Quote Originally Posted by arielgasca420 View Post
I have a few frozen mice left and then I wont be feeding them to my frogs. I have seen how feeder rodents are treated behind the curtain. The feeder mice are usually kept in poor conditions with a lack of nutrition. They eat some sort of dry pellet food and live in their own filth. For me I would rather raise my own food so I started a dubia cockroach colony. I am thinking of starting a colony of gryllus assimilis, but crickets are smelly and loud. I use nightcrawlers as well, but I have been unsuccessful at breeding them in CA. I feed my frogs a little bit of crickets and worms everyday. they are maintaining a proper weight right now and are very active eaters.
Hi, thanks for your comment. I've been around labs, rodent breeders etc., and you make a good point. An occasional pinky is fine, but mice in general are not, in my experience, an ideal food for large frogs. Crickets are as you say, also very hard to breed un less you have lots of space and time. Minnows, shiners etc. are a great calcium source, which is sometimes a problem when ivert only diets are used, even with supplementation (esp for growing frogs). Nightcrawlers ideal, and easily gut loaded by mixing calcium into fish flakes and other foods that they eat. Is temperature a problem? Even if they do not breed, if you can keep cool and feed for a few days you'll up their calcium levels. Please see this article on earhtworm rearing; generally applies to nightcrawlers. Roaches (roach care) great, you can also order live silkworms and perhaps consider canned insects. Are you able to collect insects?..some concerns, but good payoffs as well. Please see this article, and others linked there, or write back and I'll send more. Thx again, enjoy, Frank