Use this guide when your live banded crickets arrive. For a quick troubleshooting checklist, see how to keep feeder crickets alive longer.
Prepare the container before opening the box
Use a secure, ventilated cricket keeper with room for the crickets to spread out. Add clean egg flats or cardboard tubes for climbing and shelter, leaving food and hydration accessible. Check that ventilation openings cannot let small crickets escape.
Unpack inside the keeper
Place the shipping box inside the keeper before opening it. Gently transfer the egg flats and crickets, then secure the lid. If the shipment arrives cold or appears distressed, contact support@buyfeedercrickets.com for help with your order; apparent inactivity does not guarantee recovery.
Keep the housing dry and temperature stable
Avoid direct sunlight and overheating. Check the temperature with a thermometer. Egg incubation and breeding instructions should not be treated as a humidity target for a container of feeder crickets. Keep the floor free of wet substrate and clean up spills promptly.
Provide food and hydration
Keep commercial cricket food and a cricket-specific hydration product available, following their labels. Replace soiled food and hydration promptly. Use products intended for feeder insects rather than gardening water crystals.
Gut loading and dusting are different
Gut loading means feeding the insects before your pet eats them. Dusting means coating the insects with a supplement just before feeding. Follow the feed or supplement label and your reptile's individual feeding guidance. Do not dust the entire holding colony for storage.
Clean and plan your next order
Remove dead crickets promptly and replace dirty shelter material. Crickets continue developing after delivery, so size is not a guarantee of exact age or remaining lifespan.
Compare our banded cricket sizes and available live crickets for sale. Orders ship Mondays only with a 9 AM Eastern cutoff; see shipping details.
Care references
General housing and feeding references: Petco's cricket care sheet and Fluker's house cricket biology guide. The latter describes house crickets and breeding conditions, not a universal banded-cricket holding protocol.