1001Crickets

Food

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The idea behind food is consumption, right?   Crickets need to eat in order to grow.  If the food is not being consumed, what good is it?  Granted, if absolutely nothing else to eat, they will eventually eat to avoid starvation.  They also become more cannibalistic, eating the legs of others or the defenseless just molted cricket.  However if provided with food they want to eat they will more of it and grow that much faster.

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Particle size makes a difference in consumption.  Pay attention to processing done to the food mentioned below.

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The crickets are (were- see update) generally fed a mixture of 3 items:  

Goldfish flakes

Oatmeal 

Dry cat food 

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Note- See cautions on Mites before combining foods.

Note- See section on Supplies Details for  sourcing good pricing for each and details on what I use

 

 I used a ratio of 2 parts fish flakes, 2 parts oatmeal, 1 part ground cat food.  This mixture works well on crickets 2 weeks old and older.  Younger ones will eat some of it, but the oatmeal flakes are too large so smaller crickets ignore them. Pinheads are fed straight fish food and/or finely ground kitten food.

 

Crickets do not overeat, so it is impossible to give them too much of the dry food.

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UPDATE  Spring 2019 -

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I found this food mixture to be best if someone is tending  the crickets for me.  I found a much a cheaper alternative but it requires attention if food is leftover.  Not a problem for me, but I do not want someone else to have to deal with it.  Plus I do not have to grind the cat food and mix and re-package it.

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In place of the dry mixture above (which does not go bad after a few days if not eaten),  I found dry cat food that is moistened works well.  If the food is left dry the crickets are less likely to consume it if in kibble form.  Place the cat food kibble (not ground) in a plastic lid (i.e. peanut butter lid) a single layer deep.  Add enough water so the food is about to float.  It is better to have the food not eaten become dry and re-wetted the next day.  Food that stays wet for over 48 hours probably will not be eaten and definitely not eaten if mold forms.  Crickets can go a few days without food so error on the less wet side.  They can still eat the dry food if starving, but the more they eat the larger they become.  My purchasing of the more expensive flake fish food had dropped off significantly.

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I formerly used a high protein food (Purina Kitten Chow) until it became too expensive even on sale, switch to a regional grocery in-house brand with the same analysis until they lowered the protein and raised their price.  Currently  (8 June 2021) Aldi sells a 16 lb of cat food for less than $9.  It has almost the same analysis as the regional food and is always less than the occasional sale price on the local product.  The crickets like it so now I have a new food.

I used 

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Additional foods to offer - Use your imagination before discarding scraps in the kitchen.

                                Very Important- See the section on Mites about leftover organic matter in the cage.

               

                They like scraps from foods being processed in the kitchen. They do not care about blemishes.

                                Apple cores 

                                Cucumber peels 

                                Pineapple cores or flesh left on the outer skin when preparing

                                Fleshy rinds from watermelon and cantaloupe 

                                Scooped out pulp from squash and melons

                                Discarded broccoli and cauliflower stems and leaves

                                Butternut squash is a highly desirable food                        

                                Kale leaf ribs or the entire leaf. Split or bruise the ribs first for easier access

 

DO NOT add more wet foods (vegetables) than they will eat in 48 hours.

They do not eat skins and rinds that humans would not eat, such as banana skins.

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An experiment tried in January 2018.  I purchase a 5 lb jar of Fluker's High Calcium Cricket Diet (FHCCD).  It was less expensive than the fish food so it was worth a try.  Unfortunately the first ingredient is corn.  As noted in the section on cat food below, corn is not something they go for.  I think of it as a filler.  FHCCD has a lot of other ingredients. For the most part it was largely ignored, even when it was the only food left.  I put some in a dish and enough water to turn it into the texture of wet cement (by weight, 1 part FHCCD, 2 parts water and let it slake for 5 minutes).   After a few minute, stir the mixture and if no standing water, add some more and stir again.  I then spooned some onto a plastic dish in the cricket cage and the older crickets went for it, to the point they did not mind me adding more to the pile.  This consumption was only true for crickets larger than 1/2 inch, which is 3 weeks old for me.  Younger one still basically ignore it.  Water apparently softens the corn making it more desirable.  One advantage to this method was the uneaten food stayed on the plastic instead of getting scattered around.  Since it was only wet for less than one day, it did not mold.  I added a few drops of water to the uneaten food and it was eventually consumed.  It did make a dent in my standard food mixture consumption, but was it worth the extra steps to moisten it?  It is less expensive the fish food, but much more that the kitten food and oatmeal.  It was also much lower in Fat and Protein that either complete foods I prefer to use in my standard mix.

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