Flukers High Calcium Cricket Diet
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@diane I will start by saying anything like food at a pet store is highly overly priced, and often not good for the animals, especially compared to simple and cheap ingredients you can do.
Crickets full of calcium are not really good to use as feeders for mantids. The calcium diet is for pet reptiles bone growth (snakes, lizards, etc), and is said to lead to health problems long-term in invertebrates such as a mantid that have a chitin exoskeleton.
That said nearly all foods have some level of calcium, so I have to wonder how much calcium Fluker truly pumps into the cricket food. To be honest I just use a food processor/grinder to grind cheap cat food up that the crickets love.
I get fancy and add other things as well into a homemade cricket mix, but is not necessary as the crickets can thrive off it alone. Crickets also love fish food flakes, so if you keep fish already is a good alternative (especially if bought in bulk for a cheap price). Also chicken food (egg layer crumbles) bought in a 50 pound bag for $15 or less, when ground will last crickets years. One other popular thing is rolled oats, aka old-fashioned breakfast oats, but one minute oats is nearly the same - again just grind them up.
The Flukers Cricket Quencher is nothing more than clear gelatin though (made with distilled water), and a waste of money, but some use it anyway to save the effort. For water you can offer your crickets pieces of fresh cut potatoes (also feeds them), carrots - food too (but some claim they are bad, I haven't had a problem but..), a easy to make self waterer, or now I use the small 1 quart chicken waterers (the bowl base and water jar) in my bins with plastic craft mesh over the bowl to keep the crickets from drowning.
The large cricket farms typically use chicken waterers too, but just wrap paper towel around the bowls to keep crickets from drowning (as seen on Mike Rowe's Dirty jobs show on Ghann's cricket farm, at least the DVD I got from Ghann's). I just find the paper towel is too messy, and the cheap white craft mesh sheets found in the Walmart sewing area works perfect and clean easy.
There are lots more information and ideas on the forum too about crickets, if you use the search function it will help you find it faster.
Crickets full of calcium are not really good to use as feeders for mantids. The calcium diet is for pet reptiles bone growth (snakes, lizards, etc), and is said to lead to health problems long-term in invertebrates such as a mantid that have a chitin exoskeleton.
That said nearly all foods have some level of calcium, so I have to wonder how much calcium Fluker truly pumps into the cricket food. To be honest I just use a food processor/grinder to grind cheap cat food up that the crickets love.
I get fancy and add other things as well into a homemade cricket mix, but is not necessary as the crickets can thrive off it alone. Crickets also love fish food flakes, so if you keep fish already is a good alternative (especially if bought in bulk for a cheap price). Also chicken food (egg layer crumbles) bought in a 50 pound bag for $15 or less, when ground will last crickets years. One other popular thing is rolled oats, aka old-fashioned breakfast oats, but one minute oats is nearly the same - again just grind them up.
The Flukers Cricket Quencher is nothing more than clear gelatin though (made with distilled water), and a waste of money, but some use it anyway to save the effort. For water you can offer your crickets pieces of fresh cut potatoes (also feeds them), carrots - food too (but some claim they are bad, I haven't had a problem but..), a easy to make self waterer, or now I use the small 1 quart chicken waterers (the bowl base and water jar) in my bins with plastic craft mesh over the bowl to keep the crickets from drowning.
The large cricket farms typically use chicken waterers too, but just wrap paper towel around the bowls to keep crickets from drowning (as seen on Mike Rowe's Dirty jobs show on Ghann's cricket farm, at least the DVD I got from Ghann's). I just find the paper towel is too messy, and the cheap white craft mesh sheets found in the Walmart sewing area works perfect and clean easy.
There are lots more information and ideas on the forum too about crickets, if you use the search function it will help you find it faster.
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diane
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Thank you so, so much for all of that information!! I have offered them potatoes in the past and will definitely do that again in addition to some of the other ideas you mentioned.
I make home made dog treats for my pups and have shared them with the crickets and they love them. I hope the ingredients are ok for the mantis. They are: sweet potato, rice flour, pumpkin, egg and maple syrup. I bake them and the crickets devour them. I always have them on hand so if those sound ok I can always feed them that too.
Again, thank you for the prompt and thorough answer. I just caught a house fly and a moth (I love how my Saturday evenings have become all about mantis care! ?) so I will offer one of those in a little bit.
