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How to keep crickets alive: the first 48 hours

Our free cricket care card, online — housing, water, gut-loading, temperature and feeding size.

1. Open the lid as soon as you get home

Move them into a bin with a screen or vented lid, at least shoebox size, with smooth sides so they can't climb out.

Stand a few pieces of egg carton on end. Crickets need surfaces to spread out on; crowding is the number one killer.

Use water crystals, a wet sponge, or a slice of potato or orange. Crickets drown in standing water.

Greens, carrot, oats or cricket food. A fed cricket is a better meal: what they eat goes into your animal (gut-loading).

Keep them at 75–85°F, out of the sun. Never leave them in a closed car; in San Antonio heat they can die in minutes.

Pull out dead crickets and old food every day. Ammonia from waste kills the rest.

No longer than the space between your animal's eyes. Remove uneaten crickets after 15 minutes so they don't bite a sleeping pet.

Keep them shaded and cool in a cricket cage and they will last the whole day.