How many crickets do I feed?

[Krusty]

My dilemma is how many crickets to feed?

Previously I mentioned I am rather new to the hobby, and have been doing my homework on the subject, but have since ran into my current question.

I have 2 Western Boreal Chorus frogs (they are local to my area) and have been feeding them with crickets from a local pet store. The crickets (to me) seemed a little large for my little guys to handle. I would say the crickets would fall into 1/2 and larger in size which is no where near the space between my frogs eyes.

I decided to order some proper sized crickets from a place right here in my own province, who delivered 150 crickets of the 1/8 size - and are perfect for my guys to eat.

However, I think I tend to over feed, and banged out about 10 crickets into the tank on my first feed with these new crickets. My frogs appeared to relish in this new size food source and jumped around the tank eating them all up. I do not see any crickets left.

Is 10 of the 1/8 size enough to feed 2 frogs? Should I add more until I can figure out what is left and go from there on my next feed?

Any thoughts much appreciated!

[Lija]

Yes, I'd give as much as they can eat to see their limits, but watch it and remove any that are not eaten right after the feeding.
You will also notice that some days they eat more, some less. 10 crickets for 2 frogs seem all right how often do you feed them?

[Krusty]

Thank you for the reply. I am feeding them every other day. It has been about 3 weeks now that I have had them, and did notice in the first week I was over feeding them by a long shot. After the first week I decided to clean the tank and do some rearranging. It was at this time I came across about 11 crickets hiding under stuff. I removed them from the tank (and set them free) and went to the local petstore to get some smaller crickets.

I was buying 10-15 at a time, some were smallish, but the majority were (in my opinion) to large for my frogs to handle. I witnessed this first hand when a cricket stumbled past a hidden frog, and lost a leg as he tried to flee the grasp of the frog - I knew then these crickets I was buying were to large for my frogs.

I again made a purchase from the petstore - only this time I selected my own crickets from the tub they had, and tried to get as small as possible.

After looking online I found a local seller of crickets who sent me 150 1/8 size for 4.99 - but I paid 17 in shipping as it I wanted the crickets straight away, so for me it was worth it.

The frogs do seem to like the smaller food source. I figured I would try out some meal worms as well, but those were not a hit at all. I since put those in my bird feeder, and bought 150 small phoenix worms to give as a treat now and again. I have not yet tried these out with my frogs - and after reading some issues with these worms, I may not use them at all - just more feed for the local bird population - lol.

I will keep an eye on what is left in the tank - as of right now - all the crickets appear to be gone, so I may add a few more just to satisfy my curiosity that the frogs (Bob and Bill - my son named them) are getting enough to eat. I do not want fat frogs, but I do not want them to go hungry either.

Again, thanks for the reply.

[Lija]

No problem I can swear there is a breeder from Regina who supplies crickets to all western Canada.... I think I remember it right, will look.

edit - i was wrong, they are in SK, but not Regina. http://www.supercricket.ca/index.html

[Randy]

id say thats ok you are after all feeding 2 of them

[Krusty]

No problem I can swear there is a breeder from Regina who supplies crickets to all western Canada.... I think I remember it right, will look.

edit - i was wrong, they are in SK, but not Regina. Live Crickets, Mealworms, and Superworms at Super Cricket Worm and Cricket Farm

This is where I ordered from. The crickets were great as I said, the only downside is the shipping price. My other concern being up here in Canada was how Canada Post just left my crickets on my door step. Yesterday it was not all that bad outside, but in another month there is no way the crickets are going to survive being left on my door step. I may have to look into culturing some fruit flies or the like over the winter.

Thanks for the excellent feed back. Very friendly and helpful people here!

[Randy]

do you have a neighbor that could perhaps bring them in for you? I get that a lot too one time i came home and ups left my crickets on the doorstep and i thought they were dead. i dumped them out on the desktop and a few minutes later i was chasing them all over the house lol

[Mentat]

Phoenix worms are very hard to digest and can cause impaction . Crickets need to be gut loaded with quality bug food or carrots, lettuce, and cherios. Also, should dust frogs food with supplements, more information in here: http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...schedules.html .

[UncleChester]

This is where I ordered from. The crickets were great as I said, the only downside is the shipping price.

If you haven't seen it yet, we do have an article on breeding your own Frog Forum - Culturing Crickets - Care and Breeding of the Common House Cricket

You can save on shipping, pull crickets out at the size you want, and never have to go to that website that thinks automatically playing a chirping cricked noise is a good idea