Reptile & Amphibian Forums

alright, sorry for so many post's, i rarely use the net these days... but i was just reading the string on feeding frogs mice and how often they should be fed. i hate to start the topic up again and i feel ignorant asking these questions but a)how often should the frog be fed b)mice no good? would fish be better because of the (assumed) low cal? i've alternated between fish and mice most of the time i've had my frog, and crickets when he was younger. he doesn't look over wieght, after he pees he looks normal i supose.

I dare not go into the specifics of whether or not mice or good. There are many arguments about this. The general rule of thumb is that mice are high in fat, so they should be fed as treats. As to how often, I won't tell you what when to feed them, but I'll say this, I feed my frog pinkies ONCE every month. I avoid fish simply cuz I don't want problems with digestion track punctures.

digestion tract punctures. man, so did you feed yours just crickets and mealworms? if so how many a feeding?

When they were babies, I would only feed them dusted, gut-loaded crix only. I would feed them about two small cirx once a day or once every two days.

Now that they are adults, I feed them large crix (I only dust one out of every three fed) and pinkies. I feed the adults 3-5 crickets about once every 3 days. I also feed pinkies once a month only. I have herd that it is safe to feed them more often, but I do not want to risk addiction to mice or other dangers. I mentioned that I do not like to feed fish to avoid digestive tract punctures. This means that some bones of some feeder fish (ribs) will puncture the digestive tract of the frog. Now, you CAN feed soft boned fish, but as to which ones are safe and which ones are not, I do not know. I also do not feed worms to my frogs, but you CAN. As to which ones are acceptable you'll have to look them up, becuase I do not feed worms.

As you can see, I do not like to take risks with my frogs, sometimes I am too careful. I am sorry if my pervious post confused you about what food is acceptable.

Good luck and post any more questions you may have.

crickets/mealworms/earthworms/silkworms/etc are good for your pacman as juveniles as well as adults, they just consume more as they get bigger. when it comes to fish, goldfish are high in fat and can be unhealthy for your frog if fed to often, they are better as a bimonthly treat. rosie reds are better fro your frog and can be fed much more often. as for mice, an adult pacman should not be getting pinkies, they are almost nothing but fat and should be dusted same as crickets. hoppers or adult mice are the best sizes to be fed to your frogs, if they are big enough to take them. they are more nutrious and therefore better for your frog. how often you frog should be fed depends on their size, their temp of their tank, and what you are feeding them. but if your frog is over the 2 1/2" mark then you should not be feeding pinkies, unless it is sick and you need to get its weight up.

I dig up nightcrawlers from my backyard and feed them to my pixie and he like them. Of course, I dust them with calcium and one or two of the bunch get dusted with vitamins. As for the caution of parasites, that's a risk I'm willing to take because my worm bed is just an area where I put grass clippings and no contaminated water sources are near by.

By the way, this is a great way to get worms, just mix in some grass clippings with soil and then top off the mixed mound with the rest of grass clippings and then water. In a few days a lot of worms will come to the area to feed on the decaying grass. This works best in a volume of around 2ft^3 if you have the space for it. And I read that nightcrawlers like low temperatures (50F) and lots of room to grow, so if you're thinking about raising these guys it might be a bit tough. If your cellar gets to (50F) and you have a 20G tank lying around, I think that should suffice if you feed them on a regular basis.

As for the size of worms to feed, I usually dig up ones that are 3 inches to ones that are 6 inches in length. Needless to say your frog will have a fun time dealing with the bigger worm. I read on the Canadian Feeders website that nightcrawlers are one of the best food sources to feed your frog because they are a good protein source and contain alot of nutrients in them. The conversion of soil to worm poop is what gives the worm a great nutritional value. This conversion is also why worm poop is a great fertilizer.

snip " they are almost nothing but fat and" endsnip

On a kcal basis pinks are about the same as crickets and mealworms.

Ed

alright so more crickets it is, dusted of course, i have a bunch of fuzzy mice i got from this expo, should i even bother? or just keep it down to a minimum? i like the earthworm idea, silk worms etc. thanks everyone for the feedback.