Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About Zoophobas biting animals inside and even digging their way out and thereby killing them, is this true? Is there any evidence of this?

I've heard that humans have hydrochloric acid as stomac acid.
Do amphibians have the same? Would be interesting if I could find this acid and find out how long a Zoophobas would survive in it.
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CokeOfMan

Many people think that this is bunk, I prefer not to take any risks and will crush the head before feeding it out. I do specifically remember someone reporting on this forum that he had a necropsy done on a frog after feeding it live mealworms. The veterinarian found hemorrhages in the stomach with the head of the mealworms still attached to the wall. You can make your own assumption from that. I think that if people can swallow live goldfish and puke them up virtually unharmed, an animal with a thick exoskeleton might be able to survive for a minute or two.
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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)

if you swallow a live goldfish, its dead. The way that trick works is by drinking enough water before and during the goldfish trick to dilute all the acid and your stomach has trouble keeping up the acidity. Those goldfish also usually die in a few days after being puked out

i dont know about frogs, but many peole feed leopard geckos nothing BUT mealworms with no problem. I feed my gecko nothing but mealworms, because he will seldom eat anything else, and i think if it was hurting him at all, he'd refuse them and eagerly devour crickets, instead

Leopard geckos tend to chew their food or at least take one large crushing bite before swollowing it which usually kills the prey. Many species of frogs simply lung at their prey with their toung and then down it whole. I recieved an email from someone a few months ago who said that she took her dead toad to the science lab at her college and when they opened it up they found a stomach full of undigested mealworms, one of which was still live. I find this hard to believe but it's something to consider. I personally have fed mealworms to many types of frogs for many years without crushing or removing their head and have never had any problems related to it that I can see.
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Devin Edmonds
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com

There are records of toads ingesting so many food items that they die can perish from it. (I think there is a picture of a Bufo guttatus in Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry demonstrating this but I am tired and could be misremembering it).

As far as I know amphibian digestion does use HCl as the low pH is required to activate the digestive enzymes like pepsin.

Ed

i think a healthy frog can easily handle mealworms as they will die quickly in the stomach but if you feed many many mealworms it might become a problem or if the frog is unhealthy to begin with

It would be interesting to use some HCl at the same pH as a frog's stomach acid and see how long a mealworm will last!
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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)

I figured I would add in this observation. I once observed a captive hellbender eating a freshly molted crayfish. I then observed the crayfish kicking around in the stomach for a solid ten minutes. I don't think it is wise to assume that prey itemds die quickly in stomach acid.
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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)

If I remember correctly pepsin is most active at a pH of 2 or less. This gives a good ball park for the pH of a amphibian's stomach as they do use pepsin in digestion.

There is also a fair amount of mucous secreted in the throat and stomach of an amphibian during the swallowing and digestive process to prevent damage. This mucous may also help suffocate some consumed items.

Ed

I have found that many times while feeding frogs or turtles mealworms that if put in the water, they die (or at least stop moving/responding to any stimulus) after something like 20 seconds at max. With stomach acid I would suspect it is even less than that.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
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Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika. Nothin' proper about ya propaganda. Fools follow rules when the set commands ya. Said it was blue when ya blood was red. That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head"- Rage Against the Machine