feeding live foods

[festaedan]

So I was inspired by mikes great speech and I thought I should start a colony of crickets and a colony of worms, probably red wigglers or night crawlers. I set up the cricket enclosure this morning an just got the crickets. They are in a large critter keeper (upgrading to a larger setup in the near future) with a substrate of shredded news paper, there are 4 caves -3 are just a paper towel tube cut into thirds and the other is a tupperwear- , a plastic clamshell thing, and a large piece of cardboard. There are about 20 medium sized crickets already inside. Food wise I'll throw in some orange peel or uneaten fruits. I havn't started the worm culture yet. I wanted to know if I should do anything differently.

Thank you and pics coming soon.

 

[chriscoli]

For the worms, go red wigglers....do not use nightcrawlers. Red wigglers overall like the company of other red wigglers, and can tolerate being kept at high densities.

Nightcrawlers are "solitary worms" and won't be happy in a worm bin. They'll find ways to escape.

Also, when you set up the worm bin....do some reading about what conditions to keep them in. There are some foods that worms HATE and you may end up with the bin either becoming stinky or worms leaving the bin. Citrus is one example. red wigglers don't like citrus. They LOVE used coffee grounds, but too much can make their bin too acidic, so those should be occasional treats....not their staple diet. They're really easy to raise as long as you follow some general guidelines.

 

[dogofwar]

+1 on red wigglers.

They really don't require much care if you set them up right...

Mine are going nuts on some corn rinds, shredded junk mail and banana peels...

Matt

 

[jonclark96]

Not sure on the cricket keeping. I know there are a few club members who keep reptiles as well that may have some good advice. There was a recent thread where Sam (at least I think it was her) described her set ups for breeding roaches and fruit flies for her reps.

 

[festaedan]

where can you purchase red wigglers?

 

[chriscoli]

where can you purchase red wigglers?

Online....I got mine from Uncle Jim's on Amazon. I started with 2 lbs....and keep in mind, a pound of worms is about 1000 worms. You can start with fewer worms in a smaller container. Lots of people do. I wanted my worm bin to be up and running fast, so I started with a lot.

 

[festaedan]

right that worm bins need to be like 10 gallons or could I get away with smaller?

 

[chriscoli]

I think people do them in all sizes. I have a "worm factory 360" but I know people who have started them in bins not much bigger than a plastic sweater box. I'm sure there's some benefit to having a larger bin, but with these guys...I'd say that a small to medium bin is better than no bin at all.

 

[Becca]

I used to keep crickets when I was breeding bearded dragons. The general rule is to gut load them on a high-quality food suitable for what they're being eaten by so, in your case, fish food.

I'd suggest lining the bottom of your enclosure with paper of some sort (not newspaper because it can be toxic), or something else that is easy to scoop out quickly, otherwise you'll have crickets EVERYWHERE.

When you clean them, put their enclosure in a large rubbermaid tub with high sides - this will decrease the odds of losing them in the house. If you add a small container of dirt in your cricket enclosure (ziploc sandwich box), they may reproduce in there. Baby crickets are small and make great food for baby animals of all sorts.

Your crickets will need to be cleaned at least once a week, depending on population density, and they WILL stink. They will also chirp incessantly.

In addition to food, they need water. You can buy gel water or you can provide a dish with a natural sponge to prevent drowning (they are dumb and will drown, plus water spills, dampness=stink, etc.).

Always keep them in a container that is well ventilated. That said, if they breed, you might want to make sure it's not too easy for young, tiny crickets to slip out of the vents.

 

[festaedan]

Thanks, substrait wise does paper towel work, also how big of a container should I use, where would I buy jell water, and would they be ok outside for the summer and in the garage for the winter?

 

[Becca]

Thanks, substrait wise how big of a container should I use, where would I buy jell water, and would they be ok outside for the summer and in the garage for the winter?

How cold does your garage get? I would keep them in the garage in the summer, or at least out of the sun - just remember how hot a container can get with sun beating down on it.

I used to use rubbermaid bins - I think the base was about 12x24, but I also used to get boxes with HUNDREDS of crickets - HUNDREDS.

The paper towel rolls will get stinky, too, so save up paper towel rolls, egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, etc., and change them out frequently.

Here's are links to some cricket water/ food+water combos.

http://www.amazon.com/Zilla-11733-C...&qid=1379284946&sr=8-2&keywords=cricket+water

http://www.amazon.com/Flukers-16-Ou...&qid=1379284946&sr=8-1&keywords=cricket+water

http://www.amazon.com/Flukers-Orang...8&qid=1379285059&sr=8-2&keywords=cricket+food

http://www.amazon.com/Flukers-Hi-Ca...8&qid=1379285059&sr=8-1&keywords=cricket+food

There are a couple of reasons for the high calcium content of some of the foods -
Crickets need calcium for their exoskeleton but, more importantly, captive reptiles (usually what is consuming crickets) have a lot of trouble getting enough calcium. Like other animals, reptiles need vitamin D to absorb calcium this, and being cold blooded, is part of why they spend so much time basking in the sun- unlike other animals, getting it through their food is not nearly as effective as basking. Though basking lamps have gotten better in recent years, to play it safe foods for reptiles (and gut loads for live reptile foods) are high in calcium.

I'm not sure if it will impact your fish at all to give them crickets fed a diet high in calcium, but I would say you don't need to. Instead, fresh fruits and veggies with some high quality fish food would probably work well. If it's just fish food you might get obese crickets... not sure how that works with an exoskeleton, but it doesn't sound pretty!

 

[festaedan]

Thank you so much, the container they will be in is opaque, and in the garage the coldest it will get is low 50's to high 40's.