How to Select Fighting Crickets? A Detailed Guide to Practical Selection Methods
Chinese cricket culture has a long and storied history, a unique cultural life with strong Oriental flavor. It began in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and by the Qing Dynasty the activities became increasingly refined, requiring freedom from the "four faults" (head tilting, curled antennae, tooth grinding, leg kicking). External colors were also ranked by status: "white is inferior to black, black is inferior to red, red is inferior to yellow." Let us now take a look at how to select fighting crickets!
How to Raise Fighting Crickets
The fighting crickets available today are basically purchased from the market, and most of these crickets are caught in rural fields. A cricket's call is very important; different grades can be distinguished from the chirping. Those with weak, light, thin and harsh sounds are inferior grade. Those whose chirping is fairly loud but not sufficiently deep and steady are middle grade. Those with a mellow, deep, steady and powerful chirp, with a bell-like sound, are top-grade varieties, and catchers make a preliminary selection when capturing them. Newly caught crickets have a strong wild nature; they will not settle for a moment in a jar or cage, often bouncing and running wildly all over the cage. At this time you need to use a grass blade with fine hairs to touch it lightly on top several times, and only then will it gradually calm down. But note: do not touch its front teeth or tail pikes. After several days of feeding and training, the cricket will gradually become familiar with the new environment, and then it can be used for fighting.
Types of Cricket Cages for Fighting Crickets
1. Ceramic bowl rearing cage: The ceramic bowl rearing cage is made from a ceramic jar with a diameter of 15-17 cm and a height of about 8 cm, with a lid made of iron gauze or plastic gauze. The advantage is that ceramic clay products contain a tiny amount of moisture, which is close to the cricket's living habits, suitable for it to live in for a longer time, and beneficial to its health. The disadvantage is that the bottom of the jar is round, so if used for fighting it lacks length, and the cricket has too little room to advance and retreat during fierce combat.
2. Rectangular rearing cage: The rectangular rearing cage is generally about 20 cm long, 12 cm wide and 8 cm high, with a lid also made of iron gauze or plastic gauze. The advantage of this container is that it is relatively spacious; besides placing some semi-moist sandy soil inside, you can also place some arched tiles, leaving gaps for the cricket to avoid the sun and light, so as to obtain a quiet resting environment. Small grasses can also be planted in the sandy soil, which not only lets the cricket live comfortably as in a natural environment, helping it store stamina for fighting, but also gives the keeper a better view.
3. Bamboo strip rearing cage: The bamboo strip rearing cage is made by splitting a bamboo section with a diameter of 7-9 cm and a length of 20-30 cm into two halves, then using many thin round bamboo strips about the size of knitting needles, whose length equals the upper opening of the bamboo cage (equal to the diameter of the bamboo tube), inserted at the split opening of the bamboo tube, with 1 strip inserted every 0.2 cm, and both ends blocked with semicircular bamboo gates to prevent escape. In one such bamboo cage, with a semicircular bamboo gate in the middle as a partition, you can keep 3-4 or even 5-6 crickets. The advantage is that besides keeping multiple crickets, because it is long and strip-shaped, it is very convenient as a place for crickets to fight. The disadvantage is that if kept for a longer time, the bamboo cage is slightly too dry and cannot absorb a bit of ground moisture the way a ceramic jar can, so depending on how dry the air is at the time, you should spray a little water into the cage every 1-2 days. This kind of cage is mostly used in Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan and Hubei.
How to Select Fighting Crickets
1. The cricket's head should be large, and bright and glossy. An excellent fighting cricket has a tall and round head shape. The eyes are positioned relatively high, and the forehead protrudes outward.
2. Observe whether the cricket's head is green-gold, bronze, etc.; these are all top-grade qualities among fighting crickets. If the overall color is a mix of black and white, then it is an inferior variety, a cricket that does not fight well.
3. A cricket with a "hemp head" is a warrior among fighting crickets. This kind of cricket has a thin, straight line on its head. If it has ram-horn-style lines, it belongs to the inferior grades among fighting crickets.
4. A cricket good at fighting should have black eyes and golden teeth. Without these distinctive colors, its fighting level will decline.
5. The cricket's main weapon in fighting is its sharp teeth, so the fighting cricket you select must have firm, sharp teeth. If the teeth are bright, not weak, with sharp and pointed serrations, the cricket belongs to the top-grade varieties in fighting.
Summary: Selecting a cricket that is good at fighting is the primary condition for achieving victory in competition. Modern people's lives have improved greatly, and people's forms of entertainment have changed from the former single style to more diverse ones. Choosing fighting crickets nowadays is not just a way for people to relax; I think it is more about the inheritance and preservation of historical culture and historical living customs.