If you've ever walked into a pet store and bought a tub of "feeder" crickets only to have half of them kick the bucket by Tuesday, you're not alone. It’s frustrating. You’re basically throwing money into a tiny plastic trash can. Most people think crickets are indestructible pests, but in captivity, they’re surprisingly delicate little divas that will tip over if the humidity is off or if they eat the wrong scrap of lettuce.
The secret isn't just "food." It’s biology. Knowing what to feed crickets to keep them alive is the difference between a thriving colony and a stinky box of dead bugs. If you’re feeding these to a bearded dragon, a leopard gecko, or a tarantula, remember: your pet is eating whatever that cricket just ate. This is called gut loading. If the cricket eats cardboard, your lizard is basically eating cardboard.
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They need calories. They need hydration. But they also need to not drown in a water bowl. It’s a weirdly specific balance.
The Hydration Trap: Why Bowls Are Death Sentences
Crickets are remarkably stupid when it comes to open water. They will fall into a shallow bottle cap and drown. Honestly, it’s impressive how easily they manage to die in a single droplet. To keep them alive, you have to provide moisture without the drowning hazard.
One of the best ways to do this is through "wet" foods. Think slices of raw potato, carrot sticks, or apple wedges. Potatoes are a classic for a reason. They stay moist for a long time, they don't mold as fast as berries, and they provide a decent hit of complex carbohydrates. Carrots are even better because they’re packed with Vitamin A, which is gold for any reptile that eventually eats the cricket.
If you don't want to mess with fresh produce every single day, you can use those weird-looking "water crystals" or hydrogels. They’re basically polymerized water. The crickets can stand on them, suck the moisture out, and go about their business without a funeral. Some people swear by a damp sponge, but honestly, sponges are bacteria magnets. Unless you’re cleaning that sponge every 24 hours, you’re just growing a colony of germs that will eventually wipe out your insects.
The Dry Diet: Proteins and Grains
They can't live on apples alone. They’re omnivores. In the wild, they’ll eat decaying plant matter, other insects, and basically anything they find on the forest floor. In your house? They need a solid dry base.
A lot of old-school keepers use chicken mash or laying hen feed. It's cheap. It's high in calcium. It works. However, you’ve gotta be careful with the protein levels. If the protein is too high, it can lead to uric acid buildup in the reptiles that eat the crickets. A safer bet is often a mix of crushed oats, wheat germ, and alfalfa meal.
- Rice cereal: It's bland, dry, and stores forever.
- Fish flakes: High in protein and vitamins, but use them sparingly because they smell terrible if they get damp.
- Cat or dog food: High protein, but look for brands without a ton of dyes or weird chemical preservatives.
Actually, the best thing you can do is grind these things together into a powder. Crickets have tiny mouthparts. If you give them a whole nugget of dog kibble, they’ll nibble at it, but a powder allows them to eat more efficiently. High-surface-area food equals faster growth and longer lifespans.
Gut Loading: The "Second-Hand" Nutrition
If you’re keeping crickets as pets, fine, feed them whatever. But if they are feeders, you’re practicing "gut loading." This is the process of stuffing the cricket full of high-quality nutrients about 24 to 48 hours before you feed them to your pet.
Think of the cricket as a biological vitamin capsule.
Research from the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine suggests that crickets are naturally low in calcium and high in phosphorus. This is bad. In the reptile world, that’s a recipe for Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD). To fix this, you need to feed the crickets high-calcium squash, dark leafy greens like collards or mustard greens, and specialized gut-loading powders. Avoid spinach and iceberg lettuce. Spinach contains oxalates that bind calcium, making it useless, and iceberg lettuce is basically just crunchy water with zero nutritional value.
Why Variety Actually Matters
Don't just stick to one thing. If you only eat pizza, you’re gonna feel like garbage. Crickets are the same. A rotation of squash, oranges (for Vitamin C and hydration), and a grain-based dry food keeps their immune systems up.
Interestingly, oranges might help with the "cricket smell." It’s not a scientific certainty, but many hobbyists find that the citric acid and aroma of citrus help mask the ammonia-like stench that cricket colonies tend to produce. Just don't let the fruit sit in there for three days. Mold is the number one killer of captive insect colonies. If you see white fuzz, pull it out immediately.
Temperature and Airflow: The Silent Killers
You can have the best food in the world, but if the box is 60 degrees Fahrenheit, those crickets aren't eating. They’re ectotherms. Their metabolism is tied to the room temperature. To keep them active and eating, you want them between 75 and 85 degrees. If it gets too hot, they cook. If it’s too cold, they go dormant and eventually die.
And for the love of all things holy, give them air.
Most people put crickets in a plastic tote with a few holes poked in the top. That’s a death trap. Humidity builds up from the potato slices and the cricket poop (frass), and then the crickets die from respiratory issues or fungal infections. You want a screen top. Total ventilation. If the air is stagnant, the colony will crash. You’ll know it’s happening when you smell that sickly sweet, rotting odor. Once that starts, it’s hard to stop.
Common Mistakes and Weird Myths
One of the weirdest myths is that crickets need "cricket quencher" and nothing else. Those gels are fine for water, but they have zero calories. A cricket can starve to death while being perfectly hydrated.
Another mistake? Feeding them "wild" grass from your backyard. Unless you’re 100% sure your neighbor isn't spraying pesticides, don't do it. Pesticides are designed to kill bugs. It sounds obvious, but a tiny amount of residue on a blade of grass can wipe out 500 crickets in an hour. Stick to grocery store produce and wash it first.
Also, avoid too much meat. While they are omnivores, giving them a lot of scrap meat leads to rot and attracts phorid flies—those tiny, annoying gnats that run across surfaces instead of flying. They are a nightmare to get rid of.
Actionable Steps for a Long-Lived Colony
To keep your crickets alive and healthy, follow this simple workflow. It’s not about being perfect; it’s about consistency.
- Set up the dry base: Use a shallow dish (like a jar lid) filled with a mix of crushed oats and calcium-fortified cricket diet. Keeping it in a dish prevents it from mixing with the bedding and getting gross.
- Provide "Safe" Water: Use a slice of raw potato or carrot. Replace it every 48 hours without fail. If you use water crystals, make sure they stay clean.
- Create Vertical Space: Use egg crates. Crickets hate being on the floor with their own poop. They want to climb. This increases the "living space" and prevents them from trampling each other.
- Clean the "Frass": Every week, tip the egg crates into a temporary bin and sweep out the bottom of the main tank. That dry dust is cricket poop. If it gets damp, it becomes toxic.
- Check the Heat: Keep the bin in a warm spot, but out of direct sunlight. A closet near a heater vent is usually perfect.
If you do this, your crickets won't just survive; they’ll actually grow. You’ll see them molting (leaving behind those ghostly white shells), which is a sign of a healthy, well-fed insect. It’s a bit of work for a "feeder" animal, but your reptiles—and your wallet—will definitely thank you.
Next Steps for Success: Start by grabbing a bag of whole oats and a couple of carrots. Grind a cup of the oats in a blender to make a fine powder and place it in a shallow lid. Add three or four thick carrot coins. This provides the foundational "dry and wet" balance immediately. Monitor the carrot coins; if they disappear in 24 hours, you have a high-density colony and need to double the amount of fresh produce. If they start to shrivel, you’re at the perfect ratio. Avoid using any deep water dishes immediately to prevent accidental losses tonight.