Catch a cricket outside, look on the internet to find what they look like if you don't know. Find one of any size that only has two hairy protrusions in the back. This is a male. The female has an ovipositor which lays her eggs for her. Males sing and sound just like a canary. If your cricket does not sing at night, then let it go and get another one. They eat a potato slice for food, a little Coke top full of water and paper towel. They love bread and vegetables.
Cleaning is a snap, they don't bite and they are not any problem to keep. You can buy them for ten cents at the local pet store, but I like to catch my own. Do not put two together, they will kill one another. Have fun!
By Racer
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They will only kill each other of they don't have enough food. They also eat vegetables, cereal, and corn meal.
I have been keeping the common "house cricket" (the kind they sell at pet stores as food for other creatures) as pets for about six months, mostly because I love their beautiful music. I usually have no more than four or five at a time, but they only live about 4-8 weeks as adults so I often have to buy more.
It isn't true (at least for this type of cricket) that they will kill each other if you put two together. Mine never have, and the pet stores keep dozens of them together all the time. The key to keeping them from doing that is to always have food available for them. They only kill each other if no other food is available.
It is also a very common misconception that only the males sing. Adult females are very easy to identify by the long ovipositor extending between the two back legs, and I have witnessed virtually all of my adult females singing. The adult males sing too, of course, but the females' music is actually even more "musical" than that of the males! You can tell which one is singing by watching their wings-- they rub one wing back and forth over the other, sort of like playing a violin.
Amber is right
Another fun thing to do is buy a little cricket house. They are small little cages, some made from wood and some very ornate and made of beautiful metal.
yeah they do make good pets. it is fun to breed them, have the females lay eggs, and then watch the eggs hatch and go from pinheads to adults.
if you keep them on good food(i feed mine oatmeal, and fish flakes for protien), i have had adults live for 4-5 months(attatched is a photo of a 5 month old adult. he is incedibly old, for a cricket.). males can be territorial, and like to have thier own place to hide, but i have never seen them kill each other although there may be a fight or two.
This is so interesting! They're often thought of a nuisances and it's nice to see people have them as pets. Nice!
I love crickets and this brings back wonderful childhood memories. When cool weather arrived, my mother would have us go out and look for crickets. We would let them loose in the bathroom and that is where we would put out food for them. We would soon hear their singing all over the house and enjoyed it all winter.
In the spring, they would stop and we always thought that they found their way back outside in the warm spring air, but maybe their life span had ended. My mother always said that crickets brought good luck and never to step on one. I know that we always enjoyed our winter visitors.
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