Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For an article, I'm doing some minor changes. What are symptoms of Redleg, from what I understand it does not have to mean redness on/around the legs? Does the frog lack of appetite?
Also, symptoms of calcium deficciency can includ that the frog has a hard time walking shorter legs and so on?

Just checking my information.

Thanks In Advance
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CokeOfMan

Symptoms of red leg-seizures/spasms, (sometimes) red under the legs, lethargy, anorexia, frog not acting responsive (lying with legs out behind it)

Calcium deficiency- bow legs, lips miss-shapen or rubbery to touch, trouble walking, miss-shapen limbs.
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Andy Maddox
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Np
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CokeOfMan

I have to ask about your message in a lower post about not feeding super worms (Zophobus morio) because they will "eat their way out of the stomach of a frog". Has this actually happened to one of your frogs? This is a complete urban myth. You will not find any vet saying they have seen this or that it has been documented in frogs. It can and has happened in Anoles, which might be were you heard it, due to their thin stomach lining and weak acid but there is absolutly 0% risk in feeding Zophobus morio to frogs.

I've just heard it. I have never witnessed it happen, but you can never be to sure. It may only be just a rumor.
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CokeOfMan

It has been reported on these forums at least twice that mealworms and company were responsible for the result of a frog's death. I know that the most recent one did say that he took it to the vet for a gross necropsy and found lacerations on the lining of the stomach. You can take that however you want but I don't think it's accurate to say that there is a 0% chance. Concentrations of stomach acids determining susceptibility to this phenomenon is new to me, what literature can you cite for the anole's weak stomach acids?

If you check out the Amphib Med & Capt Hus book (pC16) you will see a pic of a frog that died after eating a cricket because the ovipositor esophagus and the oropharynx. This illustrates that even our feeder from heaven is not perfect, I wouldn't expect the mealworm type feeds to be any safer since the controversy has to erupt from somewhere.
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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)

Np
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CokeOfMan

That's exactly my point. Put a superworm in a glass of water and they don't last too long. Put them in stomcah acid and they are probably toast even faster.

Beats me, I didn't describe the mechanism, just that there is enough evidence to warrant caution. I would like to say that a mealworm suriviving stomach acid is not too radical. There are abounding reports in scientific literature of hognose snakes regurgitating live toads as a defensive strategy. What are the chances of researchers walking up to a hognose IMMEDIATELY after eating a toad? Pretty slim, I'd say. Perhaps things can survive a lot longer in our stomachs than we give them credit for. I theorize that if a toad is able to surivive stomach acids, then a small animal covered in a exoskeleton would fair a lot better.

Nonetheless, this whole thing can easily be corrected. When I do feed out mealworms I simply pick them up by the head with hemostats and crush the head.
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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)

Np
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CokeOfMan

Interesting post! I believe it is correct they can do a lot of damage in a very short time in trying to survive and get out.

Thanks for sharing!

JadeFox

I too snip off the heads of superworms/mealworms before feeding to a frog who will not chew it up but swallow whole.