Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just purchased my first frog, Herman the PacMan frog (see photo). I have romped my way through many forms of pet, in the past rats, guinea pigs, a turtle, birds. Now, cats, dogs, two lovely scorpions. And now, Herman. OK, in two days the bugger has eaten 4 crickets. I am assuming the pet store is pretty lame and he was pretty darned hungry. However, how often should I feed and how many at a time? I usually buy 3 crickets for each scorpion once or twice a week. They usually only eat 1-2. I figure Herman can clean up the rest (plus some). Heck, he'd probably try to eat the smaller scorpion too! No, no, they are not in the same tank, I just mean if they ever crossed paths. The larger scorp. is a VERY aggressive species and Herman would not fare well. Anyway, as a juvenile, how many crickets and how often? As an adult, how many and how often? I will also throw in some pinks and fish every so often when he gets bigger too. He's in a great moist tank, kept from 70 to 80 degrees ambient house temp. depending on the season. Am I doing good enough?

Just for kicks . . .
This is Fido. Tri-colored Burrowing scorp.

Food: When he is young you could feed smaller portions each day. Maybe one large cricket.
When he is about two inches and over you could start to feed him a bit bigger portions about every third day.
When he is a bit bigger than that, maybe 3-4 inches you could feed him bigger postions aswell.
There is no real amount of food to feed, especially when they are adult: If the frog is skinny feed more, if the frog seems fat, feed less (Note: These frogs are big/fat by nature so don't asume that the frog is overweight if he looks fat). I'm not sure how to tell that the frog is overweight though. I doubt it will even happen if you feed the right diet and a good amount.
My frog who is around 4 inches (these frogs are usually adult at 4-6 inches from what I know, though I've heard of smaller adults and abit bigger. Females are bigger than the males.)eats about six or seven big/medium crickets or earthworms every third to fourth day.

Types of food:
1. Pinkies are fatty and not so nurtious, so I would avoid feeding those.
2. Mice or fuzzies on the other hand am I uncertain of. There has been LOTS of discussions about wether to feed mice to frogs or not. If you would like to know more about this please check the thread "Controversy Over Mice" wich was posted a few months ago in this frog forum.
3. Fish I don't know about either. I know that some people feed fish to their frogs, I just donät know what kind of fish that are safe to feed.
4. Crickets are according to me a good staple diet. They should be gutloaded and dusted with calcium supplement.
5. Earthworms/Nightcrawlers can also be a good, but too much. I've learned latley that too much of these can cause problems with the frogs muscles.
6.Superworms/Mealworms are okay as an occasional food item. They are usually fattier than circkets and less nutritious. I've also heard stories of these hurting animals insides by biting them. I don't know if these are true, but if you want to be on the safe side you could pinch their heads of before feeding.
One more thing, they are also abit harder to digest than for example crickets from what I know.
7.Cockroaches I have had no experience with, but some feed them to their frogs. I think these should oly be fed ocationally since they I belive are also hard to digest.

Tempratures: Should be around 75 degrees farenheit.

Humidity: Some say around 80% humidity though I've heard that around 50-60% is the best.
I personally don't have a hygrometer in my tank I just water the substrate when it looks to dry.

One more thing about feeding, you should try to feed your frog with tonges since thse will reduce the risk of the frog eating the substrate and getting impacted.

It got kinda long, hope this helped
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CokeOfMan

There are multiple discussions in various threads not just the one thread listed.

Some points.
1) When compared by amount usable content (kcals) crickets are as fatty as pinks. There are a large number of incidences of corneal lipidosis from anurans maintained on a diet of strictly crickets (one of these days I'll load the pictures of squirrel tree frogs in the early stages of corneal lipidosis).
On a supposition, as convience people feed rodents too frequently.

2) mice/fuzzies- see number 1 above

3) As a general rule of thumb, live fish are better than frozen as this eliminates the problems with thiamine deficency. Live bearers such as mollies, mosquito fish, and other live bearers are all fine as are cold water fish such as shiners, marine and/or brackish water fish. Do not use goldfish as they are too high in saturated fats and have been implicated in fatty liver problems. If you use feeders like rosey reds, test the water for copper as there is some anecdotal reports of copper toxicity in Pelochelys fed rosey reds from pet stores.

Ed

Thanks for correcting.

Though (I'm not question you, just asking) aren't pinkies less nutritious and more fatty than adult mice or fuzzies? I've learned that the fuzzies contain more calcium since they have more bone, but they are less fatty right?
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CokeOfMan

There is some variation;
a 1.5 gram pink has 0.8 kcal/gram and has a calcium level of 3.8 mg/kcal (4.56 mg calcium)

a 4 gram fuzzy has 1.7 kcal/gram and has a calcium level of 2.4 mg/kcal (16.32 mg of calcium)

while a 27 gram adult mouse has 1.7 kcal/gram and a calcium level of 5.0 mg/kcal. (229.5 kcals)

Fuzzies and larger pinks will have more calcium by virtue of their size and increased ossification of their skeleton.

Ed

on a per fat basis

a 1.5 gram pink is about 40% fat/kcal

a 4 gram fuzzy is about 69% fat/kcal

while a 27 gram adult mouse is 47% fat/kcal

For comparision:

commercial crickets are between 44-54% fat/kcal depending on the species and mealworms are 60% fat/kcal while wax worms are 73% fat/kcal

Thank you all so much for answering a seemingly mundane question. Herman needs a bit of fattening up, so I probably will indulge him until I am certain we get over the pet store starvation portion of life. He seems quite happy in his 10 gal. acquarium (can be switched with my 20 gal. long someday and the scorp. put in the 10). I appreciate all the info. as I like to give good care. Thanks again.
Cara Fusinato
Central CA

Np
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CokeOfMan

That's a really cute frog!