Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How do you force feed frogs?

thanks

I have never found an occasion where a healthy frog needs to be force fed. Force feeding is especially stressful because amphibians should not be restrained unless absolutely necessary. From experience, getting their mouths open can be very difficult, and should only be done with guidance by someone experienced. All this to say that force feeding should not be attempted without a thorough examination from a vet first, and the cause of the anorexia is solved. Force feeding should not be used as a shortcut to having a proper environment and proper veterinary care.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

it's funny you ask because I just force feed my frog a pinky. The way we do it is by holding the frog in one hand and using a qtip or tounge depressor to CAREFULLY pry thier mouth open. Then shove the food in. I know it sounds brutal but I watched it done one time and then tried it. It seems to have worked because my frog bite and swallowed the remaining part sticking out. I would only recommend this if it is necessary for it can be a tramatic experience for your frog.

So then... why exactly did you do it?
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

My frog will only eat live food. He has never eaten a pinky because it doesn't move when it's dead and we thought that might help him aquire a taste for mice.

I have been down that road. I fed one of my first horned frogs a diet that was about half pinky mice. he eided up getting fatty deposits on his eyes, going blind, and had to be euthanized.
There's really no good reason to feed pinkies. Especially if the frog does not even want it!
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

Make the frog acquire a taste for mice? Where have you been? Mice have not been a widely accepted nutrional food for frogs for quite a while, since it was found that mice and goldfish lead to blindness due to lipid build up and death in frogs. Get out from under the rock. Number one...Force feeding will kill your frog. I have had frogs when I was younger that were off feed. Due to lack of info, I began force feeding. Eventually, the frogs refused to eat by themselves, and then as a result of weekly stress, they died prematurely. But if you wish to kill your frog from stress and lipid build up, be my guest. I would hope that you would have thought before doing this.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

See my post above, I would not consider that to be a legit reason for force feeding. Mice have too high of Vit A and will cause MBD in amphibians (see Amphib Med & Captive Husbandry).
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

You could just advise him and not jump down his throat, that way perhaps he will not be discouraged from using the board and learn correct husbandry in the future.

I think this is the best way to silence the many critics of our hobby. But then again im sure you felt great being able to call someone stupid, so you'll just have to way the two sets of pros up.

I just wish I had a picture of my frog before he died. he was in a horrible state, completely blind and actually wobbling around because of the mbd he got from just eating mice. I did not know what I was doing wrong; the books and the pet store people said to feed him mice, and I did, and look what happened.
Sadly, that was about 6 years ago, before I had the benefit of the Internet and the ability to talk to experienced people like Colchicine.
I really hope that any personal differences of opinion, or harsh feelings, get in the way of someone taking good advice. It is really hard to restrain yourself sometimes when you read certain things that people are doing wrong! In this particular situation, I just hope that everyone realizes that feeding mice to horned frogs is really bad; it killed my frog.
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

Yup, my previous message was no dramatization. My first horned frog went blind and died because I fed mainly mice, listening to the dolt from the pet store. It caused lipid buildup in the frog's eyes, led to blindness, and finally we put the poor frog out of his misery. Heck, even the horned frog books I read back then said that mice were a great food source! Now, not only through the educated and experienced people online, but also through grim personal experience, I can vouch for this: no responsible and enlightened horned-frog keeper will ever feed their frog a mouse.
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

Why would you...
1)forcefeed your frog, to begin with?
2)forcefeed him an inappropriate food item?
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

with people not having to pass an IQ test before buying a frog. Not sure one that one, but I sure believe that is. Acquire a taste for mice...haha what a joke!
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

I feel like I have written a book on this subject, because my previous posts were so long! But in a nutshell, feeding mice is bad. I ain't just parroting everyone else on this; my first horned frog died from it.
Sometimes I think that people should have to get a license to posess herps. Not a license you have to buy, but rather, something like a test where you show that you know how to care for them. then again, the people who sell them don't know how to care for them half the time!
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

