Cricket breeding set up.

[Ryan-James]

Just wanted to share this, thanks to gleaning info from old posts on here I haven't bought feeder crickets in 2 months, followed advice from @Flaviemys purvisi and @dragonlover1 and others now Ive got my system down pat and have hundreds of excess crickets. Livefoods unlimited have had on going issues with disease and nothing available for months and months and now Pisces have announced they will be temporarily pulling supply from all stores including Petbarn for at least 8 weeks.
Anyways, I just keep them on paper towel, replace the food once a week, keep them as clean as I would keep my frogs and have never had an issue with smell, they've stopped dying and i have zero issues with grain mites using this system.

So, In the breeding tubs I have 20-25 females with 3 or 4 males like this...

I leave the 2 egg laying tubs in for 3 days and then take them out and put into separate containers, in around 12 days I generally hatch around 200-400 pinhead crickets from the egg laying tubs, like this...

From there they go into grower tubs until I have around 2000, like this...

From there they go into the next sized tub like this.....
And it isn't until you actually look under the crates that you can appreciate the sheer volume of crickets being produced like this ....

I use one single heat cord to run the whole system and I'm stoked, I don't have to deal with woodies at all and saving $120 + on feeders every month, so has definitely been worth the effort.
Cheers

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Proper setup mate, going full self-sufficient, no stopping you now. When you nail crickets, woodies are not even a challenge by comparison. I ended up with way more cricketss and woodies than I could ever use.

 

[dragonlover1]

nice work mate, looks like you've nailed it.
Will you be selling some to cover costs ? You could be the next big thing
What are you using in the laying tubs ? I have seen some people using wet sponge

 

[Ryan-James]

Nah no real intention of selling any atm just glad I don't have to stress about getting feeders.
Laying tub substrate is river sand and peat mix, sponge wouldn't be a bad idea as the males end up digging up and eating a fair few eggs

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Nah no real intention of selling any atm just glad I don't have to stress about getting feeders.
Laying tub substrate is river sand and peat mix, sponge wouldn't be a bad idea as the males end up digging up and eating a fair few eggs

I used damp coir peat for females to lay in and the laying tubs where just chinese style takeway containers. The laying tubs were kept separate from the main colony and only females were placed in it and returned to the colony when done.

 

[Ryan-James]

Bit of an update on this, its going like a well oiled machine and havnt had to buy feeders for months and months, occasionally the adult breeders still die off for no particular reason but I have a constant supply ready to replace those guys.
Very occasionally we still get grain mites appear in the tubs but have a system to get rid of them too. I've changed the cricket food to an organic chicken grower crumble at 18% protein and every second day we give them high end tropical fish flakes as a gutload.
The photos dont do it justice to the sheer numbers being produced and at the moment it feeds 43 frogs and a colony of tree skinks very well with spare crickets left over.
Cheers for looking

 

[user 23122]

I have a dozen cricket keepers on a heat rack vertically stacked cardboard, repashy bug gel , banana peel etc I check them daily they are kept on vermiculite I have bred several colonies this year but I am still buying bulk that bloody cricket virus once its in your collection you may as well start again I still end up with tons of dead stinky crickets, after refining my methods all year I have just about had enough of them only thing is I have 15 monitors to feed and crickets are their favourite staple I suppose my question is how do you stop them dying once they start its like they go black and totally rancid in a 24 hour period

the virus must be nation wide because most large scale cricket breeders in qld have stopped selling while they build up stock

 

[Herpetology]

I have a dozen cricket keepers on a heat rack vertically stacked cardboard, repashy bug gel , banana peel etc I check them daily they are kept on vermiculite I have bred several colonies this year but I am still buying bulk that bloody cricket virus once its in your collection you may as well start again I still end up with tons of dead stinky crickets, after refining my methods all year I have just about had enough of them only thing is I have 15 monitors to feed and crickets are their favourite staple I suppose my question is how do you stop them dying once they start its like they go black and totally rancid in a 24 hour period

the virus must be nation wide because most large scale cricket breeders in qld have stopped selling while they build up stock

its because once biosupplies and pisces gets hit with issues, that removes 99% of pet stores supply, then everyone rushes to smaller breeders who claim they can support new customers, then they get hit with a big order and bam theyre out of stock aswell.

its also not a virus atm, Biosupplies had humidity issues with their room controllers causing mass die off. Pisces flooded.

I definitely recommend woodies over crickets... almost 0 die off in weeks apart from a few adults that were on their way out

 

[user 23122]

Yeh got a colony of woodies going they are easy as definitely handy to have atm

 

[Tobe404]

Just on this... I have a colony of Woodies going as well

Mainly just give them veggie scraps and that's been sustaining them for years. I will also occasionally sprinkle calcium/vitamin supplements over their food.

Anything else I could or should add?

PS: Most times I buy crickets from Pet Shops they're half gone already of all die within a few days. I just don't buy them anymore.

Cheers.

 

[Herpetology]

Anything else I could or should add?

I just use takeaway containers of Bran, if it’s dry in the room I’ll add a piece of carrot, if it’s humid they don’t get any wet food

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Just took a video of my woody Colony now for you good folks... I started this colony in April of 2012 with a pack of 30 woodies... this colony is now 10 years and 6 months old.


About to go and feed them now from the kitchen compost container. Left over - over ripe apples, pears and bananas from last week's grocery shop.

 

[user 23122]

pretty sure woodies are better than crickets any way in the nutritional dept I have a pair of various bushi that's taken a liking to them problem is lizards love crickets way too much I intend to get all my monitors onto woodies as a staple and phase out crickets to minimum sick of paying for them every week and I am sick of watching them die. I set up a tub this week very similar to the ones in this post and I am still having dead young crickets appear every morning. not only are they dead but some go brown and are stinky and rotton in a short period of time. I don't think its my methods it must be the stock every cricket breeder up here has none at the moment so I am guessing I am not the only one struggling to keep them healthy

 

[Getting Hooked]

Bit of an update on this, its going like a well oiled machine and havnt had to buy feeders for months and months, occasionally the adult breeders still die off for no particular reason but I have a constant supply ready to replace those guys.
Very occasionally we still get grain mites appear in the tubs but have a system to get rid of them too. I've changed the cricket food to an organic chicken grower crumble at 18% protein and every second day we give them high end tropical fish flakes as a gutload.
The photos dont do it justice to the sheer numbers being produced and at the moment it feeds 43 frogs and a colony of tree skinks very well with spare crickets left over.
Cheers for looking
View attachment 334298

Thanks for sharing Ryan

 

[Ryan-James]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!