The art of hunting a cricket

[Lina]

Watching my pyxie hunt is one of my favorite amusements! I put him (don't know the sex yet but think of it as a male) in a plastic box when it's feeding time and then drop the crickets in there one at a time. Since there are not much space to get away and no hiding places for the crickets it's of course very easy for him to catch them. Most times it's over within a second. Sometimes though the cricket manages to run behind him. Then he swiftly twirls but usually the cricket now stays completely still and it seems he can't really see it then. A couple of times he's then been sneaking towards the cricket. It looks very funny! He raises his body from the ground and walks very slowly. It also looks so funny when he crams the cricket into his mouth with his "hands".

[UncleChester]

My treefrogs generally sit and wait for food to come close to them. Then it's an all-out dignity-abandoning attack with little to no regard for how mashed up their fingers and toes get (see first 2 photos below). The front hands are also used to help cram the food in, and the eyeballs go squishing into the skull to help swallow the food. If they miss the lunge, they'll usually just go back to sitting and waiting for another opportunity. There is the occasional spying of food from across the tank then slowly walking closer, but it's usually sit and wait, they're very patient.

Probably 80% of the times I see my treefrogs move is when they're eating, so in terms of the frogs 'doin stuff', it's always fun to watch. They aren't like cats who will run randomly in circles for no apparent reason.

I never feel bad for their food items. Circle of life and all that. Besides, I do breed my own crickets and maybe 20-30% of those get to die of old age after having spent their lives eating and breeding to their hearts content. Some win this jackpot, same get sacrificed. The odds are even better for my mealworm colony, very few actually make it into my frogs (but these occasions are much easier to photograph than the cricket eating). They've come to accept this arrangement and will sometimes offer brave volunteers to jump down the frog-beasts throat (3rd picture below).