African Clawed Frog and Pellets

[AdamD]

Hi Everyone,

I was hoping you guys could help me.
I have an albino African Clawed Frog, and have had her (I think ) for about 2 months now.
I have been feeding her every other day, half a cube of defrosted blood worms, and then reptofrog the other days.
I have now purchased some specialised pellets, as I am trying to get her to stop eating the bloodworms, as I have read the pellets are more nutritious.

As when I feed the bloodworms, I have a small plate in the tank that I put the food on that she normally goes to, but she doesn't really seem interested.

Is there anything else I should be doing?
She seems too skittish to hand feed at the moment?

I thought that she would start eating the pellets If I stopped feeding bloodworms, but this is now the 3rd day in a row she hasn't really eaten- she doesn't seem to have lost any weight.
I am tempted to feed her bloodworms again tomorrow to make sure she eats?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[SwimminSteve]

Hey Adam, welcome to the ACF forum.

You're right the pellets are more nutritious than the bloodworms. However, as long as you buy good quality bloodworms (hikari) I don't see why you can't continue to offer those as a treat (every 2 weeks or so). Handfeeding bloodworms is super easy. I just hold the cube in the water until it starts thawing and then hold it up to my frogs' faces. They go nuts attacking it and tearing bits off. As for weaning her off the worms onto pellets you will just need to be patient. These frogs are hardy and can go a long time without food. I would go cold turkey on the worms for now and soon she will figure out the pellets. Re-visit in a week or two if she seems to lose weight, but I doubt that it will be an issue. I feed HBH frog and tadpole bites as a staple to my frogs. I also have reptomin sticks, but my guys can't seem to figure out floating food so I have to hand feed the sticks to them and it takes forever.
Also if your frog is fond of the "wet" foods you can try frozen thawed brine shrimp.

Do you mind me asking how you keep your frog? Tank size/filtration/tank mates etc? Just wondering since you are new to the group.

[mpmistr]

Cold turkey method works. They will eat Reptomin eventually, some take to it faster than others. It took me a while to get my frogs on pellets but they will eat them now.. they don't eat it with quite the enthusiasm as they do with frozen/live foods though..

I personally feed my frogs Reptomin ~75% of the time.

The rest of their diet is earthworms (which I have to cut up since my frogs are not adults yet.. and it is gross..) about once a week.
Hikari Bloodworms (once every two weeks or so).
PE Mysis Shrimp (about the same frequency of bloodworm.. rarely).

I've also fed my frogs thawed frozen pre-cooked shrimp once (no salt, spice, ect) and they seemed to really enjoy that too.

[AdamD]

Hi guys,

Many thanks for your replies and advice, it is much appreciated!
I will certainly try the cold turkey method and let you know how it goes.
I have just been a bit surprised that she doesn't seem to eat with the ferocity that many describe their own frogs do!

In response to the question about setup, She is on her own in an Interpet FishPod 48litre:

Interpet Fish Pod Glass Aquarium - Fish Pod 48 Litre: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

(hope that link works!), I use the PF1 filter it came with, but don't really use the air pump feature, as I figured that may stress her out.
I am hoping to get a 'wild' colour Clawed Frog as a tank mate for her, but they are quite hard to come by in the UK it would seem, I am hopefully getting one in the next few weeks or so.

Any feedback would again be much appreciated- I have kept African Dwarf Frogs in both a community tank and on their own before, so Clawed frogs are new to me, and although I have read up a lot, there does seem to be a lot of different advice about.

[mpmistr]

All frogs are different. I've got three and they have a certain degree of ferocity to them appetite wise.. one of my frogs constantly trolls for food and is known for picking off shrimp and mollies fairly frequently (and strikes at them fairly often...), when food is in the tank he homes in on it faster than the other two.. Not all frogs are created equal I guess lol..

They all love to eat though.. and they're always hungry, even when they look rather full.

[AdamD]

Well I guess I must have got a bit of a shy frog then

She is still quite skittish- She has a little tunnel type ornament that she likes to hide in- If I come into the room, she will quite often scurry back into it- I am guessing this is fairly regular behaviour?

[mpmistr]

Yes it's normal, but they seem to get bolder over time. Eventually they will rarely hide unless very startled.

I rarely see my frogs hide much, they seem to like to hide behind the filter sometimes and occasionally sit under the driftwood , they mostly swim around and beg for food when I'm near the aquarium lol.

[AdamD]

ah, okay, that is good to know, thanks!

She ate a bit of a pellet yesterday, so I am taking that as a good sign.
I am still really keen on getting her a tank mate, in the form a wild coloured clawed frog- do you think this may help her come out of her shell, so to speak?

[mpmistr]

I think they're fine on their own but they certainly do not mind being around other clawed frogs. They may prefer it but I don't think anyone really knows.. I would assume having others of the same species around does give some sense of security.. maybe?

[AdamD]

I guess that makes sense, having a buddy to play with

I was wondering if the tank that I have would be suitable for 2 African clawed frogs- it's 48 litres?

[mpmistr]

2 juveniles but not two adults. Get a 20 gallon long maybe.