Can You Feed Crested Geckos Crickets?
Last Updated: January 27, 2023
Some insects are part of the natural diet of crested geckos, but not all bugs are good for them. What about crickets? They are the industry staple and are for sale in most pet stores. Can crested geckos eat crickets?
Crested geckos can and do eat live crickets. These feeder insects are high in protein and easy to get. Feed and dust the crickets before giving them to your crestie. While they have a short lifespan, keeping live crickets isn’t hard with a good plan.
There is much more to learn about buying and storing feeder crickets and how to prepare them to feed to your crested gecko. Keep reading to learn all you need to know!
Species Overview
While there are more than 900 species of crickets, only a few are available as feeder insects. The two breeds most commonly found are the Banded Cricket and the Brown House Cricket.
- Banded Crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) are popular as reptile feeders because they are hardy and survive shipping.
- Brown House Cricket (Acheta domesticus) are more aggressive than their cousins, making them trickier to handle as feeders.
Life cycle
They go through three life stages; egg, nymph, and adult.
The egg stage lasts about two weeks, while the nymph stage takes about one month. Adulthood can last for two to six weeks.
Cricket eggs look like shiny grains of rice. Females prefer to lay them in humid soil, where they incubate for about ten days. One nymph is born out of each egg.
A nymph looks like an adult cricket without wings. To grow, it sheds its hard exoskeleton in a process called molting. After molting 8-10 times, they finish their transformation.
Adult crickets focus on eating and mating.
Diet
Crickets are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and other animals. They are not picky eaters.
In the wild, they eat a wide range of things, including aphids, seeds, fruit, grass, and insect larvae.
Nutritional Value
It is vital to consider the nutritional value of any food you feed to your pet.
Banded Cricket
- Protein – 17%
- Fat – 8%
- Fiber – 2%
- Moisture – 71%
- Minerals – 2%
- Calcium – 345 mg/kg
- Phosphorous – 4313 mg/kg
House Cricket
- Protein – 15%
- Fat – 4%
- Fiber – 2%
- Moisture – 77%
- Minerals – 2%
- Calcium – 341 mg/kg
- Phosphorous – 1870 mg/kg
As feeder insects go, crickets are pretty healthy. They have a fair amount of protein and moisture and are low in fat. Their Ca-P ratio is poor but in line with other insects (besides the Black Soldier Fly Larvae) and managed with calcium dusting.
Crickets aren’t the most nutrient-dense bugs. Many crested gecko owners find that their pet needs to eat many more crickets to fill up compared to a denser insect, like dubia roaches.
Feeding Instructions
Size
Insects fed to crested geckos need to be shorter than the distance between the lizard’s eyes.
Crickets range in size. The smallest ones for sale (often called pinheads) are 1/16 inch long. As they develop, they continue to grow until they reach 1 inch long.
As with all other food, the size of the cricket should never be longer than the distance between the crested gecko’s eyes.
Many keepers choose to give their crestie the longest crickets they can first. Why? Because you need to feed fewer crickets to your crestie if they fill up on big ones. Also, fewer crickets “outgrow” your pet if you use them at the right time.
Gut loading
When you get crickets, they usually aren’t ready to be fed to your crested gecko. You need to gut-load them first.
Much of the nutritional value comes from what is in the insect’s stomach when your pet eats it. We want to maximize this by feeding the crickets a nutrient-packed diet 12-to-24 hours before feeding them to our pets. Too soon or too long, and your pet gets fewer nutrients.
To ‘gut-load’ your crickets, you can either feed them a premade gut-loading diet or give them a dark green leafy vegetable, a grain, and a piece of fruit. Some leftover kale or romaine lettuce, a few oats, and a slice of apple or carrot are perfect!
Dusting
Immediately before serving up the crickets to your crestie, you’ll need to add supplements. The most crucial dietary mineral they have is calcium, but many also include other vitamins and minerals.
Find one that comes in an ultrafine powder. These do a better job of sticking to the cricket.
First, place the crickets you are feeding to your pet in a small container. Then, sprinkle some powder on the crickets. Gently swirl the cup to get the dust to coat them evenly. Now they are ready to give to your pet!
Where do I feed the crickets to my crestie?
There are a few options for how and where to give the crickets to your crested gecko.
Many keepers will put the crickets directly into the enclosure with their crestie.
This method is simple and direct. It maximizes the hunting experience and allows your pet to each when it wants. The downside of this approach is that uneaten crickets will continue to chirp and may nibble on your crested gecko.
Another option is to feed the crested gecko in a separate enclosure. This secondary feeding tank can be an empty plastic container or glass tank without any substrate or decor.
Doing it this way makes hunting very easy. The crickets have nowhere to hide and won’t bother your crestie. You also know how many bugs they ate in 15 minutes.
The third approach is to hand-feed them crickets with long tongs. You pinch the cricket in the tongs and put it near the mouth of the crested gecko.
Sadly, this way doesn’t engage the hunting instinct. But, if you need to introduce live feeders to a younger crested gecko who isn’t jumping at the chance to chase an insect for dinner, consider feeding them by hand first. Once they get used to it eating live insects, try one of the other options mentioned in this section.
How often can I serve them?
Crickets are a once-a-week food.
