The skittish behaviour might be "normal" but it's not desirable. Your description suggests it's essentially panicking, for whatever reason, which means it's being subjected to stress. Stress can lead to the animal's immune system being compromised making it more vulnerable to disease. Having said all that though, Xenopus are very resilient frogs.

It's manner of feeding can be explained by noting that the eyes are positioned on the top of the head; it therefore can only see what's above. Some field studies have suggested that their natural diet consists of insects and other invertebrates on the water's surface. Other studies have revealed stomach contents consisting of aquatic invertebrates, some of which live in mud at the bottom of pools. The frog can detect movement in the water by it's lateral line system, which help it to locate moving prey so that it's not dependent on vision alone. The frogs eventually get conditioned to accept inanimate food like pellets, which they seem to locate by smell.

There are thousands of websites devoted to these frogs and I suggest you enter "xenopus care" in Google to find all the information that you need.

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