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Breeding Crickets By Heartmountain

Introduction

If you have several dragons, breeding crickets can be a real $$$ saver. I'd start off with at least a couple hundred adult crickets that you're not going to feed to your dragon and put them in there.

Cricket Enclosure

The first thing you need is a container to do this in, we like to use large Sterilite tubs. Get the clear ones, I've heard (never seen) that they can climb the colored ones. Put some egg cartons in the bottom. No lid or a screen lid is needed. I've found that the #1 killer of crickets is lack of ventilation. Ever since I've left the lids off I don't lose hardly any and don't worry, they can't get out.

Temperatures For Cricket Breeding

Temperatures should be in the 80's for best breeding activity. Luckily our feeder breeding room is already at that temp, but if need be, you can put a light on them.

Feeding and Hydration

I feed ours chicken laying mash which I grind up in a coffee grinder a bit first. You can also give leftover salad and oranges. For a water source I took an old peanut butter jar (plastic), drilled 4 holes in the lid, filled it up with water and inverted it on a plate with paper towels on it (Works great!!!). This also keeps your grain dry so you don't have to worry as much about it molding. Moldy grain should be removed immediately; it can carry a toxin that can harm your dragons. For the eggs you need a sandwich container. Drill 4 holes in the bottom (1 at each corner), fill it with moist peat moss (works the best so far), and place it in the tub on a piece of paper towel. You have to keep this moist, if it dries out the eggs will die. I try to spray mine down daily. Once a week I change this out, putting the container with all the eggs into a hatching tub (same setup, you could get away with a bit smaller tub though), remember to keep it damp. That's about it; you should have babies in a couple of weeks. But remember to save some back to keep your breeder supply going.