I've been feeding about 5-6 crickets every third day to my 3-4 inch Hornedfrog. Is it the same with earthworms (average sized). About 5-6 earthworms,to much or to little?
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How many earthworms whould you say is the same as one cricket?
CokeOfMan
Apr 13, 2004 01:31 PM
Replies (7)
EdK
Apr 13, 2004 01:54 PM
I'm at home so I don't have access to the literature but earthworms are calorically more dense than crickets on a gram equivalent basis. Also as a point in their favor, if you calcium enrich the soil where the worms are kept, they will have a favorable calcium to phosphorus ratio.
As a side note, why are you concerned about restricting food availability to a species that is genetically programed to grow large quickly?
Ed
canadianherper04
Apr 13, 2004 02:28 PM
I usually fed a mix of locusts and earthworms at the same time. For the horned frogs (6" aprox) I feed every second day, 1-2 locusts, i'm not sure what the conversion to crickets would be, locusts are bout 3"-4" and 3/4"-1" in di. and 1-4 earthworms, the regular bait size. You can get grainulated calcium at garden centers, (bone meal) and that improves the content of the eathworms. I know im probably going to hear it about the bone meal recomendation, but it is possible to find it fairly pure.
EdK
Apr 13, 2004 02:33 PM
The problem (if I remember correctly) is that bone meal contains phosphorus. What you should ideally use is a pure calcium carbonate as this allows a proper calcium to phosphorus ratio.
Ed
CokeOfMan
Apr 13, 2004 02:49 PM
How many earthworms do you think I should feed, more or less? 
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EdK
Apr 13, 2004 05:11 PM
For an honest answer I'll have to look up the caloric content of the worms and plug into the metabolic rate equations in Amphibian Medicine and Husbandry.
It also will depend on the temperature you keep the frog as well as how much it weighs.
Ed
EdK
Apr 18, 2004 04:54 PM
I"m going to post a couple of caloric requirements on weight, you will have to weigh your frog to determine which is the closest.
30 grams at 20 C 0.14 kcal/day (just multiple by 7 to get the weekly need)
30 grams at 25C 0.35 kcal/day
50 grams at 20 C 0.29 kcal/day at 25 C 0.54 kcal/day
80 grams at 20 C 0.43 kcal/day at 25 C 0.80 kcal/day
100 grams at 20 C 0.52 kcal/day at 25 C 0.97 kcal/day
500 grams at 20 C 1.9 kcal/day at 25 C 3.7 kcal/day.
earthworms have 0.5 kcal/gram while crickets are 1.9 kcal/gram.
So with a little math you can figure out the conversion ratio between crickets and earthworms.
Hope this helps,
Ed
CokeOfMan
Apr 21, 2004 03:38 PM
Np
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