What Do Crickets Eat? Apartment Feeder Cricket Guide

If you live in a 600-square-foot apartment and you're eyeing a leopard gecko or a crested gecko, you've probably already Googled "reptiles allowed in apartments." The next question that trips people up is smaller but just as important: what do crickets eat, and will a cricket container make your apartment smell?

Good news — feeder crickets are one of the easiest, lowest-odor feeder insects you can keep in a small space, as long as you feed and store them correctly.

Quick Answer: Crickets eat fresh vegetables, fruit, and commercial cricket feed or grain-based cricket "gel" diets, plus a water source like a water gel cube. In the wild they eat plant matter, decaying organic material, and other insects [1]. For apartment keepers, feeding small, fresh amounts every 1-2 days in a ventilated bin is the key to a completely odor-free feeder setup.

What Do Crickets Eat in the Wild?

Crickets are omnivorous scavengers that eat almost anything organic they find on the ground. In their natural habitat, crickets feed on grasses, leaves, seeds, fungi, and decaying plant matter [1]. They'll also eat other insects, including dead or weaker crickets, when other food is scarce.

This scavenger diet is actually good news for keepers. It means crickets aren't picky eaters, and you can feed them a wide range of safe household produce. It also means an unfed, hungry cricket colony will start eating each other — which is one reason apartment keepers should never let a cricket bin run empty for too long.

• Grasses and leafy plants
• Seeds and grain
• Fungi and decaying vegetation
• Other insects (including cannibalism when food is scarce)

Pro Tip: A hungry cricket colony gets louder and smellier as crickets die off and decompose in the bin. Keeping crickets consistently fed is actually your best odor-control strategy, not an extra chore.

What to Feed Feeder Crickets at Home (Without the Apartment Smell)

Feeding crickets fresh produce and dry commercial feed keeps them healthy and keeps your apartment odor-free. The smell most people associate with crickets doesn't come from live crickets — it comes from rotting food scraps and dead crickets left in a bin too long.

The fix is simple: feed small amounts, and remove anything uneaten within 24 hours. Here's what works well:

Commercial cricket diets, like a dry cricket feed on Amazon, are the single best tool for a low-odor apartment setup. They don't rot the way fresh produce does. According to PetMD, a mix of dry commercial feed with occasional fresh vegetables gives crickets balanced nutrition without excess moisture [2].

Common Myth: "Crickets need a bowl of water to survive." Reality: Standing water drowns crickets and creates mold and smell fast. Gel water cubes or a damp sponge give crickets moisture safely, with zero spill risk on your rental's floor.

Gut-Loading: Why What Crickets Eat Affects Your Reptile

What a cricket eats directly determines the nutrition your reptile gets, a process called gut-loading. Crickets are essentially a nutrient "package" for your gecko or dragon — feed the cricket poorly, and your reptile gets an unbalanced meal.

This matters even more in a small apartment setup, where your reptile likely has fewer food variety options than a keeper with an outdoor enclosure or garden. Gut-loading crickets with calcium-rich greens and commercial gut-load powder for 24-48 hours before feeding them off is standard practice among keepers [3].

Gut-loading checklist:

1. Feed crickets a commercial gut-load formula or dark leafy greens.
2. Dust crickets lightly with calcium powder right before feeding.
3. Offer gut-loaded crickets to your reptile within 15 minutes.
4. Remove any uneaten crickets from your reptile's tank after 10-15 minutes.

A well-loaded cricket supports healthy bone growth in small lizards like leopard geckos and crested geckos — two of the most popular compact-habitat reptiles for apartments. ReptiFiles notes that gut-loading is especially critical for species that rely almost entirely on feeder insects rather than varied wild forage [3].

Pro Tip: New to feeding crickets to a reptile for the first time? Check out our leopard gecko and crested gecko feeding basics guide for species-specific portion sizes.

Do Crickets Need to Drink Water?

Yes, crickets need a steady water source, but standing water bowls are risky and messy for small apartments. Crickets can drown in open water dishes, and spilled water inside a plastic bin can seep into carpet or wood flooring — a real concern for renters worried about deposits.

