Cricket breeding question should i ?

[sinko562]

alright i have a 2 month old dragon about 8 inches now. um. i usually got my crickets from this pet shop arond the corner from my house 20 for $1 i always got like 100 for $5 a week supply. i ended up becoming cool with the owner and the owner just gave me this address to a cricket farm that he gets his crickets from which is about 5 miles from my house. i can get 500 crickets for $10.50 like i said i have a baby dragon and 500 crickets is about a month supply. and i always wanted to just breed cricekts and save money but im guessing $10 a month for 500 crickets isnt bad since if i were to breed i'd have to buy even more veggies, cat/dog food, plus lighting or heating pads to get it warm enough for them to breed, deal with them escaping, plus transfer the adults out of the tank so they dont eat the pin heads its alot of work and money just to breed them. so my question is should i breed or is $10.50 for 500 crickets a good deal?

 

[Denduran87]

A beardie that young should be eating well over 100 a week! my guy eats aboout 100 a day. Are you letting them eat as much as he can in a 10 minute period? Ckricket breeding would be cost effective for me but just too much of a hassle so i order them online. Dubias i hear are the way to go because they sustain their selves so well.

 

[sinko562]

oh i know shes suppose to be eating alot more but she doesnt eat much. i dont know why i use to throw 40 crickets in at once then she would eat 10 then the rest would die by the end of the day. so i only throw in about 20 a day thats all shell eats but shell eat veggies anytime i give it to her even though there are still crickets in the tank.

 

[Denduran87]

I would look at other stuff going on in the tank as far as light, heat, uvb because that is just no where near enough for it. I would try putting both the crickets and beardie in a seperate container for feedings and let them go at for 10 mins. Not in the tank that way they are easily available for it.

 

[sinko562]

well i use the power sun bulb. the mercury type lighting.. i mean shes 2 months and actually 9inchs. i read alot about people on this site that there dragon is like 6 months and barely 9inch so everything seems fine shes very very active maybe just doesnt like crickets i see alot of threads on this site saying there dragons completly stopped eating crickets so maybe that is a possiblity but still she very large for her age.

 

[Denduran87]

Thats on the smaller size actually. Mine is about the same age and is over 11 inches. But anyway one your post if thats really all shes eating then buying them would be cheaper than raising them. You would have alot of wasted crickets. I would consider dubias.

 

[sinko562]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! 2 months old and its over 11inches holy crap.. the pet store owner was suprised how big mine was wow when i brought it in it was like 4 inches bigger then the batch it came from that was still there.. even the breeders there said it was big for its age.. they all figured it was because the power sun bulb is super strong.. but damn i usually just toss 20ish in the tank at about 11am and that would be it.. i tried feeding her again i threw 10 in there she ate one only. and i never bought any dubia bettles i know there better then crickets but i have no idea where to get them. the pet store i buy my crickets from sell like 2 for $1 where do you get urs

 

[Denduran87]

Never gotten any but this is where i would if mine wasn't eating crickets.
http://www.westcoastroaches.com/

Here he is 2 nights ago.

and this is amonth ago when i got him

 

[sinko562]

man.. thats crazy... so you just feed him alot? i got the mecury light i cause i read alot of positive things about it about how hot it gets, and how the uvb rays can reach out to like 2 to 3 feet and i always use the calcium powder on all the crickets and even the veggies.. i wish i could force her to eat more but can really.. how come you dont feed yours the dubia bettles?

 

[sinko562]

i just measured her shes about 9.5 inches..

 

[Denduran87]

i just measured her shes about 9.5 inches..

Thats not that bad actually. They do grow at different rates. I keep mine at 105 at the basking spot, use a reptiglo 10.0 (for now till the reptisun 10.0 comes in) and i never feed him in his tank always a seperate container. My wife would probably flip if i got roaches unless he needed em, but a guy near me is selling for cheap so i might see if he likes them this weekend when shes outa town.lol He eats crickets really well and they have been doing really good for him. I dust his crickets with flukers calcium with d3 every morning and i give him repcal vitamins
every other morning. I made a shaker that i just put both powders in and dust them with both. I also put calcium in a spray bottle with water and mist his veggies with that.

 

[sinko562]

hmm i use sicky tongue farms miner-all. imma check out that repitcal vitamins and the dust with vitamin d thanks for the info let me know how your dragon likes the roachs. i want to feed him them to but there just to exspensive

 

[Denduran87]

will do. I hope it doesn't break him from his cricket habits though lol. Cus yea they are spendy, i've thought about breeding for a small side business with the prices people sell them at you could do really well.

 

[sinko562]

yea i wanted to breed crickets but i went to that bait store which had a cricket farm/super worms/ mealworms farm in the back it was like a giant room just for crickets smelled horrible i've watched youtube breeding videos and yea they cant capture the smell on tape plus i hear you cant stop crickets from escaping. ive been lucky the thousands ive bought none have escaped. i want to raise the dubias forsure but i was gonna wait til "Ms. Gaga" hit atleast a foot. so she could eat the grown dubias but looking at your dragon it doesnt look like they can even eat a full grown dubia yet. i dont want to breed just for the babies and all the adults just die off over time lol.

 

[Denduran87]

I've heard the babies are the best even for big beardies cus they are soft. But yea i would have an issue with them not getting eaten but at the same time when he turns mostly to green then what do i do let my colony over populate? I dunno i don't mind buying crickets by the 1000-2000 right now but they do escape often. My dog eats em though lol.