Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My friend catches little treefrogs and one time an american bullfrog to feed to his Budgett's frog. The frog seems to do fine. My question is if the wild frog has worms would the parasites infect his budgett's?

there is a possibility that this could happen. i am not a vet and don't have an extensive medical background, but if your friend does feed parasite infected food, such as wild caught frogs or even insects, there is a chance that the frog could become infected itself, but this depends on the type of parasite that the wild food has. you also nee to remember that captive food items have the potential to carry parasites as well, so it always a game of "chance" and your best bet is to pick out the animal that looks the healthiest and hope for the best, also, don't buy animals from a place that doesn't keep there feeder cages clean and don't catch wild food form areas that show pollution, like oil stains in the water or from areas that have been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. just because the animal doesn't look sick, doesn't mean the animal isn't sick.

you should know that i'm not trying to scare anyone, but the more you know, the better off your animals are.

Simply put yes. Wild anurans are typically pretty heavily parasitized and these parasites can transfer over to the consuming frog. The ones that useing the frog as a secondary host and are encysted in the tissues can emerge and burrow into the frog, meaning that these are only detectable upon necropsy or bioposy while the infectious larval or embryonated eggs of the other parasites can actively infect the frog when it has been consumed. Protozoal parasites like coccidia can also directly infect the frog.

If he is going to insist on feeding wc anurans to his Budgetts, he should euthanize and freeze the frogs for at least 14 days (and preferably 21 days)as this will significantly reduce the parasite load.

Typically parasites are only aquired from cb feeder insects if they have been contaminated via an outside source such as rodent droppings or roaches.

Ed