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Spring Bloom   Savannahmonitorlover   Spring Bloom   Savannahmonitorlover

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#2266335 Spring Bloom View Profile	Freshly hatched pinheads We began incubating cricket eggs about a month ago due to our ever growing need for feeders. Today the first hatchlings have emerged from their Tupperware dishes. Wow, are they ever small! I have 2 tiny crickets the size of sesame seeds roaming around their little enclosure. I am so excited that they began hatching before our baby fence lizards arrived. I was beginning to worry that I would have no food for the babies, as our pet store does not carry pinheads. Anyone that may be considering raising/growing their own feeders; I highly recommend it. They are incredibly easy to raise/grow. There are dozens of videos on youtube that will show you how to do it.
05/14/12  09:27am
#2266685 Savannahmonitorlover View Profile	Message To: Spring Bloom   In reference to Message Id: 2266335  Freshly hatched pinheads Could u explain to me how you did it ive been trying with no such luck.
05/17/12  01:46pm
#2266703 Spring Bloom View Profile	Message To: Savannahmonitorlover   In reference to Message Id: 2266685  Freshly hatched pinheads We have a large glass fish tank that we keep the crickets in. You will want to get about a dozen large crickets; the small ones are too young to mate. Get about 4 Tupperware dishes about the size used for sandwiches. “Glad” and “Zip lock” brand makes some cheap disposable ones that are good. Use a sewing needle and a candle to melt 100-200 tiny holes into the lid. Add some dirt (About an inch) to the dish and get it wet. You want the dirt to be wet but not muddy. Most people use potting soil because it is bug free. We used some fine coconut husk substraight that I thought was a bit to dirty for the lizards but worked great for the crickets. Put the dirt filled dish in the tank with the adult crickets (Don’t put the lid on yet). They will lay their eggs in it. Mist the dirt daily to keep it moist. Keep it in with them about 2 weeks and then put a new dish with new dirt in with the crickets. Take the egg filled dish out; put the lid that has the holes on it; you won’t need to mist it daily with the lid on it but check it every few days to make sure it is still moist; you need to put the dish someplace really warm like an incubator. We set ours on top or the light fixture to our lizard cage. Some people have suggested putting it on top of your computer tower or Xbox if you use them a lot. You could use a heating lamp. The eggs will take about 7 weeks to hatch, so if you had it with the large crickets for 2 weeks, you will see pinheads in 5 weeks. It is important that the dirt be moist and not muddy. Muddy will drown the pinheads. As soon as the first pinhead hatches you will need to feed them. Do not feed them before the first hatches or the food will mold. We use “Fluker’s high calcium Cricket Diet”. It is made from pulverized oatmeal and other grains, so you could just use uncooked oatmeal that you have mashed up to a powder. Put the hatching dish into a second fish tank; don’t put them with your adult crickets or they will get eaten. The pinheads will continue to hatch for the next 2 weeks so keep the dish warm and moist until you are certain they are all hatched. They can’t jump high when they are that small so you don’t have to worry about them escaping the fish tank. If you have put a new dish of wet dirt with the adults every 2 weeks, you will have a new dish of hatching crickets to put in the second tank, every 2 weeks. You will want the second fish tank to hold up to 4 hatching dishes at a time. Remember to keep that tank warm with a warming light or under tank heater. It needs to be ‘Summer time’ warm (85-90 degrees). Also remember to mist them daily once they start hatching and you have removed the lid off the dish. It sounds harder than it is. They are easier to breed than lizards. Type “breeding crickets” into the search engine on youtube for lots of videos about it.
05/17/12  05:12pm
#2266706 Savannahmonitorlover View Profile	Message To: Spring Bloom   In reference to Message Id: 2266703  Freshly hatched pinheads Thankyou :) I really needed to knowv how to do it.
05/17/12  06:53pm

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