Who writes this test? With so many different opinions on how to keep herps, who do we know who is right? There's no one way of doing things, and someone taking away my herps because I do a few controversial things is really scary.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

Yeah, more than half of the caresheets i read when doing research for my horned frog recomended the feeding of mice and goldfish and several even recomended mice as the staple diet!!!
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0.0.4 - Fire-bellied Toads
0.0.1 - Ornate Horned (PacMan) Frog
1.0 - Dwarf Gourami

I'm new around here, but i have to agree: it's suprisingly hard to find good information out of all the bad information especially if you're used to taking care of other animals, like reptiles for instance. Practically ever pet store i walk into is stocked with dying animals of all species. It's not about intelligence so much as being willing to go and find out how to take care of the animal, which is more than 99% of all pets sold have ever experienced from their owners before. Anybody who posts on a pet forum obviously cares about thier pet, that's a good enough test to say that they are providing worthy homes for thier animals. To say that a person has to have expert knowledge before owning a pet is bad logic. No one expects someone to be a perfect parent before having a child. A little research before purchase can be expected of a caring owner, but not a degree in reptile physiology. Saying something like "you idiot you don't now what you're talking about" doesn't encourage a caring attitude. Pacnorman didn't say that to me when i asked for help, he seems to have been very polite at all times. Now, what's possible is that people have driven someone away from this site. This happens oh-so-often on the internet and has little to do with pet ownership and more to do with human psychology.

It is quite funny that there has been such a large respone to this post. I have read many books and even many web site stating that it is ok to feed mice to frogs. I was well aware of the high fat concentrate in mice but was told if fed on occasion that it would not pose a problem. My frogs (9 various species) mainly eat crickets but I do feed them mice about every 4 months or so. The particular frog that I force feed had never eaten one which is way I tried the technique that I did. Although I now see that was a senstive subject, because you killed your frog by feeding him only mice, I never stated that you should feed a frog only mice. I simply offered an alternative in diets, that as far as I knew was ok. I guess I should have to mail you all of frogs since I obviously did not pass your glorious IQ test and am a reckless endangerment to all animals. Let it be noted though that I have never killed any of my pets and care for them daily. Thank you for the help on this help forum and kind nature in telling people how stupid they are. If only every one could be a wise as you there oviously would be no need for a forum.
Love Public Enemy #1 Pac Norman

Number one, nobody said you didn't care for your frogs. Number two, Colchicine did not call you stupid, I did. Number three, maybe you should have been more specific in passing off information to people that might not know better. Number five, I would love to see some newly written books (websites can be made by anyone with time) that say that mice are an acceptable food source. I mean, maybe once every 4 months is okay, but does the frog really receive any nutrition from the mouse that it can not get elsewhere? I doubt it, considering in the wild most frogs would not even run across a mouse in all liklihood. And yes...I AM a frog master, just to spite you. Maybe before just blaming Colchicine, who did not call you any names or what not, you should re-read the posts. Thanks and have a nice day.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

IF! you were to insist upon feeding mice, I would consider once every four months to be a completely reasonable frequency.
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Wildlife dies without a sound, the only voice it has... is yours.

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

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

I would like to personally speak to the people who wrote any caresheet that recommended mice as a staple diet; boy, would I have some choice words for them!
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

http://www.thelilypad.org/info/frogtypes.php?rowid=2

"You may find as the frog gets bigger that it is easier to feed them mice dusted with a vitamin/calcium supplement once every week or two. Smaller horned frogs do well with crickets or baby mice (pinkies or fuzzies) every few days or every week. "
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0.0.4 - Fire-bellied Toads
0.0.1 - Ornate Horned (PacMan) Frog
1.0 - Dwarf Gourami (RIP)
0.0.2 - African Dwarf Frogs

