for a thousand and have had great service. I also use the peat for the eggs and breed thousands of pinheads from one thousand Crickets and feed out the rest to the Geckos and dragons. Since the others have to eat anyway I consider this free food.


Scott


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