My motto has always been to not kill anything, unless it attacks me first. For many years I have raised and bred Hermann and Russian tortoises. They are both vegetable and fruit eaters, so no live food was needed.
So here I am now with 2 beautiful dragons that need protein as a essential part of their diet. Suddenly my world is thrown upside down, and I must take living insects and feed my dragons! It has not been easy, but I know in nature the dragons would certainly be pursuing their own live food so I must copy nature If I want healthy, happy dragons!
There are many good care sheets about how to care for crickets, I would like to share what I do, and hopefully it will help you get idea's for your own set up. I buy crickets in large quantities. It is a lot cheaper that way and purchasing from a reputable cricket farm, the crickets usually arrive in good health with very few dead arrivals. I am using a plastic storage container for housing the crickets. Mine happens to be 33" X 16". I keep a window screen over the top to prevent any from escaping. The crickets cannot crawl up the sides of the plastic, although they jump pretty high! Most care sheets do not recommend any substrate for the bottom of the cage. It is a lot easier to keep the cage clean that way. I do however, use a little organic plant soil for the bottom of mine. Living in the NE, it is quite cool here and the soil keeps the bottom a little warmer. I buy lots of eggs and tear the crates up and stake them in the cage.
I do not buy any commercial food. I feel it is a waste of money. I offer shredded carrots, apples, papaya, peaches, string beans and slices of potato. I use to give slices of oranges, until I realized dragons do not eat citrus!! I also offer a separate dish with goldfish flakes. For water I use a shallow dish and put a few small flat rocks around the circumference. This is very important so the crickets do not drown!
In one corner of the cage, I keep a mound of wet soil. The females will lay eggs in this soil. Every couple of weeks I remove the soil and put into a separate enclosure, and I have started to get baby crickets, Another money saver! Once I remove the soil, I add some more soil and just continue this cycle.
It is true crickets smell!! I clean the cage 2X's a week. I also replace the egg crates quite often because they do start to smell also. I just move the egg crates to the opposite side of the cage and wait a few minutes, until the crickets all move over to the other side. I use a old big kitchen spoon to clean out the dead crickets and waste matter. It really is quite easy and only takes a few minutes!
When I am ready to feed my dragons I take a big plastic cup and bang some crickets off the egg crate into the cup. I then dust the crickets with calcium and 2X's a week vitamin dust. Please don't skip this step. Your dragons are what they eat. Besides feeding the crickets healthy foods, the calcium also helps in forming strong bones!
I have posted some pics to show my set up and if you have any questions, I would love to hear from you.
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