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We have added this information because we have gotten so many inquiries about how to keep crickets alive and well and how to house them.

This information is being provided to let our customers know how we care for our crickets and to offer helpful advice and recommendations.

You can purchase crickets in bulk by ordering from many of the cricket farms directly. See our Reptile Vet, Food, Supply webpage for a listing of several of the cricket farms we have used or go to our links webpage.

Ghann's Cricket Farm, located in August, GA is the sole provider of crickets for Georgia Bearded Dragons. They are "pest free" meaning they don't have the bothersome beetles, fuzzy worms and spiders that plague many cricket breeders. Ghann's ships all over the country and internationally.

Ghann's Crickets is the only cricket breeder in the Southest that sells crickets boxed in a quantity of 250 crickets. This is ideal for the private bearded dragon owner. They also offer crickets in boxed quantities of 500 or 1,000.

Ghann's "cricket care" and contact information is located on the link listed right below as well as being listed on our links webpage.

Ghann's Cricket Farm
1-800-476-2248
websales@ghann.com

For great cricket care information direct from a "professional cricket breeder" visit Ghann's website for more info on cricket needs at this link. You will need to copy and paste the link into your address bar.

http://www.ghann.com/insect_care.cfm


If you feed and water your crickets properly they will last a long time and you won't have to buy crickets as often. The other advantage is they come directly to you either via UPS, FedEx or DHL. Saves you those frequent extra trips to the local pet store to buy crickets. The crickets at the pet store are usually not fed or watered properly so they die off very soon.

We keep our crickets in clear plastic bins like the Sterilite bins you can purchase at WalMart as well as using the specially designed cricket bins that Armstrong Crickets has available. If using Sterilite Bins from Walmart you do not want to put a lid on them. The crickets cannot jump out or climb out because the sides are slick. You can purchase special "cricket bins" from Armstrong Cricket Farm. They come in kits in two different sizes. Just call 1-800-658-3408 to request a copy of their catalog or to order a cricket bin. These bins come with a screen top and have roughed-up sides partially up the sides of the bin. The roughed-up sides gives your crickets more places to climb without escaping and allows you to house a higher number of crickets in a bin than a Sterilite bin from WalMart.

No substrate is needed for keeping your crickets.

When your crickets arrive and you open the box you will see that they have egg cartons inside the box as well as a potato chunk. Remove the potato chunk and discard it. Shake your crickets out of the box into the bin you will be housing them in.

Tear the egg cartons into several smaller chunks and place them in the bottom of the bin. These egg cartons are important for providing housing, climbing and hiding places for the crickets to live. You can also save toilet paper and paper towel rolls and place them in the bin for the crickets to climb on and climb in. It is best to place the paper rolls in the bin on top of the egg cartons at an angle so the debris will not collect in the towel roll but will fall to the bottom of the bin. When you get ready to collect your crickets to feed your dragon all you have to do is to have your large plastic cup "cricket cup" ready and shake the towel rolls or the egg cartons over the top of the cup and the crickets will fall into the cup. This way you really don't have to handle the crickets at all. Be sure to have added your calcium and multivitamin dust to your cup so you can dust your crickets before feeding them to your dragon.

We also use Parazap, an "all-natural herbal supplement" that aids in the elimination of parasites. We use the Parazap as a dust on the crickets with the calcium and multivitamin. It only takes a little bit of Parazap dust used in conjunction with your calcium and multivitamin supplements.

To keep your crickets alive and healthy you must feed and water them. You want fat healthy yummy crickets for your dragons to eat so it is essential that you supply your crickets with a good source of food and water. This is called "gut-loading".

We have used several different ways of feeding our crickets. We have listed these different ways below. They all work well - just letting you know that you do have options.

We feed our crickets flaked baby cereal. We use the Gerber Mixed Grain and Oatmeal flakes. This is the cereal that would normally be used to mix in with baby formula for human babies. You will feed the crickets the dry flakes. Just get a jar lid and fill with flaked cereal and place in the bottom of the bin. This will provide your crickets with a very nutritious diet which will be good for your dragons.

You can also feed your crickets the same greens and veggies that you feed your dragon. Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, squash, zucchinni, carrots, apple, etc. It is best not to use potato as it is such a starchy vegetable.

You can also purchase "cricket chow" from your cricket supplier. The cricket chow is a grain mixture that the cricket farms use to feed the crickets. I would recommend if purchasing this try to purchase in bulk as you will go through a lot of it in a short amount of time.

Another way we feed our crickets is to use the bearded dragon pelleted food that you buy at the pet store. Although we don't raise our dragons on these pellets, from time to time we do use them to feed our crickets. This is because, on occasion, manufacturers of dry pelleted food for bearded dragons have sent us large bags of their product. Since we do not feed pelleted food to our dragons we feed it to our crickets. All you need to do is have a jar lid, put just enough pelleted food in there to almost fill the lid then ad water to moisten the pelleted food. The crickets just love this and you will see that they climb all over it to eat it.

SURPRISE: We have just found another way to feed our crickets. We recently purchased a large 50 pound bag of high end tortise food. We have a Herman's Tortise and thought he might like it. Turns out the food is to big for his mouth - it is the size of large dog food balls. So, we decided to see if the crickets would like it. Well, they love it. Since bearded dragons and tortises eat a similar diet we knew the tortise food would be put to good use. We just place a pile of tortise food balls in a jar lid and then poured water over it to saturate the food and make it soft for the crickets to eat.

To provide your crickets with water you can purchase a water gel substance at most pet stores or through your cricket supplier. This comes in a jar and is called "cricket gutload". Just place a large spoonful in a jar lid and place in the bottom of the bin. Refill as necessary.

From time to time you will need to clean out the skin sheds that the crickets make. Crickets shed as they grow into adults. Armstrong Cricket Farm sells a small little whisk broom and dust pan set that is perfect for sweeping up the sheds and disposing of them.

You can call Armstrong at 1-800-658-3408 to order one. You can also try finding a small size whisk broom and dust pan set at a dollar store or other inexpensive retail store.

 Keeping a clean cricket bin will go a long way towards providing a good environment so your crickets will remain healthy and stay alive longer until you have feed them off.

Contact information for Armstrong Cricket Farm is listed right below. This is a good place to get your whisk broom/dust pan set that is the ideal size for cleaning crickets bins. They also have really nice cricket bins available for housing large volumes of crickets. These bins come in two sizes.

Armstrong Cricket Farm
1-800-658-3408
cricket44@alltel.net