Ideally, your pet should mostly eat powdered gecko food with some live feeder insects and occasional fruit. This mix will provide them with all the vitamins and minerals they need.
On the day you feed your pet insects, they aren’t likely to eat much else. You can leave some CGD in the tank just in case they get hungry, but they are likely to avoid it.
How many should I give?
You want to feed as many crickets as your crested gecko can eat in fifteen minutes.
For hatchlings, this is often just one or two small crickets. Adults can eat many more, sometimes seven or eight a night.
Dead or alive?
Most of the time, crested geckos prefer eating live crickets over freeze-dried or canned ones. Some owners prefer to have dead ones around since they are easy to manage and can last for years, but they miss out on some key benefits.
To freeze-dry something, you remove all the water. It gets firm and crunchy but lasts for a much longer time. Since water is one of the things we want for our pet lizards, this isn’t a great trade-off. Also, dusting doesn’t stick to them very well.
The canned ones have issues, too. While cooking softens the exoskeleton and reduces the chances of mold, it also breaks down some nutrients. Canned bugs are mushy and fall apart. They smell different (some say “bad”) and don’t last long once the can is open.
The other cost is behavioral. Hunting live prey stimulates a pet gecko, which is just as valuable as the nutrients in the food.
Dead crickets are better than nothing, but there are downsides for your pet.
Buying & Storing
Price range
Live crickets are relatively cheap.
Many local pet stores start prices around $0.14 each and go down a few cents per cricket when bought in bulk (20, 40, or 60 or more) to as little as $0.08 apiece.
Online sellers have much lower prices per cricket because they sell in higher counts in each package. You can get live feeders for as little as $0.02 each when you buy 1,000 or more at once. Shipping costs drive up the price-per-cricket, so note the bottom line for your situation.
Buying fewer at one time lets you get only as many as your pet will eat. Buying more keeps the price down. Ideally, you’ll know how many crickets your pet will each per week and then buy no more than 3-4 weeks’ worth of crickets.
Where can I buy the best crickets?
Live feeder crickets are widely available, so you have options. But which are the best? We want healthy crickets that live long enough to be eaten by your pet crestie.
Your local pet store is probably your best option when you only need a few. While they are more costly per bug, you will likely spend less for the crickets your pet will eat by buying less and avoiding shipping.
If you live in a place where it is hard to find crickets for sale, online sellers are a great option. Companies that sell live feeders online often have more choices of breeds and sizes. Many sell the highest quality insects – ones that live for weeks longer and are packed full of nutrients. They are specialists who know everything about raising and shipping live crickets!
How do I keep them?
Crickets usually come in a sealed plastic bag or a small container.
The ideal container has tall, plastic sides and a lid with holes. Crickets can’t climb the smooth sides and shouldn’t be able to jump out. Inside the container, they need a cardboard egg crate or a toilet paper cardboard tube. The egg crates provide areas for the animals to climb and spread out. They don’t need bedding material. As long as the bucket is tall enough, it doesn’t need a lid. If you use a cover, make sure it has plenty of ventilation.
Crickets prefer temperatures between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Avoid exposing their enclosure to direct sunlight, high humidity, and cold drafts. The cold can cause them to become dormant, but they wake back up as they warm up.
Like all other living things, crickets need food and water. While you can use the same recipe listed under the ‘gut loading’ section, many keepers with more crickets use a premade formula. These powders keep longer and are easy to use. Crickets are known to drown easily, so wet sponges, damp cotton balls, and polymer water crystals (which form a gel when mixed with water) are better options than water bowls. Replace both uneaten food and water regularly.
Cleaning out the container every once in a while will extend the lifespan of your crickets and reduce odors. It is easiest to do this before getting new insects. First, remove any dead ones, shed skins, and their waste. Then, wash the container with hot water. You can use a very mild bleach solution. Let the tank dry completely before putting in crickets. You can also replace the egg carton or paper tubes at this time.
Some keepers prefer not to store crickets continuously. Male house crickets have a loud chirp that some people find annoying. Male banded crickets, while far less noisy, are still not quiet. Smells can build up over time. Taking breaks between batches of live crickets helps offset these downsides for some people.
How long do they live?
Crickets live for 8 to 12 weeks (2 to 3 months).
Since we feed crested geckos only adult crickets, we don’t have all that time.
With proper care, there is a six-week window of adulthood where crickets are ready to be served as dinner for cresties. Under stressful living conditions, that time can be as short as two weeks.
Do All Crested Geckos Like Crickets?
Just like with humans, each crested gecko has preferences. Not every person enjoys the same foods, nor does every crestie.
Can you think back to a time you tried a new food? Maybe you took only a little taste but didn’t love it and then tried more another time. Just like humans, crested geckos need to warm up to new things.
If you’ve offered crickets to your pet and they weren’t interested the first time, don’t worry. Their jumping about can surprise some pets, especially younger lizards. Try offering one or two at first, maybe with tongs, to get them started.
Conclusion
Crickets are a staple part of the diet for many crested geckos. They are inexpensive and for sale in many places.
Compared to other insects you might feed your crested gecko, crickets have healthy amounts of protein, moisture, and fat.
Serving is easy, too. Gut-load 12-24 hours before serving, and dust them with calcium powder immediately before giving them to your pet.
What about other insects? Can Crested Geckos Eat Dubia Roaches?