At pet stores, it can cost $1 per dozen crickets to feed your lizard or bearded dragon - and they can go through a dozen or two a day!

You can raise your own crickets - they reproduce like crazy!

And not only feed YOUR pets, but sell them to pet stores as well.

Lizard Food

Very easy system that takes 5 minutes a day to l do.

Raising crickets for lizard food - free!

And you can make a good income selling the crickets to fellow pet owners and pet stores!

Lizard Food

Breeding crickets can be fun and easy. Many people have been buying crickets from pet stores for years. The money spent could easily add up to hundreds of dollars in a year. Breeding crickets isn't all that hard with a few simple rules and methods. In this article I will explain briefly how to breed crickets at home.

First you will need a container for the breeding colony. I like to use large plastic storage containers. The Rubbermaid kind work great and are under $10 at most retail stores. You will need to make some holes in the lid for circulation. I make about 20 holes with a soldering iron. A drill bit works fine as well.

Now a very critical area is temperature. The crickets have to be kept between 75 and 80 degrees. They will live at lower temperatures but their reproduction slows down and will even stop. I keep my colonies in the closet of my spare bedroom. If you can't keep them in the house because of their sound or a frightened family member you could keep them i the garage. But you will need to provide a heat source in the winter. What i have done in the past is place a medical heat pad under the container. Another thing you can try is cutting a hole in the lid and placing a light bulb through he lid. the light will provide enough heat for your crickets.

Now for shelter within the container. The best thing to use is egg cartons. They provide a ton of hiding places and increase your floor space. You could also use toilet or paper towel rolls. These can roll around though and kill some crickets.

Feeding your crickets the right diet is crucial. Mating and egg laying will drain your female crickets if they do not have a high protein diet. I give my crickets cheap dog or cat food. I also provide my crickets with vegetables once a week. You will need to be very careful that the veggies you provide don't have pesticides on them. I have found that growing my own is the easiest way to do this. I grow mustard and collard greens in my flower beds and give them to my crickets. I provide water in a shallow jar lid with pea gravel on the bottom. This prevents smaller crickets from drowning.

Now all you have to do is provide a place for the females to lay their eggs. Place a small sandwich storage container filled with moist vermiculite on the bottom of your container. Your females will start to dig and lay eggs immediately. Now you can either remove the container and place it in another container until the baby crickets hatch or you can leave it in with the large crickets.

That's all it takes to breed your own crickets at home. Feel free to check out our site for more detail about breeding crickets.

Learn more about raising and breeding crickets

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When feeding crickets to your reptiles or other pets there are a few things you nee to do to ensure the best nutritional value. Remember you are what you eat. There is a huge advantage to keeping the crickets at home or breeding your own allowing you to "gut load" them before you feed them to your pet. Simply put, gut loading is feeling your feeder insects healthy food before you offer them to your reptiles. The large commercial breeders that supply most pet stores feed their crickets the cheapest food they can find. While these foods will keep the crickets alive they do little if anything for your pet reptiles.

There are products available on the market that are especially made to gut load crickets. For the most part these products are good quality and get the job done. Keep in mind that these products are not cheap though. I have been gut loading my crickets without theses products for years. I provide a small dish full of dry dog or cat food. I sprinkle a bit of reptile vitamins and calcium on this. I also give me crickets vegetables like mustard, and collard greens, kale, squash and peels from fruits like papaya, apples, and pears. You can also offer fish flakes (their favorite).

The key is to provide your pet reptiles the best most balanced diet possible. The bigger wider the variety of foods you feed your crickets you will accomplish this task without a lot of work. Remember you don't have to break the bank to gut load your crickets. Simply feed them your leftover scraps from the fruit and vegetables that your family eat.

I will provide some links on my site to products that I have used over the years with much success. As well as where you can find inexpensive crickets.

Learn more about raising and breeding crickets

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Devin_Price