snip "Umm yes it is correct. If bones are easier to digest then chitin, then one plus one must be seventeen."endsip


Well then one plus one is apparently seventeen as you again have the facts incorrect.

In the case of horned frogs, the bones are easier to digest as this is the primary source of calcium for the frogs) and they lack any significant levels of chitinase (otherwise you wouldn't be able to identify cricket parts in the fecals). Outside of a few insectivores and some birds that specifically are adapted to feed on arthropods the ability to digest chitin ranges from 0% to about 20%. As I have yet to see a horned frog pass a nearly complete or even partialy complete rodent or other vertebrate skeleton (but the do routinely pass large sections of chitin enough that you can identify the insects they were fed) This lends strong support that they digest the skeleton. This is also supported in the literature and that the skeleton is counted as part of the whole body analysis of rodents as feeders.

I would suggest refreshing yourself by starting with the Nutrition Chapter in Reptile Medicine and Surgery by Mader,
then trying the NAG advisory on feeding Insetivorous Animals, followed by Nutrient Composition of Selected Whole Invertebrates published in ZooBiology... This will give you a good start to possibly correcting the misinformation you are passing out.


snip "And the main part of a horned frogs diet in the wild is indeed other frogs. Perhaps you should get your information correct."endsnip

I believe I stated that in response to an earlier post on this forum where you stated that feeding them vertebrate prey is the wrong diet. So based on your posting you lifted that fact from my posts but what you still got wrong (and what I was commenting on) is the order of prevalence of prey in the wild that you listed. As I cited the actual literature documenting (in a separate post but I will list them below just in case you missed it) the diet of the frogs in the wild, I doubt that I have to correct my information....

Ed

the citations in question
Basso, N. G. and J. D. Williams. 1989. The diet of Ceratophrys ornata (Anura: Ceratophryidae) in Argentina. 1st World Congr. Herpetol. Canterbury.

and

Duellman, William E. and Miguel Lizana. 1994. Biology of a sit-and-wait predator, the leptodactylid frog Ceratophrys cornuta. Herpetologica. 50 (1):51-64

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