Tricia's Chinese Water Dragon, Reptile and amphibian care page

Cricket Care and breeding

Keeping and breeding Crickets is actually fairly easy. It might be a little noisy though - especially at night as that's when Crickets are awake and start chirping. LOL Below you'll find a step by step list that will help you keep crickets at home thus lowering the cost of feeding your reptiles and amphibians. Breeding seems to go along with keeping crickets as it happens without trying really - but you'll find some detailed information about breeding crickets below as well. Good Luck!

large deep Tupperware or deep rubbermaid container
Put lots of air holes in the lid, or cut out a large portion of the lid and use a hot glue gun to glue some fine window screening material to the inside of the lid around the hole.
Fill the bottom of the container with a substrate of rolled oats or bran- couple of inches deep. The crickets will eat this.
Put one or two small shallow dishes in the bottom of the container - I use the tiny tinfoil pie plates. Fill these dishes with a half potato, a chunk of carrot and if you like a 1/4 to a 1/2 of an orange. Other veggies can be used- they will eat these and get their moisture from them so you may want to also sprinkle the veggies and fruit with calcium and vitamin supplements so that the crickets will be a wonderful healthy meal for your dragon. :)
Get several pieces of old egg crate or even old toilet and paper towel rolls, put them in the container- these will be places for the crickets to hide. Its a must if you want the crickets to not fight and eat each other. Also the egg crate etc. can be lifted out of the container when the crickets are in the container and you can just use a piece of the egg crate to shake some crickets either directly into the dragons enclosure, or into a plastic bag to coat them with vitamins and calcium.
Now add your crickets to the container- they should be able to stay alive for quite a while when kept this way with proper ventilation.
Change the veggies every couple of days- they will go bad and mould- mould and dampness will kill the crickets.

Breeding Crickets

As I said above it's fairly easy to breed crickets. Those of you who have reptiles or amphibians that don't eat all of the live crickets that you put in their cages probably find that they eventually have a few baby crickets running around the cage after a while. Baby crickets are quite tiny and might be mistaken for a bug infestation in a herp cage - do check carefully if you see bugs in your herps cage and see if they really are crickets.

Below you'll find a detailed list for those who'd like to breed their own crickets. I do not recommend breeding them in the cage with your reptile or amphibian as your pets could be injured. Please breeding crickets in separate containers or bins as suggested below:

You can add a dish of moist soil to the container above- but you must keep the container of soil moist. The crickets will make a mess of this too and soon you will have soil in the oat or bran substrate- creating a breeding ground for moulds etc..
You can remove 6 to 10 crickets from the container and put them in another one that has soil that has been dampened in it. The crickets will mate and the females will lay up to 500 eggs each in the damp soil. After a week or so remove the adult crickets from this container (oh you should have been feeding them some veggies or fruit while they were in there too).
After the eggs have been laid keep the soil moist.
I think it takes about two weeks before you will start to see tiny little crickets emerge from the soil.
Make sure to provide food for the young crickets, and you can put some egg crate or toilet paper rolls in the container too for hiding places.
About three weeks after the small cricket first emerge they will be about half the size of adult crickets. You may remove them to another container at this time and start the breeding process with some adult crickets again if you like. Anyway- breeding crickets is easy- moist soil is the key. :)

Suppliers

Here is a link to a web site that lists cricket suppliers The information is organized in table form and it's very easy to compare prices, shipping charges, and other ordering information. Mealworms, superworms, etc. are also listed. is: Mail- order insect suppliers.

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Bug Books

Eat This Bug : A Guide to Invertebrate Live Foods for Reptiles and Amphibians by Lynn Davis

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This book is a guide for owners of reptiles and amphibians who feed insects and other live foods to their pets. Advice is offered for selecting , ordering and raising your own supply of live invertebrate foods. More than a dozen species of live foods are discussed. The book includes instructions on keeping cultures of insects, and recipes & diets for insects.

Are You Poisoning Your Pets?: A Guidebook to How Our Lifestyles Affect the Health of Our Pets

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Countless pets are poisoned each year, either suffering a sudden illness or death or encountering toxins on a daily basis that erode their health slowly and shorten their lifespan. This helpful guide tells how to guard against both kinds of poisoning and explains how to identify and remove such causes as cleaning products, paint and varnish, fumes, certain houseplants, and more.

A Field Guide to Common Animal Poisons

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A quick reference guide written for veterinary practitioners and students featuring complete information on animal exposure to toxins in common and uncommon situations. Murphy (toxicology, U. of Minnesota) supplies treatment regimes, and one to two page summaries of each toxin's attributes, diagnosis, and treatment. The guide also provides extensive bibliographic materials, and resource listings that include veterinary diagnostic laboratories and poison control centers in every state.

Water Dragon Books

Green Water Dragons, Sailfin Lizards and Basilisks (General Care and Maintenance of Series) by Philippe De Vosjoli

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Basic but detailed information about the care, diet, and health of green water dragons, sailfin lizards and basilisks.

Anoles, Basilisks, and Water Dragons Anoles, Basilisks and Water Dragons : A Complete Pet Care Manual (More Complete Pet Owner's Manuals) by Richard D. Bartlett, Patricia P. Bartlett (Contributor)

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Discussion of the general care of many species of anole, basilisks and water dragons. Excellent information regarding enclosures, cage building, and insect care and breeding.