# Caring for "silent" brown crickets?



## joeyboy

Ok i just bought a pack of adult silent brown crickets, not for breeding just they are the right size for my mantid. I haven't tried them before and so how do i look after them so they stay alive for the longest time possible? Also since being adults they might breed, how do they do this? What do i need in the plastic faunarium i'm going to keep em in?

Basically a general silent brown cricket caresheet would be nice.:notworthy:


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## marty.twigs

any time i bought crickets they always died really fast
then i found out to feed them on fish food and vegetables
i want mine to breed so i put soil in mine so they can lay their eggs in it
they wont breed without a substrate to lay their eggs in


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## joeyboy

i was thinking about feeding them with a mixture of cabbage,fruit,lettuce mainly for water then also feeding them on cat food although i'm not whether dry cat biscuits or cat food in jelly( i heard they eat cat food in some form)

does cabbage and the like have pesticides that kill insects? I doubt it since pesticides would be bad for humans eventually but I'm not certain..


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## Pro Mantis

You can give them fish flakes but if you do give them a beer cap of water as it dries them out. they also enjoy carrot or potato peelings. keep them dry and not cold and you'll do fiiiiine.


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## joeyboy

do they eat cat food or not or shall i just go salad? What about cereals like muesli and corn flakes, locusts supposedly ate cereals but they didn't touch them when i tried.


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## the-tick

go for more hardy veg ie greens, potato, swede, carrot etc and get water crystals to give them water works fine with mine


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## _simon_

I've kept crickets successfully for ages, it's really simple. Give them an airy tub with plenty of places to hide (I use cork bark) and give them fruit and veg, you need to change it out regularly to keep it fresh. There's no need for any kind of water as they get that from the fruit and veg. That's it. They can get a bit smelly over time so best to clean the tub out come restocking time.


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## joeyboy

ok thanks fruit and veg it is, though I've heard their omnivorous, do they eat cat biscuits, canned cat food, i could put a little cube of tinned cat food in for them to?

I've got one pack( so i guess around 25-30 crickets) in a 20cm long, 12cm wide and 15cm tall plastic tank. Here's a pic, so do i just drop in some fruit n veg, maybe meaty cat food( someone tell me about that please, i have cats so have tons of open tins lol), do i need a very shallow bowl of water or will cabbage and thr like provide the water? I don't really want to go and buy those gel water things, my mantid only eats one every two days or half will probably die anyway, so no extra costs please.:lol2:

Also what about substrate? Can i put a layer of bran or oats in like a do meal worms? Or shall i just leave it? 

Also their adult so i guess they could lay eggs, what do they lay them into and how long does it take till they hatch?










P.S: THEY WERE CALLED "Silent" Brown Crickets, silent my ass!


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## _simon_

They only lay eggs in moist areas, so unless you have a pot of moist sand or the like you won't get eggs. Which is a good thing as they'd easily get out of that housing. Don't be surprised if the adults squeeze out of those gaps at the top as well.

Don't bother with substrate, crickets produce a lot of faecal matter over time and you'll want to regularly empty that out.

Don't give them water, they'll just drown, they will get all the water they need from the fruit and veg that you give them. You don't need to feed them anything else.


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## joeyboy

ok tyvm!:flrt:


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## _simon_

I'd really suggest putting a pair of tights/fine mesh or the like over the tank, you'd be amazed what sized gaps they can squeeze through and there's nothing worse than crickets on the loose lol


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## joeyboy

hmmm darn i have no mesh... i'll think of something.. although then how could they breath? Also i've been watching them for a hours and although many have tried to climb up the sides it seems they can't get a grip on the plastic, none have been able to climb up at all.. Also they are adults, looking at them and the slits i really think they can't get through, lol..... im scared.

Ok i just put in cabbage and chopped carrot, so no cat food needed?


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## _simon_

No, no need for cat food of any kind. Well mesh or tights are full of small holes so lets the air in/out. You can buy tights from anywhere if you're not easily embarrassed lol or buy them online if you are. Tights are better really as they're elasticated which holds them in place.


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## joeyboy

not sure if you saw my edit. I might watch em for a while and see if any climb, idf none do i might just leave it.


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## _simon_

Remember they can jump as well  If you're confident they won't escape then fair enough but for the sake of a quid for a pair of tights you may as well get some. When you buy crickets you often get some other sizes mixed in with them so you won't always be able to guarantee only having adults.


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## joeyboy

yeah ok i will then, although i already have another plastic food box which is pretty big... could i not take that, poke some little air holes in the sides and use that with it's lid on? Save me a trip to town since i got work tomorrow n friday is only day off.


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## _simon_

You can use anything you want mate. I know what it's like to have escaped crickets and noisy males chirping away in the night keeping you awake won't be any fun lol Just trying to save you from that lovely experience. I have to shut mine in the bathroom at night, they do my head in!


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## marty.twigs

i put soil in with mine and the females are always over at it
think ive only found 1 baby cricket so far tho
also put in a piece of damp kitchen paper for them 2 get the moisture out of


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## joeyboy

lol i've put em downstairs in the cloak room under the stairs, lol. Why are they called SILENT!!THEIR BLOODY NOT! Are blacks worse?


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## _simon_

Damp kitchen paper will encourage mould growth so do that at your own risk, as I've said before in this thread they get all the water content they need from their fruit and veg.

Joey, blacks are no better noise wise but I find them easier to catch. As the weather cools down you might find they quieten down a bit. It's the adult males that make the noise so if you can try and use those up first. I'm moving to locusts, they don't make any noise, don't smell and being bigger I don't need to use so many which means less time spent trying to catch them.


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## joeyboy

my last box of food was locusts but i thought i'd vary manti's diet. He didn't want it today although he eat the day before, i hope it's not because their too big.


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## _simon_

is Manti a Mantid? Easy way to judge if they need feeding is to look at their abdomen if it's nice and plump they don't need food, if it's looking deflated then feed them. You shouldn't need to feed a mantid every day. My young ones get fed every other with small prey and my adult once a week with a locust.

I fed my Violin mantids hover flys yesterday out of the garden. They're surprisingly easy to catch.


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## joeyboy

sure is a Mantid how did you guess lol.( yeah i wanted an easy name)

I usually do that( the looking at abdomen) and it equates to one locust every three days. I did put that cricket in on the second day but it still hasn't eaten it today and it doesn't look plump.

Maybe the cricket is too fast? I mean they either don't move( no stimulation for Manti) or sprint so fast even i couldn't catch it with my hand....

I might take it out and put it in the fridge for an hour to slow it down, or feed it with tweezers.


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## Berber King

P.S: THEY WERE CALLED "Silent" Brown Crickets, silent my ass![/quote]
If those are the crickets in the pic,their not silents,their banded!-Noisy!


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## ladybird

Check out my cricket breeding guide Breeding Black & Silent Crickets
all the info you need should be there :2thumb:


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## annscave

*food*

as well as veg you can use crushed dried dog or cat foods some good vids on you tube on cricket care


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## Blaptica

Those crickets in the picture are defo NOT silent brown crickets. They are Banded crickets otherwise known as Tropical house crickets. Adult Silent crickets would be double that size. The Banded cricket is the smallest of the 4 commercially available species.


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## .:KayLee:.

joeyboy said:


> not sure if you saw my edit. I might watch em for a while and see if any climb, idf none do i might just leave it.


PLEASE find something to cover it, I couldnt believe myself that they would get out of these miniscule holes there were in my faunarium type box and they bloody well did. :bash:


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## iLoveFish

i know this post is like 4 years old but just found it and was well usefull 

/Neil


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