Cannibal Crickets!

[Tropicok]

My reptile store sells the green cricket gel in a small condiment deli container so customers don't have to buy the big jar. Most of the time I put in a slice or two of raw potato for food and moisture. Dry dog food kibble and a baby chicken waterer from a hardware store can be use if you have lots of big crickets. Empty toilet paper rolls or cardboard egg boxes are to give them places to hide. Cricket keepers are for a just a few insects, they should not be crowded.

My problem is after raising the pinheads, is finding a container they can't crawl out of. I need to look for new sterilite boxes .... I believe they have slippery sides. Right?

[UncleChester]

My problem is after raising the pinheads, is finding a container they can't crawl out of. I need to look for new sterilite boxes .... I believe they have slippery sides. Right?

The containers I use for pinheads are very smooth plastic that's somewhat brittle. I've never seen a pinhead climb the wall.

I know adults can't climb clear packing tape, I use this near the top of my adult bin, which is a rough plastic. I'm not sure if this stops pinheads though. A line of Vaseline is another possible option, I haven't tried on crickets but it keeps ants out of the hummingbird feeder quite well.

[Deku]

Does it matter if it is cat food or dog food?

Yes it does. If you have cat crickets you feed it cat food. If you have dog crickets you feed it dog food. you can tell if the cricket barks or meow. Lolol

[Paul Rust]

I have about a dozen small and two large in a cricket keeper ever any issues. I feed Nature Zone brand Total Bites its food water and gutload in a lil green jell they go nuts for it and it smells like jello. I found it at my local petclub ( discount pet store). They have a dish to hide under plus the tubes that came with the keeper. Been in there for almost two months and so far no deads.

That sounds fine for small amounts of crickets. I usually have 500 adults in a bin and over 5000 pinheads in a bin. The more I can make and the less I have to spend, the better.

[bntz]

I'd like to share my opinion about cricket, my uncle used to breed them for his birds (cricket is the best food for twitter type bird and good for their voice). Cannibalism problem is simple, because the cricket source of food is all eaten. To prevent cannibalism, make sure the cricket always have something to eat. Try put out many dry leaf to make sure that the cricket have something to eat. If they can find anything to eat they'll eat each other. What crickets do in their whole life is eat and eat . That's way here in my country, crickets consider as pest.

I upload some photos from local cricket farms. As you can see that box full with dry leaf and also fresh food for the crickets and with so many dry leaf on the box it also provide hiding shade for the cricket. Remember that cricket love dark place. That is box for raising the young cricket into adult cricket.