[SnufflePuff]

I know lots of people on here breed their own mealies (as do I) but does anyone breed their own crickets?

I help take care of the reptiles in my university's zoology department and they often forget to get them new crickets so a friend and I have decided to breed them in an old fish tank I have at home to make sure we always have food to feed them. Plus it would be nice to have some homegrown crickets for my hedgies too.

We bought a whole bunch of crickets from petland, let them loose in the tank with coconut fiber bedding, cat food, fresh fruit and water gel, as well as plently of cardboard to hide in. There is a reptile heating pad under their nesting area (under a cardboard carton/box) and I have even been misting the tank for extra moisture.

Well the crickets definitely bred (chirp chirp chirp :lol but now they have all died off (normal life expectancy has run out) and there is no sign of new life.

Am I doing something wrong? Does anyone have any tips? I have tried searching stuff up on the internet but I figure some real experience advice might help!

Thanks a bunch

 

[LizardGirl]

It looks like you were doing everything right for the eggs to hatch - keeping it warm, moist, etc.

How many females/males did you have in there? If there were a lot of males, do you think they could have gone and eaten all the eggs?

 

[SnufflePuff]

Hmm, that's an interesting point Lizardgirl. I didn't count all the crickets, but I did take a look to make sure there were enough males and females and if I remember correctly I think there were less males than females. But who knows they still could have eaten the eggs?

Is there anywhere to stop them from doing that?


I was also wondering can crickets be sterile? I know I tried starting my mealie farm with mealworms from petland and it failed. I've read that mealworms that are treated with certain growth hormones are sterile so I tried again with petsmart mealworms and had no problem at all. Do you know if the same thing can happen with crickets?

Thanks for all your help

 

[leannem]

I think a lot of people on the chameleon forum i belong to use a series of 3 tubs. One for breeding, one for holding eggs and one for holding feeders. Maybe try joining a herp forum and searching for some set ups.