I make home made dog treats for my pups and have shared them with the crickets and they love them. I hope the ingredients are ok for the mantis. They are: sweet potato, rice flour, pumpkin, egg and maple syrup. I bake them and the crickets devour them. I always have them on hand so if those sound ok I can always feed them that too.
Again, thank you for the prompt and thorough answer. I just caught a house fly and a moth (I love how my Saturday evenings have become all about mantis care! ?) so I will offer one of those in a little bit.
@diane Your welcome. Good, yes potatoes are really great and work for both food and water. Just use up what Fluker food/water you have left, no since wasting it, or gift to a friend with a reptile.
The dog treats you make sound fine and I can see why the crickets love them, I bet my dog would too. Just so you know crickets aren't really picky on food, just as long as it is ground or tiny in pieces they can eat it easily you'll be fine. Sounds like your a hands-on crafty person so your love the hobby, always something that can be made/modified/etc for many uses.
No problem, your welcome and I'm always more than happy to help. Ah a mantis favorite for sure a moth, so high in fat they are like junk food for them. The fly is a staple feeder for most keepers (easy to catch even with a cheap "kids" butterfly net or trapped outside) and buying pupae avoids the hassle of crickets or cockroaches. Glad to hear you give your mantis a varied diet, it is a great way to ensure your mantis nutrition needs are met, is happy, and you can find out what feeders it prefers.
As I haven't bother to show my cricket setup forever, and some things are bound to be unclear for you, I just took some photos of my adult cricket tank. It is a large plastic bin I got after Christmas for $8 and holds thousands of crickets easy (35" long x 19" wide x 13" tall). Any size container with airflow is fine for crickets, depending on how many you keep.
The bin has a large aluminum mesh opening for air (as they can chew threw plastic/fiberglass mesh). I have the bin sides covered in cardboard below the lid to keep the heat/light that sits on top from blinding the rest of my bugroom - it also helps keep heat in as well.
Inside the bin you can see two of my 1 quart chicken waterers (the bowl base and water jar) in my bin with plastic craft mesh in the bowl area. I also put cotton balls below the mesh to keep any small crickets from drowning between the gap, and keep the mesh at the proper height (water barely above the mesh, and they can drink through the mesh, but stops drowning). As the bin is slippery plastic I add a thin layer of the chicken egg layer crumbles or oats to give them traction to move around properly. I keep a reptile mealworm cup (as I have several) in there as feeding bowl, but any small cup works, and crickets are messy with it anyway. Then of course cardboard egg crates, cardboard tubes, etc for them to live and hide in.
The small deli cup full of moist dirt, with a cut lid holding a aluminum mesh cover is the crickets egg-laying container. It keeps the crickets from digging in the dirt, and the new pinhead crickets hatch and escape easily. Although I tend to swap out the container before they hatch to another bin, as adult crickets will eat the small crickets. The crickets lay some eggs in the waterers, but nearly 90%+ of the eggs are in the dirt cup.
As you can guess crickets can be as simple as a potato in a small tote to whatever you want. I got mine setup like I do as they are self-sustaining now (if not too many crickets at times), so I have crickets from pinhead to adult always around for any pet feeder size.
The dog treats you make sound fine and I can see why the crickets love them, I bet my dog would too.
Just so you know crickets aren't really picky on food, just as long as it is ground or tiny in pieces they can eat it easily you'll be fine. Sounds like your a hands-on crafty person so your love the hobby, always something that can be made/modified/etc for many uses. No problem, your welcome and I'm always more than happy to help. Ah a mantis favorite for sure a moth, so high in fat they are like junk food for them. The fly is a staple feeder for most keepers (easy to catch even with a cheap "kids" butterfly net or trapped outside) and buying pupae avoids the hassle of crickets or cockroaches. Glad to hear you give your mantis a varied diet, it is a great way to ensure your mantis nutrition needs are met, is happy, and you can find out what feeders it prefers.
As I haven't bother to show my cricket setup forever, and some things are bound to be unclear for you, I just took some photos of my adult cricket tank. It is a large plastic bin I got after Christmas for $8 and holds thousands of crickets easy (35" long x 19" wide x 13" tall). Any size container with airflow is fine for crickets, depending on how many you keep.
The bin has a large aluminum mesh opening for air (as they can chew threw plastic/fiberglass mesh). I have the bin sides covered in cardboard below the lid to keep the heat/light that sits on top from blinding the rest of my bugroom - it also helps keep heat in as well.
