The Diet of Surinam Horned Frog, Ceratophrys cornuta

[Namio]

Hi fellow Cornuta lovers out there!

I am guilty of purchasing Ceratophrys cornuta while thinking it's probably as easy to keep as the other Ceratophrys (ornata & cranwelli), but I was WRONG. In fact, way wrong !!! I bought a WC C. cornuta without proper research of the frog's diet on an impulse (I had not regret because Cornutas are so pretty and awesome) and now I'm trying to make it up to Grumpy (my lovely C. cornuta) by doing diet research.

Recently I found a paper on the biology of Ceratophrys cornuta and it gives us a good sense of what C. cornuta are eating in their native home range.

This is the citation of the paper:

"William E. Duellman and Miguel Lizana. 1994. Biology of a Sit-and-Wait Predator, the Leptodactylid Frog Ceratophrys cornuta. Herpetologica, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 51-64."

Let me know if you want the whole paper I can send it to you because not every can access to Journal of Herpetological without cost (I get it free via my school's network).


Here's a quote from the paper on diet:

"The most frequent items of prey, both in number and occurrence (but not by volume), were ants and beetles. Other important prey items, especially in occurrence, were orthopterans [grasshoppers], spiders, millipedes, and vertebrates. The latter includes a variety of frogs-Bufo typhonius (one), Eleutherodactylus toftae (one), Hamptophryne boliviana (three), Hyla parviceps (two), and H. punctata (one), one gymnopthalmid lizard (Ptychoglossus brevifrontalis), one lizard egg (Anolis fuscoauratus), one unidentified snake (a few vertebrae), and three mice, of which only one cricetid (Oecomys bicolor) could be identified. Large prey, especially vertebrates, usually were more decomposed than small prey; thus the volumes calculated for these probably is underestimated."


There’s also a pie graph in the paper (that I wish I could copy & paste) showing the volumetric percentages of prey items in the diet of C. cornuta: 53.05% consist of vertebrates (~25% mammals, ~20% frogs, ~8% reptiles), 22.4% were grasshoppers, 8.79% crabs (yes, crabs!), 3.95% millipedes, 3.27% spiders, 1.95% beetles, 0.52% ants, and 0.27% earthworms.

With diet consist of crabs, millipedes, ants (formic acid), and beetles these frogs have pretty much iron bellies in the wild... by the way this paper was done in the Amazonian Peru.

I guess these frogs are not strictly Anuran and reptile specialists, instead, they are opportunistic eaters like most large ambush predatory frogs are.

[EricIvins]

The problem lies in the fact that this research was done in Peru. These animals are coming from Surinam. Two different countries, with two different food chains/habitats/etc......Essentially an apples to orange comparison........

I've worked with these animals for 7? years now, and I can tell you what works and what doesn't..........Amphibians/Reptiles/Fish ellicit their prey drive........The Insects we feed in captivity do not untill they are conditioned to accept them. These animals also only feed a few times a year - We see them come out in a 3 week or so window, then they disappear into the jungle........In that time, they take in the majority of food they feed on for the year and breed........They may only come out a few times after that with ambient conditions permitting........

( This is why alot of people fail at breeding these guys - These animals are not comparable to Cranwelli or any other Horned Frog when it comes to husbandry and breeding )

Cornuta are the ghosts of the Jungle, and any Frog collector in Surinam will tell you that - They'll be out one night, and completely gone untill the next season........

[Froggiefressh]

This is the citation of the paper:

"William E. Duellman and Miguel Lizana. 1994. Biology of a Sit-and-Wait Predator, the Leptodactylid Frog Ceratophrys cornuta. Herpetologica, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 51-64."

Let me know if you want the whole paper I can send it to you because not every can access to Journal of Herpetological without cost (I get it free via my school's network)

If you could send me that paper I would greatly appreciate it looks like really informative read.

[Namio]

The problem lies in the fact that this research was done in Peru. These animals are coming from Surinam. Two different countries, with two different food chains/habitats/etc......Essentially an apples to orange comparison........

I've worked with these animals for 7? years now, and I can tell you what works and what doesn't..........Amphibians/Reptiles/Fish ellicit their prey drive........The Insects we feed in captivity do not untill they are conditioned to accept them. These animals also only feed a few times a year - We see them come out in a 3 week or so window, then they disappear into the jungle........In that time, they take in the majority of food they feed on for the year and breed........They may only come out a few times after that with ambient conditions permitting........

( This is why alot of people fail at breeding these guys - These animals are not comparable to Cranwelli or any other Horned Frog when it comes to husbandry and breeding )

Cornuta are the ghosts of the Jungle, and any Frog collector in Surinam will tell you that - They'll be out one night, and completely gone untill the next season........

In different regions C. cornuta may have different preference in prey items, but likely due to the availability of prey. Physiologically, I believe there are few differences among populations of C. cornuta, which means, they probably have the same "iron" bellies and capability of living off the same diet. It's the learned behavior in their native homerange that limits what they want to eat in captivity. In that sense, we're not comparing apples to oranges.
I totally agree that these frogs have small feeding windows, with most of the time hidden, buried, in estivation, only to wait for the rainfall/breeding season.

[Capojames]

nightcrawlers and green tree frogs they eat wonderful. i own 6 of them . and there w.c. they took to the nightcrawlers and green tree frogs right away