earth worms for tree frogs?

[aquamentus11]

I'm thinking about picking up a White's or milk frog. This isn't my first rodeo, but I've never owned either of these species before and was wondering whether earthworms are a healthy staple. I kept my fantasy frog on a diet of dusted nightcrawlers with crickets tossed in about once a week and he did well. I've watched videos of the White's eating worms, but I'm curious whether or not they can be fed these regularly. Obviously, variety is best in any animal's diet, but everything I've read has shown earthworms to be great sources of nutrition across the board. Anyone have insight into this?

[HerpDerp]

Well earthworms are a great source of nutrition and as far as I know, a great staple for white's. My problem is that I can't get them to eat them! You have to think, horned frogs naturally are ground dwellers and in the wild eat worms. Tree frogs live in trees and are less likely to encounter worms. If I were you I would get a very small amount to begin with to see if you frog will even eat them. Another option is to get your frog used to eating from tongs and then trick it with a worm. That worked for one of my frogs but then when he ate a second one he spit it out and wouldn't eat from tongs for a couple days. I guess he didn't like them! So I have 50 night crawlers in a container in my refrigerator and nothing to eat them! Fishing bait for this spring I guess (if I can keep them alive!).

A really good feeder is dubia roaches. They're not smelly, like crickets, they're super easy to keep and breed and they're more nutritious than crickets. But, again, not all frogs will take to them. The legs seem to throw some frogs off a bit.

[aquamentus11]

lol that's hilarious. this species sounds like they're real characters. thanks for the reply and info!

[UncleChester]

Earthworms are excellent. One of my two Gray treefrogs, Hyla versicolor, loves them the other can't stand them. My American Green treefrog, Hyla cinerea, devours them with reckless abandon. I'm not sure how much it matters that they're treefrogs and worms aren't a common food source in the wild, they will generally try to eat anything that moves that they think will fit in their mouths at least once. Whether they can get over the icky taste of the worms seems to be dependent on the individual frog and how persistent you're willing to be. Trying different kinds of worms can help too, so will different sizes. My picky Gray will sometimes find smaller worms palatable if they aren't Lumbricus terrestris.

Make sure you get the worms from a clean source that hasn't been feeding them anything funny.

[aquamentus11]

awesome. i'll be taking a look at some juvie wtf's today then