well my jub jubs is 5 months old too. lol she eats the crickets that are medium size but not big enough to chirp.
this will be a long post but its enough detail to make sure you dont have any dead crixs
i think your cricket keeper might be the problem if you have too many shoved together they will die off. i think its because they asphyxiate. for food you could feed them the veggies you feed your dragon and keep some dry cat food that you use a blender to chop it down to smaller pieces. this allows you to leave them eating this for 2-3 days with out you worrying about them. the water you use is fine but make sure they are well ventilated or else they will SMELL. clean them every 2-3 days so remove poop and dead crix. I read somewhere that what kills crickets is the ammonia released by other dead crickets so its important to remove any dead or dieing ones.
to start i bought a ruber maid container. if you have a color one its cool its just that the color ones they could climb up but that is a problem easily fixed by putting clear tape in the inside around the top about 2 inches from the top top..lol make some holes in the lid if you want to keep it clean i have a container thats is about 3f long by 1 foot deep and 2 1/2 feet tall and i put about 30 - 40 holes . this container hold about 100-300 crickets safely but it has had 1000 in it and it did good i just added more eggcrates.
for living space you need
egg crates or some little cardboard boxes.
make sure the temp stays up to 85-90 degrees to encourage rapid growth and matting.
since you are doing small scale breeding you need to keep in mind every female gives about 100 crickets so to make sure you have enough crickets to feed your dragon i suggest you keep a ratio of 10-12 females and 4-6 males. make sure you get the big crickets. those are ready to mate. this keeps the males busy so they dont eat the eggs.
the females deposit the eggs in dirt so you need eco eart or regular potting soil ( make sure no chemicals are used for that soil) but what ever you choose make sure its nice and damp. not too wet but moist and pack it down well in a container that fits in your cricket house and wait about 4-6 days while the females lay eggs over and over and over and over again......
after that time you need to set up a nursery(i use a sterilite shoe container with holes in the lid) to keep the eggs container in. the temp in there should also be 80-90 degrees. make sure the dirt doesnt get dry and kill the eggs so you must mist them once or twice a day. this will last about 10 days and then you will have baby crickets the size of ants. feed them the same thing you feed you use for the parents. make sure no water drops( condensation) is build up on the walls because they will drown your crixs. lol..
other than that just once they are bigger you can move them to the adult tank and continue your breeding while you feed your dragon the appropriate size meal.
PS. I FOR GOT TO SHOW YOU THIS..
MALE AND FEMALE
the image here shows a female on top. the female is the one with the long stick in the back. she uses that to deposit the eggs in the dirt.
HOPE THIS HELPS AND SORRY FOR THE LONG POST.
