I had a few of these before, they arent hard to take care of. Mine was fine on crickets, though you'll want to make sure that you leave enough dry area in the tank for the crickets to hop around on. I ahd the problem of the crickets jumping into the water and not being able to get out. as for food for when you are gone, Im not sure what to tell you. I never was gone long enough for that to be of any concern. If I was gone for any length of time I would just put plenty of crickets in the tank with the frog and a piece of potato for the crickets to munch on. Hope this helped!