Does anyone else do this, and do I need to do it??

[mchell43]

Hiya all Ive had Rolo over 4 months and have been feeding him large hoppers. Now in a care sheet I read during my research, it said to cut spiny back legs off the hoppers. It also said they find the back legs hard to digest. Is this true, as man Ive been getting some stick for doing this on another forum. You`d think I was cutting the back legs off puppies ,the way some folk react.

[poison]

Spiny back legs? Are we talking about hopper mice or a bug?

[mchell43]

Hoppers

[poison]

What are hoppers? Is it like a cricket or something? You're in the UK I don't think we call anything a hopper out here other then hopper mice.

[GrifTheGreat]

Hiya all Ive had Rolo over 4 months and have been feeding him large hoppers. Now in a care sheet I read during my research, it said to cut spiny back legs off the hoppers. It also said they find the back legs hard to digest. Is this true, as man Ive been getting some stick for doing this on another forum. You`d think I was cutting the back legs off puppies ,the way some folk react.

Breaking the hind legs off of crickets makes them easier for the frog to catch. You don't have to, but I will recommend always doing so for babies if you don't have the frog tong trained. If you are getting bashed by other forums maybe you should ignore them. Their hind kegs are made to pop off easily so that they can escape a predator's grasp. It really does't hurt the cricket much at all.

Now if you are talking about hopper mice then yes you should stop doing that because that is animal cruelty.

[mchell43]

Breaking the hind legs off of crickets makes them easier for the frog to catch. You don't have to, but I will recommend always doing so for babies if you don't have the frog tong trained. If you are getting bashed by other forums maybe you should ignore them. Their hind kegs are made to pop off easily so that they can escape a predator's grasp. It really does't hurt the cricket much at all.

Now if you are talking about hopper mice then yes you should stop doing that because that is animal cruelty.

Mice , god lord nooo ha ha I could not even feed him mice . I mean Locusts when I say hoppers , tried crickets but I hate them they are little buggers for escaping lol

[GrifTheGreat]

Mice , god lord nooo ha ha I could not even feed him mice . I mean Locusts when I say hoppers , tried crickets but I hate them they are little buggers for escaping lol

Locust legs are designed to pop off too. It isn't really painful to them. No real harm done.

[Robbo]

I wouldn't worry about breaking them off. No-one is there to do that in the wild where when a large ambush predator type of frog will ingest all kinds of prey animals, spines, stingers, claws and all. That said however, we do not keep frogs in the wild and the choice of prey items, although far more now than 15 years ago, is still somewhat limited. Will eating a lot of hopper locusts cause a problem, maybe. Too much of anything is usually not good. The key is variety, Earth worms, properly gut loaded crickets (again think variety), locusts, occasional mealworms, waxworms and rodents will all deliver a more nutritious and balanced diet.
To answer your questions, it's up to you really. Don't get me wrong, I believe in treating all living things with respect even if they are to be fed to other animals which ultimately we as frog owners do.

[DVirginiana]

I always used to pinch the legs off crickets when I fed them to my frog. Them crawling instead of hopping always cut down on the amount of substrate my frog ate.

[Gnag the nameless]

I do that for my Chorus frogs' and salamanders crickets, it makes them easier to catch. Also, if you're forcefeeding a frog, popping the hind legs off of crickets makes it easier. I cringe whenever I do it, but if it's for my amphibians, I'll do it.

[DeSuper]

I also cut off the hind legs of the locusts I feed to my frogs, with scissors. Apart from the fact that they are really hard to digest, if I accidentally drop them inside the terra, they hop straight to the top of the enclosure :-).

[mchell43]

Yeah I need to introduce more foods , He is getting bigger now. I really dont like cutting locust back legs off but I felt it needed to be done ,as well as digestion issue They kept jumping out or on top of enclosure . Tried worms a while back ,he really seems to be fussy as he isn`t keen on crickets too, he seemed to go off them. Then again all my reps are fussy eaters lol