Diet for the big boys?

[Herpguy]

I couldn't agree with you more. I am a huge proponent of feeding wild caught diets. I have frogs that have been raised almost exclusively on WC diets and do way better than on traditional ones. People are too quick to bash WC diets when they have never tried it themselves. "Parasites" are something that will always be there, whether or not being fed wild caught or not. A healthy frog's immune system should be able to deal with these with zero issues.

[Eridu Serpent]

Feeding these frogs wild caught food doesn't ensure a difference in size but certainly offers a wider range of options that mirror their natural diets. Additionally, there is absolutely no garantee that captive bred foods are parasite free whether you're breeding them yourself or buying them from someone. Unless you're studying captive bred foods under a mircoscope for parasites, no one can garantee this. Parasites are common in almost all amphibians in captivity and in the wild. What typically makes them an issue is poor husbandry leading to health issues where the captive animal isn't able to deal with the parasite load and additional stress. I've had mine for over 5 years and had no issues whatsoever.

Again it depends on your source of wild caught food, maybe you cannot say for sure that captive bred food does not have parasites but you can be sure that they have not been in toxic water or on treated farmland. There is more chance of your pet catching something from a wild prey than a captive bred one.
I think you have just been extremely lucky not to have had any problems.

[Herpguy]

It's rather easy to know if you're catching food from "toxic water" or not. If there are no indicator species (mostly crustaceans) in a body of water you are collecting from, you need to be wary. Frogs and most animals cannot survive in a toxic environment, that's why frogs are a first-line indicator of pollution.

[Eridu Serpent]

I don´t think I´d chance it in most places, too many things used on the land which go into the water.

[Herpguy]

If you ever wanted to find out the quality for sure, a good test is to find an indicator species chart online. Go out with nets and capture as many invertebrates as you can, and then identify them later. Many insect larvae and crustaceans simply cannot survive if the pollution amount is more than negligible. If you find any low tolerance species, you are good to go.

[annawolv1010]

Petco has red wigglers so I wanted to know if a pixie frog could eat them I wouldn't catch the red wigglers

[DeeDub]

I raised four Pyxies on red wigglers, roaches and crickets. They loved em.

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Thanks
DW

[jelkins]

I guess I'm just fortunate then. I do environmental work for the state of KY, acid mine drainage remediation on abandoned coal mines, I'm very familiar with water chemistry, where to go, what to look for and indicator species. I not only trust my sources but enjoy being outside and trust them just as much as any store bought food I purchase. Let's just stick to the original topic point which wasn't about 'safe' sources but what members thoughts are on optimal nutrition for growing larger animals.

[Eridu Serpent]

So what are red wigglers? is that slang for earth worms and also tell me what night crawlers are?
I think horn worms are banned here, so I can´t feed them to mine.

Personally I think a good mixed diet of fish, amphibians and insects is better, though I could never feed another frog to mine.
I would feel bad and keep the food as a pet.

As for mice and rats, I do not think they are healthy food for ABs, maybe a pinkie now and then but it would have to be dead
before I could do it.
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I used to keep Sav monitors and I´d make a mix up for them of snails, baby eels, fresh fish, chicken mince, eggs and shells and cubed veg.
I used to freeze it in ice cube trays and defrost a bit every day.
Then I´d give them it with some live food like locusts or crickets.
It made me wonder if it would be possible to make food up like this to feed ABs with, obviously though altered to suit what they need.
I know if tong fed most will take non wiggly food

Has anyone ever tried this?
As I mentioned before where I live I have trouble getting live food delivered in cold or hot months, maybe this could work as a fall back.
I am guessing that in the cold months my breeding stock will stop breeding as my house gets very cold.
Things which live in compost and in deep soil will be ok and warm enough, but crickets etc will not fair well even with a heat lamp on.

Any thoughts?