The safer alternative is a water-gel cube or a damp paper towel replaced daily. These provide hydration without any liquid that can tip over. The Spruce Pets recommends gel-based hydration specifically because it eliminates drowning risk and moisture buildup in enclosed bins [4].

• Water-gel cubes: Safest option, no spill risk, lasts several days
• Damp paper towel: Cheap and easy, but dries out faster and needs daily swaps
• Watery vegetables (cucumber, lettuce): Provide some hydration but should not be the sole water source

Moisture control isn't just about your crickets — it protects your rental unit too. Excess humidity in a cricket bin can encourage mold, which is exactly the kind of thing that shows up on a move-out inspection.

How Many Crickets to Buy (and How Long They Live)

Adult crickets typically live 8-10 weeks, so apartment keepers rarely need to store more than a week or two of feeders at once. This is genuinely good news if you're short on floor and counter space. You don't need a breeding colony — just a small, rotating supply.

For a single small reptile like a leopard gecko, 10-15 crickets per week is a typical range, depending on the animal's size and age. That's a container roughly the size of a shoebox, easily tucked into a closet shelf or under a stand.

Quick storage math for apartments:

Buying smaller batches more often also solves the odor problem before it starts. A bin of 15 crickets eaten within a week almost never smells, while a bulk bin of 500 crickets sitting for a month definitely will. For where to source small batches locally or online, see our guide on the best place to buy live crickets for your reptile.

Need to keep costs down on feeders? See our budget-friendly cricket-keeping supply picks →

Common Mistakes Apartment Keepers Make Feeding Crickets

The biggest mistake apartment keepers make is overbuying crickets to "save trips," which backfires into smell and noise problems. A large, long-term colony needs more space, more cleaning, and produces more chirping — exactly what a small unit with shared walls can't handle.

Here are the mistakes that come up most often:

1. Buying in bulk — A too-large colony means more waste, more die-off, and more odor over time.
2. Leaving produce in the bin too long — Rotting vegetables are the #1 cause of cricket-bin smell, not the crickets themselves.
3. Using an open or poorly ventilated container — Poor airflow traps moisture and smell; a ventilated cricket keeper bin on Amazon solves this cheaply.
4. Skipping the water gel — Loose water sources spill and can stain carpet or wood floors, a big deal for deposit-conscious renters.
5. Storing crickets in a bedroom — Cricket chirping, though usually mild, can bother light sleepers in a small apartment; a closet or utility area works better.

Pro Tip: If your landlord asks about your pet, small reptiles are usually classified as exotic pets, not "pets" under a standard no-pets clause — check your lease wording and ASPCA's guidance on renting with pets before signing anything new.

Best Small-Space Reptiles That Eat Crickets

Several compact reptiles thrive on a cricket-based diet and fit comfortably into apartment-sized enclosures. If you're choosing a first reptile specifically because of space limits, this list narrows the field fast.

Leopard geckos and crested geckos are the top picks for apartment keepers because their tanks stack vertically, taking up minimal floor space. PetMD's gecko feeding guide confirms crickets should make up the bulk of a leopard gecko's diet, gut-loaded and dusted with calcium [5]. As of 2026, keeper communities increasingly favor crested geckos for renters specifically because commercial fruit-based diets can replace most live feeders, cutting cricket odor concerns even further.

Ready to bring home your first compact reptile? Start with our leopard gecko and crested gecko feeding guide to plan portions before you buy your first cricket batch →

Conclusion

Feeding crickets doesn't have to complicate apartment life. Stick to small batches, dry commercial feed, gel hydration, and daily cleanup, and your setup stays compact, quiet, and completely odor-free. That makes crickets — and the small reptiles that eat them — one of the most apartment-friendly pet choices available in 2026.

Sources

1. https://www.thesprucepets.com/raising-crickets-to-feed-pet-1237273
2. https://www.petmd.com/reptile/nutrition/evr_rp_raising_breeding_crickets
3. https://reptifiles.com/jacksons-chameleon-care/jacksons-chameleon-food/
4. https://www.petmd.com/reptile/infographic/how-breed-and-raise-crickets
5. https://www.petmd.com/reptile/what-do-geckos-eat
6. https://www.petmd.com/reptile/what-do-lizards-eat