DNADragons
Hatchling Member
Crickets can be a nutritious, tasteful and mentally stimulating staple-feeder insect for Bearded Dragons. Crickets are not only affordable but they are prolific and easily kept as long as a few provisions are given, and you include their maintenance in your regular cleaning routine. I use tall Rubbermaid containers as an enclosure. They are break proof, can handle temperature fluctuations and are easy to clean in the bathtub. Any container with smooth sides is adequate; aquariums, buckets, etc. Egg crates are easily found on the net.
To keep crickets alive in a way that they will thrive, four necessary conditions must be met. This will not only benefit your Bearded Dragon, but makes keeping crickets pleasant, even rewarding to some.
There is no specific order they must be met because they are all equally important.
Heat
Heat is very important because it directly affects the immune system of crickets. If heat is not provided their resistance to diseases and parasites will be greatly reduced. You can even say that the temperature of your cricket bin influences the health of your bearded dragon. The parasites your crickets have can infest your bearded dragons too.
Crickets thrive between 85 and 95 degrees. To achieve these temperatures two things are necessary; a thermometer, and a heat source. On top of a warm reptile cage works for some but was not an option for me. I use undertank heaters but a lamp or heat emitter are both viable options.
Food
Commercial diets are wonderful; however, a corn based meal is just as good. Chicken scratch and corn meal are the most widely used diets at cricket farms, both are also very inexpensive. Be sure to select natural varieties that are free of hormones and other suspicious chemicals.
Fruits, vegetables, and gut loads should be provided only as a supplement to the above diet. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide the much needed enzymes for the cricket’s digestion. Bearded dragons gain these enzymes by eating the crickets. In this way healthy crickets could actually encourage the dragons to eat their greens.
Water
Fruits and vegetables make no substitute when it comes to water. Fresh clean water should always be available to your crickets. Water absorbing polymers are great for providing your crickets with clean water. Building a cricket waterer is also very simple. Steven Barnes of Blood Bank Dragons once showed me this clever waterer.
The waterer functions as a suction/wick system. I do not add much water because I clean it out daily and it decreases the risk of a flood.
Instruction how to build this are below.
Hydrated crickets will appear bloated and when your dragons eat them they get juicy little bites of water that are healthy and tasty.
Maintenance
Daily and weekly maintenance is important for an odorless and healthy colony of crickets. With larger crickets this is very practical. Clean the waterer, freshen the veggies and remove the carcasses daily and sterilize the tub weekly.
If you follow this guide you will find that the buildup of carcasses is minimal. In any of my feeder bins I remove less than 1 or 2 a day, and this is from 2500 large crickets that I keep in each bin. Expect several deaths after you first acquire the crickets, then if cared for properly, you should have no more after a few days.
To make keeping crickets easier and more pleasant I keep them on a fine grain vermiculite substrate. It absorbs moisture and also helps keep the odor down. I never smell my cricket colonies. I have anywhere from 10-20,000 crickets at a time, in one room, and it is literally odorless. I replace vermiculite weekly, and a small bag will last a month or more. The benefits of the fine grain vermiculite extend beyond the moisture and odor control when it’s time to remove shed skin and carcasses because they can just be sifted out with a zoomed sand sifter. This process takes less than 5 minutes.
(I let this colony go a few extra days without cleaning, this also shows the dead carcasses from shipping for the dramatic photograph; otherwise I could just pick it out by hand.)
Construction of the waterer
Necessary items:
Straight edge
Razor
Paper towel or napkin
Large Deli cup
Pen or marker
Plastic sheet or lid from Rubbermaid container (you can also use a melamine square or anything alike that’s flat and non porous.
Steps:
Fold the napkin/paper towel into a square.
Cut a square slightly larger than napkin with razor blade from plastic. Use a straight edge to score the plastic several times, remove straight edge and press a bit harder to push through the plastic. If this lid is part of your cricket bin, choose the spot wisely and the whole can be a vent.
