it does then their care
and maintenance sched-
ule needs to be reviewed
and adjusted. This is not
only of aesthetic
importance, because a
cricket box with a strong
smell is indicative of
problems that will affect
the health of the insects
within. At the very least,
this could lead to a
financial loss consisting
of the crickets you have
purchased, and at worst
it could result in
detrimentally affecting
the animals they are
being fed to. Maximizing
ventilation and reducing
stress by avoiding over-
crowding is essential to
keeping these insects
healthy. Crickets will
quickly succumb in a
stale, damp microclimate and will resort to widescale
cannibalism if too many are held together or insufficient
hiding places are provided. Maintaining your crickets in a
box without a lid is easy, as they can’t climb smooth
plastic and, although they are good jumpers, they tend to
‘Crickets are high in protein
and roughage, particularly
the adults that have
fully-developed wings.’
leap more horizontally than vertically. So long as the egg
cartons, cardboard rolls, etc. used for hiding places are
not built up too high, escapees are usually few and far
between. If you have to use a lid, make sure most of it
comprises a fine mesh such as aluminium insect mesh;
don’t use the fibreglass mesh, as crickets will quickly
chew through this.
From a nutritional perspective, crickets are sometimes
regarded as a second-rate live food for reptiles and
amphibians, and it is true that there are other readily-
available live foods that may offer higher proportions of
certain nutrients. Mealworms are higher in fat, which is
important when conditioning sick or malnourished
animals, but have other issues with their levels of
indigestible material. Calci Worms (the larvae of the
Black Soldier Fly, Hermetia illucens) and Wood
Cockroaches (Nauphoeta cinerea) have a better
calcium:phosphorus ratio, which is advantageous for
bone development and maintenance and egg production,
but these may have palatability issues with some animals
and have their own issues with handling. On the plus
side, crickets are high in protein and roughage,
particularly the adults that have fully-developed wings.
Some keepers remove adult crickets’ hind legs before
feeding out in case they cause problems with digestion,
or will only use younger, softer-bodied crickets for the
same reason. My personal belief is that this is totally
unnecessary provided the size of cricket is appropriate to
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