Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My pacman frogs are just big enough to feed pinkies to. They are about 1 and a half inches long. How often should they be fed pinkies?

Idealy? Never. Pinkies are high in fat and really not good for your frog. If you really have to feed pinkies, I'd say one a month.
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Heather

Yeah, don't feed them pinkies. Insects work a lot better and are the ideal staple diet for Horned Frogs.

laters,
Bill

Despite posting and reposting the real information on the effects of feeding mice to amphibians, it seems as though the same old answers still get repeated. According to the Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry book, the greatest threat to amphibians being fed mice are metabolic bone disease as a result of hypervitamintosis A. The same thing happens with humans, if there's too much vitamin A. in the diet it can lead to brittle bones. Since metabolic bone disease is the most common nutritional deficiency of captive reptiles and amphibians, the owner of amphibians should take it seriously when they decide to feed their pets mice. This condition is not easily corrected, if at all, and is not an easy way to die.
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

So... we shouldn't feed mice because the frogs will die of hypervitiminosis and not because of a fat build-up in the frog's body? Hmm. Didn't know that, good thing I don't feed mammals to my amphibians. Then in that case, Horned frogs shouldn't be fed and maintained on a diet of insects because they eat other frogs in the wild. The damage done to frogs that are fed mice is usually blindness due to a build up of fats behind the eyes. Don't take what I said as offence. Maybe you should write us all caresheets for the frogs we keep so there's no way we can maintain them improperly. Not all of are newbies when it comes to keeping animals.

laters,
Bill

I don't understand the tone of your reply. Would you rather me just keep the information to myself and have frogs die from all of their bones breaking? I don't claim to know everything about keeping frogs in captivity, but I insist on correcting false information.

"The damage done to frogs that are fed mice is usually blindness due to a build up of fats behind the eyes."

I have cited a credible source for my claim, one that has become a Bible for professional standards of amphibians care. What source do you have for your claim? Too much information on these forums gets recycled and nobody knows if its actually true when they say it.
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

Gee, I'm just using the tone you sometimes use with a lot of the other people on here. Why would I wish the animals I love harm? I was just stating that some of your logic was flawed. I don't have that book, I'm not a professional herpetologist and I haven't come across every single book there is on reptiles and amphibians. I am going by what I was taught by the knowledgeable herper that really got me into frogs more than 5 yrs ago. He has since moved out of state, and I haven't been able to contact him. I don't claim to know it all either, and I will be learning new things about herps until the day that I die. And if you had read what I posted, I said "USUALLY blindness"; not the only damage done by feeding rodents to frogs. And as I've said before, my information could be flawed but I'm pretty confident on what I said. I'm not trying to be an ass here, just as I'm sure you're not trying to be one. This is not an attack, just me trying to correct a few things I said and you said. Thanks.

laters,
Bill

I think we are straight. Apparently we were talking about two different things and didn't realize it!
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*Humans aren't the only species on earth... we just act like it.

".the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without
spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

Obviously.

laters,
Bill

I wouldn;t use them; there are a lot of already-stated drawbacks to using mice. Years ago, before I had the internet, I followed the advice of an ignorant pet store owner who said that mice can make up the main diet of horned frogs. My frog ended up with mbd and also went blind, began stumbling around his cage and refused to eat, and we had to euthanize him. So now I never feed mice and my two horneds are healthy and doing well. I'd use a staple diet of nightcrawlers with crix sometimes too, vitamin powder once weekly.
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*~Ginevive~*