I would give her a piece of my mind if her email was on there. Either I am just missing it (which is entirely possible) or it is no longer on there. This is why people should turn to [updated] books instead of the internet. Any IDIOT can make a website.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

Well, I wonder if the author of that site, ever had a frog die from mbd. I am guessing, yes. If they even kept any for longer than a year!
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

What sort of controversial things do you do? I am wondering, since you mentioned it.
My knee-jerk response to having a test or something, to "qualify" people to own herps, would be "no way. You'll hafta peel my herps out of my cold, dead hands before I give them to you." But I have heard and seen and heard enough about newbies doing ignorant things. I wish that all the herp societies in the US (or hel, the whole world) could somehow unite and make one practical source of knowledge on herp keeping. Really make guidelines as to what is the proper cage size for every herp, etc. like they have guidelines for mammals such as dogs. Then, when idiots abuse their herps by, say, keeping them in a tiny cage, or slowly killing them by feeding the wrong foods, they could be prosecuted like they deserve to be. I know I might sound rigid on this subject, but it's just my opinion, formed from years of walkking into smarmy, stinking, disgusting pet stores who know nothing about what they're selling to any punk with a dollar.
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

n/p

Please don't consider forcefeeding. if your frog isn't eating, chances are he is not hungry. My horned frog eats maybe once a month, and is fat and healthy as anything.
Remember this rule of thumb, taken from snake-keeping; if a herp is not eating, and you force something down his gullet, the energy he expends fighting you, and probably regurgitating the forced meal, is gone, for no good reason.
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

Who said I was going to force feed my frog?Colchicine every time someone posts a message like that you go off.Although acquiring a taste for pinkies by force feeding was pretty stupid.

I was reading wrong post.sorry

Nonetheless (kinda FYI), I won't apologize for a reply I made when someone didn't provide all of the information. This IS a pretty sensitive subject, and I had to assume from the simple question that perhaps there wasn't a legitimate reason for you having to force feed. Usually people will explain the situation and ask if FF is the answer. That gives me the opportunity to explain the alternatives. The solution to this problem on these forums if you don't want people jumping on your back, is to post ALL relavant information, that way nobody has to assume anything.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

Frogs by nature are gluttons, just as a lot of people are. If you keep your pet under proper environmental conditions, and is free of parasites, your frog should be a glutton with the potential of becoming extremely obese.

So if your frog is not eating it may be
(1) Hibernating. If this were the case, force feeding can kill your frog. Bodily functions are at a near stand still so the food will rot in the body rather than get digested.

(2) Improper environment and stress. Fix it

(3) Parasites--vet time and get the feces examined.

Jade Fox

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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?

I am not a frog expert like some other people, but I do think that force feeding would NOT be a good thing. But just one thing that I do want to say is that I notice people in these forums getting really really worked up over other people's posts.
Like a few weeks ago I asked if feeding tree frogs pinkies was okay, and I, well, kinda got accused of trying to be a 'cool' pet owner, showing off my frogs.
I know you guys apologized for it, and I respect you for that, but my point is, that it is humiliating when you ask a question, because of something you read somewhere else, and you get chewed out.
I have observed many responsible pet owners in this forum, and the rest seem to be trying their damndest to be good. But like every pet owner starting out, you need to ask every question you can think of, because it is true (whoever said it) that the idiots working in the pet stores haven't a clue what they are doing there aside from scratching their ass, and most websites have outdated info.
Luckily we have people in this forum that do know what they are talking about, like Colchicine and SnakeGuy. You guys do give great, solid advice that will help all of us do our best in raising our pets...but just please try to be more understanding of us people needing answers!!!
I've only been in this forum for about 5 months now, but I have never seen anyone post a message that said, "Hello, I'm new here, can you tell me how to kill my frogs!!??"
But on a lighter note, keep up the good advice guys! I've learned a thing or two from you!!!
Tanzee
owner of 6 tree frogs and 12 FBTs (and a bunch of fish)