Most frogs are insectivorous, meaning they eat insects. In some cases they can also be carnivorous (eating things like baby mice) and cannibalistic (eating other frogs smaller than themselves). However, this page is dedicated to the care & maintenance of your insects, particularly crickets. Happy, healthy crickets = a guilt-free conscious for you, & assured happiness & health for your frogs!

Not just your garden-variety cricket...

• Crickets come in a variety of colors & sizes. The two most common are brown and black. If you buy crickets from the pet store, it's important that the size of the cricket be proportional to the size of the frog. If you feed your frog crickets that are too small for it, you will either need to largely up the amount of crickets that you feed it, or it will slowly starve to death because it doesn't get enough food. If you have any questions, ask your pet store employee to assist you.
• Froglets (baby frogs) need pin-head (baby) crickets; juveniles and smaller adult frogs need medium-sized crickets; and adult frogs need large (adult) crickets. It's very important you get the correct size. If you feed your frog crickets that are too big for it, it will have problems eating them, and could possibly even choke.

Planning Ahead:

• Crickets have a very short life-span. Once hatched, it takes about 6 weeks for a pin-head cricket to reach adult size. Adult crickets last about another month - if you're lucky. Some web-sites offer bulk buying, wherein you buy hundreds & hundreds of crickets. It is usually a nice price-cut off the pet store price, however, realistically, you probably won't be able to keep the crickets alive. Addiontionally, over-crowding will kill your crickets quickly, so you have to think about storage of those 250 crickets.

Home Sweet Home!:

• If you keep you crickets in a little plastic 3-inch diameter cup that they came in, they're gonna die, simple as that. Setting up a nice home for your crickets will hopefully give them a longer lifespan for you. Also, for suckers like myself, I always feel guilty about feeding them to the frogs. It makes me feel a little better that I can at least provide them with a better home before I have to do so. Here are some ways to create a cricket heaven:
• I use one of those little "critter carriers." You know the type: sold at EVERY pet store on earth, clear plexi container, colored vented lid with little handles & a little pop-out door so you (supposedly) don't have to take the lid off.
• I recommend placing a 1-inch layer of soil on the bottom. As discussed below in the "Breeding" section, if you have pregnant females, they'll lay eggs in the soil, hopefully giving you some free crickets. Paper towels, egg cartons, newspaper, anything like that can also be used, or you could use nothing at all.
• Crickets in the wild make their homes underground, and stay there all-day or when they need to hide. While you can't really simulate this for practical reasons, you can at least give them so safety. A crumpled up paper towel or some leaves placed on the soil will give them some places to hide, sleep, & get out of the light.
• If desired, small plants can be placed in the soil, but the crickets will destroy them in a matter of days.

Food:

• Whatever your crickets eat is passed on to your frogs when the frog eats the cricket. This is why it's so important for your crickets to be healthy. The term "gut-loading" is used when hobbyists refer to giving crickets as much nutrients as possible, in order that they may pass them along to your froggy. Here are some good choices:
• Fruits. If the fruits are juicy (oranges; grapes), the crickets will also fulfill their water requirement through them. Some favorites of my crickets are orange slices, apples, grapes, & strawberries. Remember, these things will dry out & rot, so don't put too much in. One grape is ample amount for 1 dozen crickets, so feed accordingly. Additionally, it's hard for crickets to penetrate some fruits' protective skin, so grapes should be cut in half, as should orange slices, so that some actual fruit is exposed.
• Vegetables. Grated vegetables like carrots will be eaten before you get out of the room. They also like any type of green/leafy vegetable (and these are the most nutritious, as I'm sure your mother has told you), such as spinach & kale. In my experience, though, they don't much care for lettuce.
• Occasionally(a few times a month), dried fish food or a few pieces of dog food can be fed. However, it's not as nutritious as the other things.
• Commercial cricket food. Flukers is the major manufacturer of this. Don't be ripped off by buying the blue ones that only give your cricket moisture. If you're going to get some, get the green "full gut-load" ones. These cubes are specially formulated for crickets to eat, while containing the essential nutrients that otherwise would be missing from your amphibian or reptile's diet. I use this as my main source of food for the crickets (since they do contain special vitamins & minerals), while supplimenting it with the fruits & veggies.

Water:

• Your crickets need water!! Even if you use the cubes described above, they will still gladly welcome plain old water. (If you don't believe me, put some in, & watch them all flock to it, fighting to get some.) To accomplish this, you can use 2-litre pop bottle lids, orange juice carton lids, film canister caps, etc. Just push it in the soil a little so that smaller crickets can access it.

Cleaning & Maintenance:

• Always remove fruit & vegetables after a day or so, so they don't rot or get moldy.
• You should also remove dead crickets, or their "shells" (they shed their exoskeleton, so that they can grow a newer, bigger one). If left in, they will make your cricket house smell horrible.
• Once or twice a week, you should dust your crickets with a powdered vitamin supplement. The most common illness of captive amphibians & reptiles is a bone disease caused by lack of essential vitamins. Dusting with this powder will prevent this.

Breeding:

• Let's face it, using crickets as food is expensive. At $1.10 or so a dozen (which will feed one frog for 7-9 days), it can get expensive. Some people breed their own crickets at home. While this idea is good in theory, I have had no luck at it. But I'll tell you all that I know:
• If you look closely at a cricket (large adult ones are easiest to see this on), you will see that they have prong-looking things sticking out of their back end. This is how you sex the crickets. Crickets with only 2 "prongs" (they make an outward 'V' shape) are males. Crickets with an additional "prong" in the middle of this 'V' are females. This middle "prong" often sticks out further than the other two, and this is the cricket's egg-depositor.
• After mating, the female digs a small divet into soil, depositing some eggs down in it, then covers it back up. After about 2 weeks, you will see tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny crickets. As I said above, it will take these crickets about 6 weeks to mature into adults.
• Warmer temperatures help this process along, but it's unlikely you'll have a heating method for your crickets.
• Also, some people say that you must remove the tiny crickets when you notice them, otherwise they will get eaten by the others. This is not entirely true. As long as the other crickets have plenty of food & water available, they'd much rather eat that than themselves.