Housing Crickets

Crickets are an extremely important food in your frog's diet. Many frogs do not get the nutrition they absolutely need from mealworms, since mealworms are almost all exoskeleton, and most frogs aren't interested in waxworms (I know mine sure wasn't!).

Crickets are inexpensive, easy to get, available, and your frog will love them. Frogs are meant to hunt for their food, and they are unable to do that with mealworms and waxworms if they're in a little dish.

In order to keep crickets, you will have to either make or purchase a Kriket Keeper (brand).This little box is a convenient way to house crickets without them going all over the house.

Keep food and moisture in your crickets' home to keep them alive and for extra nutrients for your frog. What the crickets eat, your frog will be eating (in a sense). Feed the crickets things rich in calcium. Also purchase cricket water gel or food from the pet store for an extra supplement boost. However, if you don't want to purchase anything else for the crickets besides a cricket keeper, there is a solution involving things everyone has at home.

You will need to "gutload" your crickets at least 24 hours before feeding them to your frog. In order to gut load crickets, you will need to keep foods high in calcium in their keeper including:

• Spinach. A very calcium rich vegetable that gives calcium, water and food. Great for the frog, too.
• Carrots. These also are very high in calcium.
• Potato chunks
• Oats
• Fresh fruits and other vegetables
• Dog food. I have never tried this, but I have heard that crickets will eat it. Dog food is full of rice, grains and meat that are good for your crickets.
• Apple slices
• Dark, green leafy vegetables
• Bran
• A damp sponge for moisture
• Fish flakes

Remember, what goes into the crickets goes into your frog. If your crickets are gut loaded with calcium and other rich minerals and vitamins, it can prevent many diseases in your frog including MBD (metabollic bone disease). Also, sprinkle the cricket's food with a reptile vitamin calcium supplement.

It is possible to overfeed your crickets. Do not feed your frog dead crickets. Try to keep as much vegetable and fruit in your crickets as possible without killing them off.

Another thing I have noticed as I have lived with crickets is that they seem to be really hungry when you bring them home from the petstore. It seems like they don't get the feast at the petstore that you can give them at home. Before putting your new crickets into the Kricket Keeper, make sure the keeper is clean and has plenty (if not small portions of all) of the food listed above in the keeper. The crickets will all scatter to the different foods, and when it comes time to feed them to your frog, they will have a variety of different nutrients in them.

You might hear that hear that crickets stink, but I have never experienced this, and have been keeping crickets as long as I've been keeping pets. The smaller the cricket, the less the odor, and the quieter the chirps! Also, crickets might escape their keeper once in a while. But once they're out, they're difficult to find (much less put back into the cage!). You have to be willing to live with this if you're going to house crickets.

How many crickets to feed my frog?
This answer changes with every frog. It really depends on how large your frog is, and how big his appetite. For new frogs, try 3 crickets on the first day. If there are no crickets in the habitat the next day, stick with 3 crickets unless your frog seems to be underweight. If there are still crickets jumping around like they own the habitat, wait until they disappear, then try 2 crickets the next feeding.

For small, immature frogs, feed them every day. For adult frogs that are larger and more mature, you should be feeding them 3-5 times a week. This also all depends on how large your frog is and how overweight/underweight he is looking. Frogs (with the White's Tree Frog as an exception) usually will stop eating when they're full and go hunting again when they're hungry. White's Tree Frogs will usually eat until they pop and it's very important not to overfeed them.