Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys and gals. Its been a while since ive posted but to be honest i missed this forum. I just purchased an albino horned frog. Hes a little baby, the size of a quarter. I was wondering even though ive seen many posts and faq's pages, whats the best diet for this little guy. Unfortunately i dont have the room to raise or keep crickets so what is another food i could purchase so often and for a pacman this small, what is the feeding ratio in terms of x amounts a week.Thanks, great to be back!

Hi, you can feed him pinhead crickets or wax worms dusted with calcium powder.

Pinheads are too small a food item. These frogs have big mouths for a reason. Waxworms are okay as an occasional food item but are fairly high in fat. Small crickets, silkworms, pieces of earthworms, the occasional very small pink and small fish (not goldfish) are all appropriate food items for the frog. Depending on the food item you can feed several times a week.
All invertebrates need to be supplemented with a vitamin-mineral mix containing D3 (and if it contains vitamin A at a 10 to 1 ratio of A to D3). Pinks should also be supplemented.

This should get you started with your frog. If possible acclimate it to feeding from tweezers as this will eliminate the chance of swallowing substrate and possibly impacting.
Two books that are pretty good are Care and Maintenance of Horned Frogs in Captivity, Advanced Vivarium Systems and The Horned Frog Family and African Bullfrogs, Barrons (although the latter does need to have the info about corneal lipidosis corrected but it was written before some of the problems with corneal lipidosis were better understood, (and they still are not fully understood)).

Ed

If the [pacman is the size of a quarter then pinheads are good.Of course when he gets bigger you'll also have to get bigger crickets. Earth worms are good on occasion as well.

I agree with Ed... pinheads are too small ever for a pacman the size of a quarter.

I usually like to stick to a diet of vitamin-powdered crickets for the smaller horned frogs. If the frog is buried in the substrate, then it probably does not want to eat that day. If he is partially buried with his head sticking out, try tossing in a cricket, and he should eat it.
Nightcrawlers (or in this case, baby nightcrawlers or small eathworms) are a really good choice for beefing up a frog. Your best bet might be to get one of those "worm farms" they sell at walmart in the fishing department; you put in a few adult nightcrawlers and in a few weeks you have a ton of babies in there. My horned frog adores nightcrawlers. As with any food, I feed her when she is unburied, until she stops eating, which is usually after 5 worms.

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