Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How important is it to vary the diet from crickets? Even if you dust the circkets and gut load them, does a Pacman frog need different foods? Mine won't eat different foods other than crickets, and I'm thinking just to serve crickets from now on because everything else is a waste.

Much of the literature which is available will tell you to vary the diet as much as possible. I am familiar with people raising huge, healthy horned frogs on pure goldfish diets. When my solid green cornuta was small, it only accepted crickets. I tried various types of worms and fish, but they only accepted crickets. During this time I was concerned with my frog having a lack of d3 calcium so I tried to dust at least 3 out of 4 feedings per week. After a while I got tired of the smelly crickets that would die so easily. I decided to try something new for my frog and bought a colony of lobster roaches. When properly gutloaded they are much more nutritious than a cricket, and they have a softer carapace compared to other roaches, making them easier to digest. I dusted them and threw them in with my cornuta and he was snapping them up eagerly. 6 months after it had been in my posession, I got my cornuta to accept a live pinkie. I have since converted it to eat f/t pinks (it wont accept the pinks all the time) as a secondary feeder from its staple diet of lobster roaches. My best advice is to offer as many different feeders as possible and closely monitor the manner you offer the food and the time you feed. My cornuta only accepts the pinks when I offer them late at night in complete darkness when it isnt aware of my presence (cant see me or the tongs). I drop the pink directly on the nose area of the frog and it usually triggers the frog to bite what is falling onto it and swallow it once it recognizes it as a food item. Dont try this too often as it may stress your frog out. Whatever you do, dont give up! It may take months, or even years to get your frogs to accept different foods, but you want what is the best for their health. Variation is the key, I just recently converted my large albino which only accepted goldfish to accept f/t day old quail chicks. His growth has since taken off.

Gut loading insects for calcium is problomatic at best and is very inconsistent as a appropriate source of D3 and calcium. If you are feeding pinks on a regular basis then you should dust the pinks with a D3 source as the pinks are high in vitamin A and are documented to cause a form of MBD.
Gut loading for calcium is often marketed as a good method but the analysis of the feeder insects and the subsequent metabolization levels of the calcium does not support this as a good method. You are better off dusting the insects. Search the archives, this has been beaten to death here.

While the frogs will do well on fish, it is typically advised to not use goldfish as a staple as they are high in saturated fats and may cause excessive levels of cholesterol in the blood, and potentially corneal lipidosis.

Ed

Awhile back, a sad story about a gold fish spine spearing a beloved PacM was posted- can't recall exactly where. It had passed a few days later : ( Apparently it had pierced up through the roof of the mouth; the point apparent on the froggie's head. Any comment on this would be appreciated. After reading that post I dare not feed one again to my baby- "Butters", unless the fins are snipped off!

I dust the crickets as well, but only every 3 feedings because I've been told Pacmans can get a calcium overdose. I just drop the crickets in there, he won't eat anything off of tongs. He also doesn't accept fish, which is weird to me because every pacman i've come across dies for fish. It's encouraging to hear that your pacman didn't eat anything but crickets for a few months, I think I'll keep feeding crickets for a while yet and try fish or pinkies? I don't have any way of getting lobster roaches, pet stores around here don't sell them.

Thanks.

you can get lobster roaches online through worm man. heres the link
http://www.wormman.com/pd_lobster.cfm
i keep my colony in a rubbermaid tub with no substrate. i give them egg cartons to hide in and I put vaseline along the side of the container(they are climbing roaches, but they do not fly)to prevent escapes. you can buy commercial food for insects or just give them your leftovers. i keep them in my garage its about 70 degrees and they still procreate.