Inside the bin you can see two of my 1 quart chicken waterers (the bowl base and water jar) in my bin with plastic craft mesh in the bowl area. I also put cotton balls below the mesh to keep any small crickets from drowning between the gap, and keep the mesh at the proper height (water barely above the mesh, and they can drink through the mesh, but stops drowning). As the bin is slippery plastic I add a thin layer of the chicken egg layer crumbles or oats to give them traction to move around properly. I keep a reptile mealworm cup (as I have several) in there as feeding bowl, but any small cup works, and crickets are messy with it anyway. Then of course cardboard egg crates, cardboard tubes, etc for them to live and hide in.
The small deli cup full of moist dirt, with a cut lid holding a aluminum mesh cover is the crickets egg-laying container. It keeps the crickets from digging in the dirt, and the new pinhead crickets hatch and escape easily. Although I tend to swap out the container before they hatch to another bin, as adult crickets will eat the small crickets. The crickets lay some eggs in the waterers, but nearly 90%+ of the eggs are in the dirt cup.
As you can guess crickets can be as simple as a potato in a small tote to whatever you want. I got mine setup like I do as they are self-sustaining now (if not too many crickets at times), so I have crickets from pinhead to adult always around for any pet feeder size.
Teamonger
Well-known member
I caught one friend I sold a mantis to who also has a lot of reptiles dusting the crickets they were feeding the mantis out of habit. They had been worried the mantis was not molting at the usual intervals and I pointed out that too much calcium has been said to have negative effects on a mantis's molting. As soon as they stopped dusting the crickets the mantis got right back on track with normal molts.
While that's not overly scientific it seems to suggest that there is some truth to calcium being bad for mantises.
@CosbyArt You have your crickets breeding in there? I have had no luck breeding crickets myself. Do you have a supplementary heat source for the egg laying area? How do you keep the egg laying area's moist? My laying trays kept drying out no matter how many times I misted the darn things.
While that's not overly scientific it seems to suggest that there is some truth to calcium being bad for mantises.
@CosbyArt You have your crickets breeding in there? I have had no luck breeding crickets myself. Do you have a supplementary heat source for the egg laying area? How do you keep the egg laying area's moist? My laying trays kept drying out no matter how many times I misted the darn things.
diane
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Thanks again for all the information! That is a very impressive set up!
I'm going to stay away from the flukers with calcium. If there is anything I want to avoid its a problem with molting. I think we may only have one more molt left but I want to make sure its a successful one.
You guys are the best. Thank you for all the help!
I'm going to stay away from the flukers with calcium. If there is anything I want to avoid its a problem with molting. I think we may only have one more molt left but I want to make sure its a successful one.
You guys are the best. Thank you for all the help!
Yes adult crickets breed like mad on their own, like rabbits.
With my adult cricket bin I have tried various temperatures, and high 70's F seem to be the best to keep them self-sustaining and usable as feeders.Higher temps only helps pests such as mites and wild fruit flies multiply in huge numbers, and makes crickets molt faster and live shorter lives anyway. Lower temps seem to make crickets not as active and they do not produce as many health eggs for me at least. The higher than room temps do make crickets stink, I never noticed a smell before at room temps. So more frequently tank cleanings may be needed, or putting them somewhere it isn't a issue.
Related tidbit is to keep your crickets in a cool basement, the lower temperature makes them have much longer lives and prevents them from molting as fast. Useful for store bought crickets used to feed small mantids longer, before the crickets grow too big.
The egg laying is simply done in the dirt container I have setup for them, and replace weekly with a new one. It is just sphagnum peat moss/coconut fiber that soaks up water and holds it like a sponge (much better than anything else) and kept damp. Of course as you likely know the cricket eggs must be kept moist at all times otherwise they go bad. I simply pour some filtered water into the dirt container as needed while it is in the adult bin to allow it to collect eggs (which I add water about every 2 days into). My baby cricket bin is kept moist with a mist humidifier (tubed in) so it does not dry out there either (but not so much it molds), and the higher temperature in that bin (mid 80s F) help them to hatch quick.
Honestly the source of information that turned my cricket efforts into a self-sustaining colony came from a youtube video I saw from flyhigh747 (see below). I tried many other articles, books, videos, etc (step by step and altered) without any luck. Not sure what really made the difference for me after watching the video, but it was something I saw/heard in it. He gives some great starter tips and details, and by trial and error I altered things for my needs and what I already tried.
If you watch the video and have any questions I'll try and help you get your crickets to be a self-sustaining colony too, but it does take time and effort to dial in your setup/care with a few generations.
