Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.

I have read that some people have had success with feeding their Cane Toads dog & cat food. I was wondering if anyone else has had some success feeding non-living food sources to their pet frogs or toads.

I remember when I was a little boy, I used to feed my American Toad strips of boloney through the winter months when I couldn't find insects.
Of course, I needed to create movement in the boloney so the toad would react to it, so I dangled it from a piece of thread and the toad snapped it up. He lived happily on boloney strips until I resumed feeding him wild-caught insects in the spring. Thinking back, and knowing what I know now, it really is a funny story from my youth.

Thanks a lot.

jayhawk

I have read about cane toads learning to take dry foods and there was at least one study on the feasibility of farming bullfrogs through the use of pellets (although I have not read the paper or have the reference on hand). With the Cane toads apparently the toads make the association when roaches or other insects are feeding on the food and the toads try to feed on the roaches. After an unknown number of times the association is made and the toad eats the dry food.
I prefer to recommend and use whole prey items as they are a more complete diet item and reserve the items like lunchmeat for emergencies. (I have not used lunchmeat but have used minute steak as a kid in an emergency).
If you are willing to spend the time getting the toad to take lunchmeat off of tweezers or a straw you can also freeze and use crickets or other insects after feeding the crickets for a minimum of 48 hours to improve the nutritional content of the insects.

Ed

Hi Ed,

Thanks for your reply. Now it makes more sense to me why the Cane Toads started eating dog food...very interesting how these things come about.

Thanks again.

jayhawk