[Eridu Serpent]

I think bringing up the topic of safe sources of beneficial food was a good point to raise. Herpguy gave a lot of good advice about testing etc
It helps to hear from people who use wild caught foods and to hear if they think it is better etc etc

[demon amphibians]

You are welcome, that is what a forum is for...sharing information, helping with advice and supporting one another.
I came here because I´d kept toads and others frogs, never had a AB before and I thought it would be better to find out if there
is anything else I needed to know. You never stop learning though and anyone who thinks they know it all, needs to think again

You should have no problems with an earthworm farm, they are pretty easy.
I´m having trouble getting my Madagascan roaches to breed, so once I sort that out I will be happy

For your Madagascan roaches try bringing up the temp between 90-100 degrees F In there bin. They will breed in the 80's but very slowly. also be sure you don't have any where for your baby roaches to escape. You will be quite impressed with how little of space they can slip through. Oranges also improve breeding. These guys breed faster then dubia's and grow much larger, it would very much be worth it if you could get a solid colony going with this species. PM me for more in-depth tips to help your colony flourish.

[Eridu Serpent]

For your Madagascan roaches try bringing up the temp between 90-100 degrees F In there bin. They will breed in the 80's but very slowly. also be sure you don't have any where for your baby roaches to escape. You will be quite impressed with how little of space they can slip through. Oranges also improve breeding. These guys breed faster then dubia's and grow much larger, it would very much be worth it if you could get a solid colony going with this species. PM me for more in-depth tips to help your colony flourish.

Well I got 100 Dubia too as I found I was so tempted to feed the Maddies to Goober.
Since I put them in with them, the males seem to be competing more for the females...sort of livened them up more.
They don´t seem to eat orange

I will PM you tomorrow, thank you.

[Bruce]

Another really good food source that I haven't seen mentioned is that powdered pacman good where you just add water. I've used it and I gotta say it's really something else. Nightcrawlers have a very high water content, where this is dry food, the water is added after to ball it. So when you consider how much "food" you're getting from nightcrawlers in comparison to the pacman food, it's about the same price per gram if not cheaper. My guy loves the stuff and he had grown like a weed in it! I vary his diet if course though, with dubias, nightcrawlers, and a bi-monthly F/T mouse.

[Eridu Serpent]

I just ordered 20 Pachnoda butana (Dolas) to try to breed the grubs for my frogs.
Shouldn´t be too hard as I have kept Goliath and Hercules beetles before.

[Bananalady97]

I have a large male (6 1/2 years old) and a female of the same size (7 years old) they are big froggies! They refuse to eat anything other than medium size rats, and I feed them every 2 weeks

[demon amphibians]

It is not good to staple on mammals. I do feed my toads and frogs rats, mice and chicks as well but only for supplemental reasons once a month. you want a varitey of foods mostly invertabrites though. Even twice a month can be harmful if it is the only foods they are eating. But i totally understand, all my toads and frogs aside from my firebelly much prefer a larger sized meal then a bunch of smaller bugs. Even my dubia's are a small meal for my pets but they sure get a lot of them.

[Lija]

I have a large male (6 1/2 years old) and a female of the same size (7 years old) they are big froggies! They refuse to eat anything other than medium size rats, and I feed them every 2 weeks

my younger kid would probably refuse to eat anything rather then junk food too, doesn't mean I'm going to do it. please for the sake of your frogs take them out of junk food asap.

[demon amphibians]

[QUOTE=Lija;173041]my younger kid would probably refuse to eat anything rather then junk food too, doesn't mean I'm going to do it. please for the sake of your frogs take them out of junk food asap.[/QUOT

I wouldnt call it junk food necessarily. Although a staple on such items are bad for your animals. I think that they are an essential nutrient boost that most large species need to maintain a healthy body weight. however you can have a perfectly healthy pixie of a massive size of 10" from vent to snout without feeding mammals. just as super worms can have a similar effect as a mouse. If you ate nothing but tomatoes every day you would have to much of a specific kind of nutrient that could possibly have an adverse effect on the body but that isn't to say they are not healthy. I do agree that to much can cause obesity. I even feed my amphibs mice once a month and i think even that is to often depending on the size of food item you are feeding. I noticed my american bullfrog is getting fat, so no more mice for a while, even small mice at that. moderation is the key. word from the wise. : )