Housing Crickets - To construct a cricket keeper take an empty plastic container such as a whipped cream, sour cream, yogurt, or butter tub and poke it all over with a thumbtack to make air holes. In the lid cut a small hole and stick a cork or other stopper in it. For moisture, sew a piece of sponge to the inside wall of the container using a needle and thread and wet it down well with distilled water. It is imperative that this sponge is well cleaned as even a brand new sponge is normally saturated with chemicals. Each time you buy new crickets be sure to clean the container thoroughly and make sure both it and the sponge are in good order (crickets will eat anything). I highly recommend "Gut Load tm" cricket food or something like it. Simply follow the directions on the box and everything will be fine.

Those instructions make a fine temporary container for keeping crickets, but if something a little more large scale is wanted I suggest putting them in a five or ten gallon tank fitted with an aluminum screen top. Place several toilet paper or paper towel rolls in the bottom or (even better) some cardboard egg crates. Place a small dish of water with some stones thrown in for the crickets to stand on in the tank as well as some slices of apple, potato, or even orange (for the vitamin C). Some people recommend making a substrate of rolled oats for the crickets to eat but I think that nutrient enriched cricket food should really be provided for the health of your frog.

Breeding Crickets - If you are interested in breeding crickets I recommend a separate breeding container. This can take the form of another small aquarium or a large version of what was recommended in the first part of the housing section. In this new breeding container or "Casa De Amore" place a layer of moist soil and a half dozen or so adult crickets. Keep the cage at somewhere near eighty degrees and keep the soil moist. Remember to provide slices of fruit or vegetables for the crickets to feed on and a small dish of water for them to drink. Crickets food isn't necessary as this can tend to get expensive and you wont be feeding these to your frog so they don't need the extra nutrients. Put some Barry White on the stereo (just joking) and let nature take it's course. After a few weeks you will have hundreds of bouncing baby crickets. At this point you can remove the adult crickets and put them back in the housing container. After a few more weeks the baby crickets will be about one half the size of an adult, and they can be placed in the housing container.

Second Opinions -