# Baby crickets in cage?



## JoeTurtleKing (Jul 15, 2012)

So I just went to feed my tegu and seen that there are a bunch of baby crickets in the enclosure. Is this bad? Should I remove all the substrate and put in new? There smaller then pin head crickets 

Sent from my HTC EVO 3D using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Carnicero (Jul 15, 2012)

Ive had a bad experience when I was real young where crickets ate my gecko alive. I was 7 and didnt know anything about appropiate feeder size so they were way to big for my gecko. But im sure baby crickets would not mind taking nibbles out your tegu either so I say take em out.


----------



## bmx3000max (Jul 15, 2012)

i agree with carcinero


----------



## james.w (Jul 15, 2012)

Are they crickets or springtails?


----------



## chelvis (Jul 15, 2012)

Like James I wonder if these are not springtails, they are often confused for baby crickets. They will not harm a healthy tegu.


----------



## Thelegendofcharlie (Jul 15, 2012)

If they ARE baby crickets... RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
j/k but heed Carniceros warning. Those little F***ers will kill or maim.
Bit if they are springtails, they are absolutely harmless.
Theyre janitors in fact - they eat mold and waste product.
I produce naturalistic vivaria for all of my herps, and I actually put these guys in new enclosures (yes you can actually buy these guys on ebay)
Alot of frog keepers do this as well - so dont worry they are perfectly safe,
assuming they are in fact springtails anyway.


...I hate crickets...


----------



## IWANTATEGU (Jul 15, 2012)

Thelegendofcharlie said:


> If they ARE baby crickets... RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
> j/k but heed Carniceros warning. Those little F***ers will kill or maim.
> Bit if they are springtails, they are absolutely harmless.
> Theyre janitors in fact - they eat mold and waste product.
> ...





Do you u need to have anything live in their like plants or just them will do and can it ever be too many?


----------



## Thelegendofcharlie (Jul 15, 2012)

IWANTATEGU said:


> Thelegendofcharlie said:
> 
> 
> > If they ARE baby crickets... RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
> ...





I dont think plants themselves are necessary, (but in a proper system they can and will thrive) but they need to be part of a biological ecosystem to thrive or they will die off. By that I mean other living organisms.
What I do is start with a base of topsoil - topsoil is important because its highly bioactive and even the microscopic organisms are important and come into play.
I mix in about a 20% ratio of play sand for drainage and consistency.
I mix in very small sifted lava stone.
This helps again with drainage, aeration, and provides a suitable medium for (friendly) bacteria propagation.
I line the bottom of the enclosure, tank, vivaria - whatever with small fine gravel about 2in and put the substrate on top I run a piece of pvc pipe from the top layer of substrate down to the gravel (you have to put this in first and then put in the substrate) so then to can water from the bottom up instead of saturating the top portion.
To make it bioactive I put leaf litter on top, there s lots of useful little guys in that. Then I put in earthworms (these are key) and not red wrigglers - reg. earth worms, springtails, alot of roly polys or pill millipedes (depending on where youre from) and small milipedes are good but not essential. From there you can add whatever you want or see fit just obviously not to many predator species like mantis or lady bugs ( they eat eggs) all of the organisms will eventually strike a balance and you will have a living substrate. You can even plant plants in it if you want, of course this doesnt really work well for tegus but is possible with a large enough enclosure and the right plant.
The only maintenance is to occasionally check the soil ph and adjust if needed and this is done easily. Just add chelated iron or lime or a number f other things.
The benefits are many.
You have a natural and psychologically appealing habitat.
It holds a burrow like nothing else.
You dont have to worry about your pets eating it - they wont
Done right the risk of bacterial or fungal infection is almost eliminated because they cannot proliferate to a dangerous/contagious level due to the friendly flora.
In a large enough enclosure you can actually stir in or bury the poop as it is readily absorbed and taken into the ecosystem - this is perfectly health and natural
Even the occasional mold or fungus will get reabsorbed into the system and not flourish (thats where the roly polys and springtails come in)
Best of all you dont have to change it for years at a time!
(when initiated and maintained properly)
I have some habitats going on 3 yrs!
If it starts to stink or your insect die off or you see a lot of mold of fungi - something is wrong and needs to be corrected and soon.
Its a really great method and I recommend it to everyone
Its super convenient for me as a keeper and great for the physical and mental health f your captive.
IF anyone would like help with this (as it can be tricky to initiate) feel free to post or pm me.


----------



## JoeTurtleKing (Jul 17, 2012)

Thanks everyone yes there crickets or were crickets. I changed all the bedding. I also hate crickets but that's all my tegu would eat but now he eats everything so no more crickets 

Sent from my HTC EVO 3D using Tapatalk 2


----------