Put napkin on plastic square and put a small amount of water in deli cup (I don’t use much, because I clean it out daily)
Put the napkin side against the delicup and flip. Do this over the sink as a bit of water will spill out at first. Getting the napkin wet first will help reduce the mess. I do it over the sink so I am not worried about a little bit of spillage. The napkin may also become saturated the first time it gets wet, so you can take another napkin and dab it. It will regulate itself after this point.
To keep crickets alive in a way that they will thrive, four necessary conditions must be met. This will not only benefit your Bearded Dragon, but makes keeping crickets pleasant, even rewarding to some.
There is no specific order they must be met because they are all equally important.
Heat
Heat is very important because it directly affects the immune system of crickets. If heat is not provided their resistance to diseases and parasites will be greatly reduced. You can even say that the temperature of your cricket bin influences the health of your bearded dragon. The parasites your crickets have can infest your bearded dragons too.
Crickets thrive between 85 and 95 degrees. To achieve these temperatures two things are necessary; a thermometer, and a heat source. On top of a warm reptile cage works for some but was not an option for me. I use undertank heaters but a lamp or heat emitter are both viable options.
Food
Commercial diets are wonderful; however, a corn based meal is just as good. Chicken scratch and corn meal are the most widely used diets at cricket farms, both are also very inexpensive. Be sure to select natural varieties that are free of hormones and other suspicious chemicals.
Fruits, vegetables, and gut loads should be provided only as a supplement to the above diet. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide the much needed enzymes for the cricket’s digestion. Bearded dragons gain these enzymes by eating the crickets. In this way healthy crickets could actually encourage the dragons to eat their greens.
Water
Fruits and vegetables make no substitute when it comes to water. Fresh clean water should always be available to your crickets. Water absorbing polymers are great for providing your crickets with clean water. Building a cricket waterer is also very simple. Steven Barnes of Blood Bank Dragons once showed me this clever waterer.
The waterer functions as a suction/wick system. I do not add much water because I clean it out daily and it decreases the risk of a flood.
Instruction how to build this are below.
Hydrated crickets will appear bloated and when your dragons eat them they get juicy little bites of water that are healthy and tasty.
Maintenance
Daily and weekly maintenance is important for an odorless and healthy colony of crickets. With larger crickets this is very practical. Clean the waterer, freshen the veggies and remove the carcasses daily and sterilize the tub weekly.
If you follow this guide you will find that the buildup of carcasses is minimal. In any of my feeder bins I remove less than 1 or 2 a day, and this is from 2500 large crickets that I keep in each bin. Expect several deaths after you first acquire the crickets, then if cared for properly, you should have no more after a few days.
To make keeping crickets easier and more pleasant I keep them on a fine grain vermiculite substrate. It absorbs moisture and also helps keep the odor down. I never smell my cricket colonies. I have anywhere from 10-20,000 crickets at a time, in one room, and it is literally odorless. I replace vermiculite weekly, and a small bag will last a month or more. The benefits of the fine grain vermiculite extend beyond the moisture and odor control when it’s time to remove shed skin and carcasses because they can just be sifted out with a zoomed sand sifter. This process takes less than 5 minutes.
(I let this colony go a few extra days without cleaning, this also shows the dead carcasses from shipping for the dramatic photograph; otherwise I could just pick it out by hand.)
Construction of the waterer
Necessary items:
Straight edge
Razor
Paper towel or napkin
Large Deli cup
Pen or marker
Plastic sheet or lid from Rubbermaid container (you can also use a melamine square or anything alike that’s flat and non porous.
Steps:
Fold the napkin/paper towel into a square.
Cut a square slightly larger than napkin with razor blade from plastic. Use a straight edge to score the plastic several times, remove straight edge and press a bit harder to push through the plastic. If this lid is part of your cricket bin, choose the spot wisely and the whole can be a vent.
Put napkin on plastic square and put a small amount of water in deli cup (I don’t use much, because I clean it out daily)
Put the napkin side against the delicup and flip. Do this over the sink as a bit of water will spill out at first. Getting the napkin wet first will help reduce the mess. I do it over the sink so I am not worried about a little bit of spillage. The napkin may also become saturated the first time it gets wet, so you can take another napkin and dab it. It will regulate itself after this point.
