Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there a way to train my wild bullfrog to eat pellet food? It's still about an inch big and the winter is quickly coming, and my supply of worms and crickets (ones that I catch) will wind down soon too. So I'm thinking about feeding it pellet food especially made for frogs during that time. Also, do bullfrogs hibernate? I want to know if I need to bring its cage inside to warm it up or something.

pellet food for a frog that is out of tadpole stage is not a healthy, sufficient diet. live food, or at least canned crickets and such shuold be provided for the frog. they do hibernate, but they will freezed if you leave them in a tank outside. if you cannot provide adequate food for your frog during the winter then you should let it go in a sutiable local habitat, like a pond or small lake, where it can find food and find aplace to hibernate.

Well, could I feed it anything such as veggies or other foodstuffs for it? There is no real "local" pond here, so if I let it out it would probably be my backyard (I've found a few frogs hopping around there too).

>>Well, could I feed it anything such as veggies or other foodstuffs for it? There is no real "local" pond here, so if I let it out it would probably be my backyard (I've found a few frogs hopping around there too).

Bullfrogs are insectivores (crickets, worms, etc.) so it would need them in some form, either live, dried, something. They prefer their food moving when that's what they're used to so it could be a task getting them to eat anything else. There are places on-line where you can buy 1000 crickets for less than $20.00 (like wormman's) to save money. If you do you'll need a 20 gallon tank and egg cartons to house them.
As for letting it go in your yard since it's been captive it may starve while trying to figure out where to get it's food. A local stream might work as long as it has some deep places in it. Or you could see if a local pet store would take it, or put an ad in the paper. Remember it's counting on you to take care of it now.

I would refer to bullfrogs as carnorvores as opposed to insectivores due to the many other things they eat.

As mentioned above, plant matter is not acceptable. If there is a pet store near you, you can also offer other food items, like small fish as a staple in the diet. This has been shown to be an acceptable diet for bullfrogs in/on commercial farms as well as purchasing the feeder insects online.

In most states it is illegal to release wildlife without a rehabbers permit and unless bullfrogs are native to your region, introducing them can cause havoc as they consume native frogs and are known to be vectors for chytridmycosis.

Some comments

Ed

Thanks for the idea Ed. I hadn't thought about trying small fish for the frogs. Do you think newts would go for them too??
They eat worms and crickets, and I include shrimp pellets and dried bloodworms sometimes too.

Actually there is/was (as I'm not sure if it is still made) a commercial bullfrog pelleted diet for adult frogs on the frog farms. It only came in 50 lb allotments and was formulated to be a complete diet for the frogs.

It is possible (as it has been done on commercial farms in the past) to wean them onto a pelleted diet but it would have to be one that meets the typically requirements for a carnivore diet and I am unaware of any pellets available through pet stores that meet these needs.

Ed

That would take a LONG time to go through 50lbs. for the few I have. They like crickets which I feed dandelions to, and clover, and flake fish food sometimes. Crickets like lots of things.

i don't think you will be able to feed your frog anything but living stuff. plus they aren't meant to eat pellets, they certainly wouldn't eat them in the wild. they are insectivores and carnivores. why would you want to though?