What and when to feed a Whites Tree Frog?

[Nyrasoren]

Hello all! I bought my first whites tree frog yesterday, it's a female (I believe) who I named Aileen, and I have her in quarantine just to be on the safe side while I'm letting the plants grow in on her permanent enclosure. Anyways, I bought a bottle of freeze dried crickets and wiggled one in front of her and she didn't touch it or acknowledge it. I was wondering, as the pet store I got her from (not a chain store like petco or petsmart, but a family owned store) fed her live crickets, three crickets per week, so I was curious if she's a little stressed out from the move, or not used to the temperature, or not wanting to eat something that isn't moving/alive. I have her in a 10 gallon vertical aquarium tank, with a screen lid, and a 50 watt bulb as my room can get a little cold. The temperature during the day is 79-80f and 71-79 at night. I'm on my way to petsmart to get some live crickets, just one of the small tubs they sell, to try and wean her off the live crickets and onto the freeze dried, as I had dreams of the crickets escaping everywhere! So, my question is, how often should I feed her? The lady at the store said she was 6 months old, and she's about an inch and a half in length. I felt like three crickets a week wasn't enough, but I may be wrong. What's the best way to gut load live crickets with store but food for crickets?

[elly]

"Gut loading" is simply fancy talk for feeding them. Just put some food in the tank. I used to put those water crystals in but I found out all crickets really need in the way of water is some food with water content. Maybe a piece of lettice if the store bought food you have is dry.

And frogs are motion sensitive feeders. It's probably not going to be easy to wean your frogs to dead crickets. I'm not sure if it's a good idea but you can try. Live crickets can be a challenge if you don't have steady hands though.

Three crickets a week does seem like not quite enough if she's only six months old. maybe if they're big crickets. How large are those crickets?.

[Nyrasoren]

I ended up getting some "Flukers calcium cricket quencher" and the crickets have been eating it. I have her a calcium and D3 dusted cricket on Monday, a "large" size cricket from petsmart. Most of the crickets in the little tubs they sell were mostly dead. So I got about 15 large crickets and a few small crickets. They're maybe a half inch in size. The ones at the store I got the frog from were pretty small, about a quarter inch.

[jasonm96]

Make sure to only feed be commercial gutload every few feedings to the insects. suitable greens and veg should be main gutload. Dust the veg and greens with pure calcium or the insects between supplementation with calcium and multivitamins.

[elly]

What Jason said. I've noticed mine seem to live longer if fed on veggie pieces as opposed to commercial cricket food. As far as size goes it might be a good idea to get insects the length of the distance between the frogs eyes. That will ensure the frog can swallow it without problems.

[Nyrasoren]

How often should I feed the frog insects dusted with calcium and D3? Should I get just pure calcium powder? And I'll check the size of the crickets when I get home from school.