Mealworms vs Crickets vs any other bug!

[LazyEyedFroggie]

Thank-you! Great advice, especially with the separate diet of captive bred vs wild

[frogluver]

Your welcome !
How are your Wood frog froglets doing and the female frog you recuperated, how is she?

[Sublime]

Dubia roaches are the best, hands down. Small-medium nymphs would be appropriately sized. Dubbed the best feeder insect in the world, research them and you'll see why. The effort of starting a colony and paying the price might turn you off, but the reward is endless. Crickets are more commonly available, the price you can't beat and availability. Not a lot of nutritional value though unfortunately, but with occasional supplemented dustings and prior gut loading should give your toad/frog proper nutrition. Mealworms are the larvae of a beetle (Hence containing chitin), once they pupate they are very high in chitin making up their hard outer exoskeleton. Not a great protein-fat ratio either. I would try red wigglers or night crawlers, although maybe not since frogluver said they give her frog diarrhea. I would still try them out though. All frogs can handle some parasite loads, it's when they're stressed commonly in captivity is when it is deadly. Weakened immune system leads to illness, pre-mature death.

[Kreamcheese]

Dubia roaches are the best, hands down. Small-medium nymphs would be appropriately sized. Dubbed the best feeder insect in the world, research them and you'll see why. The effort of starting a colony and paying the price might turn you off, but the reward is endless. Crickets are more commonly available, the price you can't beat and availability. Not a lot of nutritional value though unfortunately, but with occasional supplemented dustings and prior gut loading should give your toad/frog proper nutrition. Mealworms are the larvae of a beetle (Hence containing chitin), once they pupate they are very high in chitin making up their hard outer exoskeleton. Not a great protein-fat ratio either. I would try red wigglers or night crawlers, although maybe not since frogluver said they give her frog diarrhea. I would still try them out though. All frogs can handle some parasite loads, it's when they're stressed commonly in captivity is when it is deadly. Weakened immune system leads to illness, pre-mature death.

I was hoping somebody would say dubias. I just ordered mine and hope to start my colony soon. Ordered 15 females/6 males and 50 large nymphs. Is that good for a start? I plan to use crickets still for the next few months before digging into my roaches.

[Sublime]

I was hoping somebody would say dubias. I just ordered mine and hope to start my colony soon. Ordered 15 females/6 males and 50 large nymphs. Is that good for a start? I plan to use crickets still for the next few months before digging into my roaches.

It's usually recommended to start atleast a 100-200 adults. Your 50 large nymphs should be ready to molt into an adult female or male though so that's good. You can start out with that many, it's just going to take longer before you should start picking out of it.

What kind of frogs do you have to feed? If it's a larger more voracious eater like a pixie or pacman, it will take around 4-7 months guessing on the amount you have. If it's a smaller frog that mainly feeds on small-med range nymphs it will only take you a few months depending on the amount of frogs you have maybe longer. Your going to have to wait awhile till they start to really thrive based on the conditions you have them bred in. I'm also feeding mine crickets till my colony gets going, he eats so many of them though it's ridiculous.

I go through 250 large crickets in a few days with one juvenile pixie. Atleast they're cheap in bulk. Definitely not breeding them, they're a pain.

Sorry got a little off the roach topic, just make sure to keep the temps 90-95, oranges for breeding offered with other fruits or vegetables if you choose, moderate humidity, protein chow, cram them together (they're a social roach and production goes quicker when they're in close quarters). They should breed fairly quick for you, your frog will be very happy.

[Kreamcheese]

It's usually recommended to start atleast a 100-200 adults. Your 50 large nymphs should be ready to molt into an adult female or male though so that's good. You can start out with that many, it's just going to take longer before you should start picking out of it.

What kind of frogs do you have to feed? If it's a larger more voracious eater like a pixie or pacman, it will take around 4-7 months guessing on the amount you have. If it's a smaller frog that mainly feeds on small-med range nymphs it will only take you a few months depending on the amount of frogs you have maybe longer. Your going to have to wait awhile till they start to really thrive based on the conditions you have them bred in. I'm also feeding mine crickets till my colony gets going, he eats so many of them though it's ridiculous.

I go through 250 large crickets in a few days with one juvenile pixie. Atleast they're cheap in bulk. Definitely not breeding them, they're a pain.

Sorry got a little off the roach topic, just make sure to keep the temps 90-95, oranges for breeding offered with other fruits or vegetables if you choose, moderate humidity, protein chow, cram them together (they're a social roach and production goes quicker when they're in close quarters). They should breed fairly quick for you, your frog will be very happy.

Not meaning to hijack this thread but thanks for the help. I have 1 pacman, 2 white lips, 2 small tarantulas and a few salamanders to feed. Wont be feeding the adults or large nymphs to anything but the pacman. And I know the temp needs to be high. Do you just have a giant heat mat wrapped around or how do you get the heat that high?

[Sublime]

Not meaning to hijack this thread but thanks for the help. I have 1 pacman, 2 white lips, 2 small tarantulas and a few salamanders to feed. Wont be feeding the adults or large nymphs to anything but the pacman. And I know the temp needs to be high. Do you just have a giant heat mat wrapped around or how do you get the heat that high?

Yeah no problem; sorry I'm typing this on my iphone if the responses come late.

I have a 22 gallon rubbermaid roughneck tote with a medium 30-40 gallon zoo-med under tank heater stuck to the bottom (also bought the zoo-med rheostat to adjust the heat, it's on max right now). It takes up pretty much the whole bottom floor of the bin. It's around 100-105 at the bottom, temperature drops as they move up the egg flats a the heat is dispersed throughout.

If you are still having a hard time keeping the temperatures high with an outside heat mat, flukers makes an internal heat mat that can be placed in the bottom of the bin. That should definitely heat the ambient air up in there for you. Other than that all I can say is just try to keep them in a warmish-area with insulation also allowing air flow to come in through the ventilation cut out. Some people will wrap a fairly large heat mat around the sides where the egg flats will be, this will also work too.

If you want to stick the heat mat to the side of the tote or bottom and that mat doesn't have an adhesive end you can go to a local hardware store and pick up some ul listed foil tape for heat transfer.