New pacman frog... ornate i think

[timscrape]

My son recently bought a pacman frog from petco. We have followed all of the rules we found on the internet. I have some questions that I can't find answers for. We feed him crickets mostly. My daughter decided to give Pacman a friend and put an ordinary wild caught tree frog in the tank with him. Yes I know the risks of pesticides and such. The tree frog didnt last ten seconds. After a month Pacman never showed signs of distress or anything so we gave him another. He LOVES them. Is this ok? Are regular yard toads, lizards, caterpillars, or beetles ok? Not every day but a time or two a month? What other kinds of critters can I give him? What things are an absolute NO NO or poisonous to him? For the record, the tree frogs were caught in the middle of the woods. No chemicals any where near. Thanks for the info in advance.

[Pluke]

Almost all wild caught critters will carry parasites so nothing you catch from the wild should be fed to him despite how much he likes them. Unless of course you want to take the risk of killing the frog. You could buy some nightcrawlers or a mouse to mix up it's diet instead of giving it mostly crickets.. tree frogs are too cool to feed to your frog anyway. :/

edit: If you decide to give it a mouse be careful to make sure it doesn't bite the frog, just take caution. There are a lot of insects on the market you can feed your frog, hornworms, silkworms, dubia roaches. Lots of variety to choose from, no need to take a risk of him getting sick. Just my two cents, there are people who do feed their frogs frogs, but that's normally because the frog refuses anything else. I really don't have anything against it, just wouldn't do it myself. Some people may get a little offended by it, especially here on the frog forum.

[GrifTheGreat]

Do not feed the frog anymore wild caught prey. You risk killing the frog through disease and parasites.

How large is the frog?

[timscrape]

About two and a half inches, nose to butt. Maybe a little smaller. He doesn't seem to be at all interested in any sort of worm. Any way to help entice him to take one?

[timscrape]

Aren't hornworms the big green worms that I absolutely hate to find on my tomato plants? Not gonna catch and feed just trying to identify what they are.

[Pluke]

Yup they are, the ones in the wild are toxic because of the tomato plants. You can buy them in all kinds of sizes, I'd say medium sized ones would be a good size for your frog. Don't buy a lot at once though if you try them, because they grow really fast and might outgrow your frog. To get them to eat the worms, I usually have to use tongs, dangling it in front of them and sometimes rubbing the frogs lip with the food item and they respond by grabbing the worm most of the time. Some of my frogs won't eat from tongs though so I'll just set the worm in front of them and hope that it moves enough to grab the frogs attention.