Extra Small Crickets

The rule keepers use is that a feeder should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes. Width is what matters, not length.

On a hatchling that gap is only a few millimetres, which rules out most of the cricket range. Too wide risks choking and impaction in a very small animal; too small and a growing hatchling burns more energy chasing than it gains.

A general guide to the grades keepers use:

Move up a grade once your animal takes these easily and the gap between its eyes has clearly outgrown them.

Hatchlings are usually fed daily, and small animals eat more often than their size suggests. Most keepers offer what the animal will take in ten to fifteen minutes, then remove the rest.

Buy about a week's worth at a time. Crickets are short-lived and losses in the tub climb quickly beyond that.

Crickets are calcium-poor and phosphorus-rich, and that imbalance is the direct cause of metabolic bone disease in captive reptiles. A published analysis of feeder black field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) measured calcium at 1.4 g/kg of dry matter against phosphorus at 8.5 g/kg – a ratio of roughly 0.17:1, where insectivores need closer to 2:1 in favour of calcium.

That gap does the most harm at this stage. Hatchlings are laying down skeleton at their fastest rate, so undusted crickets cost a young animal more than they cost an adult.

Do both, and do not rely on gut-loading alone. In the same study, gut-loading lifted the ratio only to about 0.4:1 – still well short – and the crickets began shedding that calcium as soon as the calcium-rich food was removed.

Gut-load the crickets for 24 to 48 hours, dust with calcium immediately before offering, and feed them out promptly. Use calcium with D3 where the animal has no UVB, and plain calcium where good UVB is provided.

Keep them in a ventilated container at room temperature, out of direct sun, with egg carton for surface area. Crickets suffocate in crowded, damp tubs faster than they starve.

Offer a gut-load block or fresh vegetable for moisture rather than an open water dish, which crickets this size drown in. Remove dead ones daily.

Suitable for hatchling and juvenile geckos, bearded dragons, skinks, froglets, dart frogs, and small insectivorous fish and birds.

Not suitable for adult animals, which cannot get enough from a feeder this size. Not suitable as a sole diet, and not suitable fed undusted to any growing animal.

Crickets will bite a sleeping or torpid reptile. Remove every uneaten cricket before lights out – this matters most with hatchlings, which are least able to defend themselves. Keep the tub closed; crickets escape readily and are noisy.

• Exo Terra Calcium + D3 Powder – the dusting step that makes crickets safe to feed.
• Zoo Med Cricket Block – gut-load and moisture in one, with no drowning risk.
• Zoo Med Stainless Steel Feeding Tongs – useful for targeted feeding of small animals.

Live feeders are supplied for in-store collection or local delivery, with our live arrival guarantee.

Bulk counts are order in only and are not held in store. Place your bulk order by Monday for arrival on Wednesday.

Bulk orders are for in-store pickup only and cannot be posted or delivered.

What size cricket is safe for a hatchling gecko?

Offer a cricket no wider than the space between the animal's eyes. For most hatchling geckos that means pinhead or extra small crickets, moving up a grade as the animal grows.

Is gut-loading enough, or do I have to dust as well?

Dust as well. Published work on feeder crickets found gut-loading raised the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio only to about 0.4:1, short of the roughly 2:1 insectivores need, and the calcium was lost again once the gut-load was removed.

Why are my crickets dying in the tub?

Usually crowding, damp or heat. Crickets need ventilation, dry conditions, room temperature and cardboard surface area to spread out on; they die faster in a sealed humid container than from lack of food.

Can extra small crickets be my hatchling's only food?

No. Feed a varied insect diet and dust with calcium, because crickets alone are calcium-poor and will not support healthy bone growth in a young reptile.