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hey mackz, well it is not too hard to find info on breeding crickets, i myself have been able to stumble upon a few sites while searching google.
To breed crickets, wait until you have been hearing strong chirping sounds from the cricket bin for at least a week. At that time most of the females are fertile, and already waiting for a place to lay eggs. Take 6-12 adult female crickets and put them in a container that's about the same size as either a large critter keeper, or a shoebox. Make sure that there are no holes except for maybe some airholes on the very top. To tell male and female in crickets, just look for the ones that have wings and an ovipostor. The ovipostor is the long tube that extends from the backside of a female cricket. She uses this to deposit her eggs in soil. Which you must have ready in the container. Using ground coconut fiber has also been great for me as it contains no bad chemicals. Put about an inch of this medium into the container, and mist it until just barely moist. NOT WET! just moist to the touch. Then, add your female crickets. put in an orange slice to keep them watered. After about 3 days, remove the adults. In a few weeks you should be able to see tiny pinheads emerge from the soil. Put in some small orange slices and an eggcrate. Periodically shake crickets off of the eggcrate and into a seperate container for storage of the pinheads. Do this until just about all of the pinheads have been transfered, though u probably wont be able to get all of them. In the other container, leave the bottom bare, and put in a small dish of gutloading power for food, and some wet cottom balls for water. Baby crickets are very suseptable to dehydration so change out the cotton balls and replace them with fresh wet ones every 2-3 days. Don't worry if u don't have any success on the first few tries, it takes time and a little practice. The babies are even harder to keep alive, but that is just the method that has worked best for me. If all of the babies die, just keep at it. Eventually, you may get to the point where you constantly have a fresh supply of pinheads and pet store trips for crickets will become less and less often.
Hope this helps,
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-Adam
"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"
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