What I can feed my Pacman?

[tylototriton]

Its funny. Twenty or thirty years ago when this hobby was really in its infancy there were no mass cultured insects or other food sources, everyone relied upon wild-caught foods. If you read the older books they all talk about how to catch your own insects for your pets. In reality the array of wild-caught insects provides a much more balanced diet for your frog; in the wild your pet would not just have a handful of prey items, they would have a diverse selection to choose from. That being said, in todays day and age you have to be very careful about the source of your inverts because we so often spray with insecticides, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and fertilizers; all of which can be harmful to amphibians. If you do decide to go with wild-caught be sure to choose your collecting locations carefully.

As for fish. Fish can provide an excellent dietary supplement and in some species an excellent diet. You can feed pieces of fish or whole fish. Fish possess many nutrients and useful stuff for reptiles and amphibians just like it does for humans. There are plenty of sources that say this is an ok idea but you must be careful. Just like feeding your frog mice, it could lead to obesity. As for the sources, choose your feeder fish source wisely as well. Are the fish healthy, are they wild-caught or captive bred, etc. The best people to ask about feeder fish would be snake keepers who keep aquatic or semi-aquatic species like Chersydrus, Seminatrix, Erpeton, Thamnophis, etc. These species feed almost entirely on fish. N.B.-Feeder goldfish are not really great, try minnows are something along those lines.

And finally, parasites. Herpetoculturists always get bent out of shape when it comes to parasites. We are constantly flooding our captives with drugs and caustic chemicals to "rid" them of parasites. The reality is that all animals, us included, can handle some sort of parasite load. If you ever look at wild amphibians or reptiles they almost always have some parasites. These parasites only become a problem when the animal is stressed, which is why we always flush newly imported animals. Of course we should always attempt to limit the number of parasites that our pets consume but it probably won't be the end of the world.

Alex