Cricket Care
A few recommendations for keeping crickets:
- A clean dry ventilated box is needed to put the crickets in. The large tote bins being sold by big box stores work fine, though I would add additional ventilation. The “Cricket House” (23”x 13.5”x11”) is big enough for 1-2,000 adult crickets and a tote bin (4’ x 2’) should be big enough for 5,000 adult crickets.
- Put plenty of egg flats or empty paper towel tubes in the cricket box so crickets have places to crawl and hide. The paper towel tubes also work well for shaking the crickets into a measuring tube or smaller container.
- Water is critical. Provide good clean water at all times. Dirty nasty water is usually the source of unpleasant cricket box odors. Make sure the crickets have a way to crawl out of the water as they will drown if they can’t crawl out. Many items are available including a water tray and plastic insert, water crystals, gravel and cotton fiber (there are advantages and disadvantages to all).
- Temperature is next on the list of importance. The small crickets (½” and smaller) do best in temperatures between 80 – 90 degrees F. The larger crickets last longer with temperatures between 70 – 80 degrees F.
- Food is definitely important, especially for the small crickets. The crickets are raised on a high protein cricket meal suited for healthy growth. For sustaining crickets, plain cornmeal, powdered dog food or poultry mash works fine. The high protein/mineral “Gut-Loading” food can be added for a day prior to feeding the cricket to your pet but is not necessary for routine cricket feeding.
- Clean the cricket box before each new batch of crickets is added. If there is a big size difference between the crickets, the big ones will eat the smaller ones. Crickets molt several times during their growth. It is common to see empty exoskeletons after a molt and shouldn’t be confused with dead crickets.
