Feeding juvenile leopard frog

[mcmackme]

It took a year, but one of my two tadpoles has turned into a frog! His tail finished absorbing today.

He's about 1" long, and I need to figure out how to offer him food. My local Petco has crickets that are about .5" long. I have a feeling those are too big, and I don't know where else to get "live" food for him.

Also, since he's so small himself, how would I train him to climb into a feeding bowl to catch crickets or meal worms?

[Pluke]

I'd try feeding it small crickets, maybe mealworm or waxworms? I know that mealworms can be bad for other frogs like pacmans because of their chitinous outsides but they might be ok for leopard frogs, not positive. If you really wanted you could probably order some wingless fruit flies for him, I'm sure he'd eat those. You can order those online, as well as pretty much everything else. I guarantee he'd chow down on some Pinhead crickets, if the store doesn't have them plenty of sites online will. That's probably your best bet. Rule of thumb it seems with frogs is "if it fits between their eyes, they can eat it".

He might be able to eat the smalls from the pet store, just remove the hind legs of the crickets, so they are easier to catch and eat.

Welcome to the forums, hopefully you find this helpful.

[mcmackme]

I'd try feeding it small crickets, maybe mealworm or waxworms? I know that mealworms can be bad for other frogs like pacmans because of their chitinous outsides but they might be ok for leopard frogs, not positive. If you really wanted you could probably order some wingless fruit flies for him, I'm sure he'd eat those. You can order those online, as well as pretty much everything else. I guarantee he'd chow down on some Pinhead crickets, if the store doesn't have them plenty of sites online will. That's probably your best bet. Rule of thumb it seems with frogs is "if it fits between their eyes, they can eat it".

He might be able to eat the smalls from the pet store, just remove the hind legs of the crickets, so they are easier to catch and eat.

Welcome to the forums, hopefully you find this helpful.

Went to Petsmart and asked for small crickets. Came home with some small ones and some big ones. He hasn't yet successfully captured the small one that I gave him. He has gotten hung up in the moss mat that I have on the land side of the aquarium. :-( Not sure what I should do to make it easier for him to get around. He's so little, and the large gravel seems awkward for him, too.

[Pluke]

Did you pull the crickets hind legs off so they can't jump and escape easily? This will make things much easier for the little guy. As for the landscape, maybe try some coco fiber (eco earth).. I don't think he'd have much trouble moving on that.

[mcmackme]

Didn't pull the legs off. How do you hang onto a cricket, anyway? (I'm totally new to this...)

Can I just spread some of the coco fiber on top of the large gravel?

[Pluke]

What I do with my crickets is I just grab them by their body, kind of pinched between my thumb and pointer finger so I can grab their legs and gently pull/twist at the same time.. I add a twist because I've noticed with some crickets, especially the small ones.. their insides tend to come out with the legs now and then and kills them shortly after. Twisting the legs off definitely seems to fix that problem.

And I really don't see why you COULDN'T spread the coco fiber on top of the gravel.. it'd probably be more of a hassle to clean, but you could do it. With my pacmans I just have coco fiber in there and thats it. When I see my frog goto the bathroom, which is normally in the water, I clean it out. If it's in the coco fiber, I take it out. This way you don't have to change the coco fiber too often. You know.. it might actually be even easier for you if you just throw some wet paper towels in there over the gravel. You see a lot of young frogs and other reptiles kept on paper towel. Just makes things that much easier for both of you.

[mcmackme]

I think I'll try wet paper towel first. I already have that on hand. :-)