Sow bugs

[reptilia5]

What can anyone tell me about feeding sow bugs to frogs? I have started a breeding colony of sow bugs for both tank cleaners and food for my frog. I know they are high in calcium but they are also high in chitin. How many and how often should I feed them to my frog per week? If feeding sow bugs will it still be needed to use a calcium supplement?

1 Acrantophis dumerili
1 Lithobates palustris

[Eric Walker]

No matter what food source you are feeding you should supliment with vits and calcium . Depending on the specie I don't think they are high in chitin. The dwarf white tropical variety are actually pretty soft as well as the dwarf purple. as for feeding them off once a week is just fine. My dart frogs devour them on a daily basis but that's just because they are well established in my vivs. What kind if woodlice are you culturing? The larger species tend to reproduce much slower as well as any temperate species. They love Mellon, squash, and most fruit not high in citric acid. Pumpkin being one of the best I have found. keep them warm and they should produce faster. Maby around 76-78degrees.

[reptilia5]

No matter what food source you are feeding you should supliment with vits and calcium . Depending on the specie I don't think they are high in chitin. The dwarf white tropical variety are actually pretty soft as well as the dwarf purple. as for feeding them off once a week is just fine. My dart frogs devour them on a daily basis but that's just because they are well established in my vivs. What kind if woodlice are you culturing? The larger species tend to reproduce much slower as well as any temperate species. They love Mellon, squash, and most fruit not high in citric acid. Pumpkin being one of the best I have found. keep them warm and they should produce faster. Maby around 76-78degrees.

I am culturing the local species (grey and brown) found here in So. Indiana. I have been feeding them tropical fish flakes, banana, and various odds and ends of table scraps. I just set up the culture two weeks ago from sow bugs I collected while searching for hibernating insects and worms under rotten logs to feed my Lithobates palustris to give it a break from the cricket routine. I have them in a large plastic box with a few inches of potting soil(without the small pieces of styrofoam) covered with leaves and a few rocks and pieces of rotten bark.The box is not covered and is misted once a day. I am hoping to have a nice established colony by spring that will maintain itself for both food and tank janitors.

[Eric Walker]

The small white things you think are Styrofoam are most likely pearlite. Its used for increasing drainage. Also used as an incubation medium for reptile eggs. You may want to cover the container as they like it moist. Also our native species take quite some time to mature and reproduce to the point of what you are looking for so i don't think you will have what you want by then. Also if you want to be able to regularly feed from it you will need a culture quite large. Medium sized rubber tote. Maby 30 gallons approximately.