Diet for the big boys?

[jelkins]

If you have a reliable souce for wild caught food and feel comfortable with it then I'd suggest doing so...After mine reached a certain size, crickets and nightcrawlers were more of a pain in the *** than wild caught food. Remember in the wild these frogs, as well as similar species, have a diet that consist of up to 70% other anurans. Mine has done just fine on a diet of wild-caught crayfish and frogs; it's growth seems to mirror this.

[Eridu Serpent]

If you have a reliable souce for wild caught food and feel comfortable with it then I'd suggest doing so...After mine reached a certain size, crickets and nightcrawlers were more of a pain in the *** than wild caught food. Remember in the wild these frogs, as well as similar species, have a diet that consist of up to 70% other anurans. Mine has done just fine on a diet of wild-caught crayfish and frogs; it's growth seems to mirror this.

The thing is it depends where one lives, if you are surrounded by farm land you could be feeding toxins to your pets.
Also some very bad diseases are killing off frog populations and more mutations are being found.
Water sources are not always pollutant free, so personally I do not consider it worth the risk.
I love my animals too much to put their lives at risk, at least if you buy specially bred insects you can say 99% of the time
it is safe. If you breed your own you can say it is 100% risk free.
Above all else not everyone has a local stream, river or pond, catching live food is time consuming.
Personally I feel that feeding ABs on on wild caught food would not increase their growth, as long as each frog has ample amounts
of food, a healthy diet, I don´t see how it being wild caught would make a difference. All you would be doing is chancing your frogs health
by introducing it to more parasites, toxins and disease.

[jelkins]

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.

[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.

[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. : )