Cricket digestion

[daziladi]

Seems to be an odd question but since I'm feeding only 1x a week just curious what happens after they eat 5 or 6 crickets at a time. Are the crickets still alive after the frog ingests, for how long? (eww!) How are they digested? Since the frog doesn't have teeth, I'm not understanding how the crickets are processed. Yesterday he ate 5 crickets in 15 minutes... how many crickets is too many?

[Kurt]

Crickets die with in a few moments. Stomach acids do most of the work, digesting everything except for exoskeletons and fur. A lot of frogs do have teeth. Here's a few pictures from Skulls Unlimited. The first one does show that some frogs have teeth, they are just really small. The skulls belong to Conraua goliath and Ceratophrys cornuta. The next one is a picture of a Litoria caerulea skeleton.

[daziladi]

Glad to know the crickets aren't in there bouncing around his insides or suffering too much. Humans eat things that are already dead, just couldn't wrap my mind around it, lol. I have a frog skeleton upstairs, will look to see what family its from. Interesting, thanks for explaining!

[Kurt]

You're welcome.

[hyla]

Sometimes mine will miss her target, but touch the cricket with her tongue just a little. The saliva must be powerful alone b/c the cricket will just kinda be rendered useless and doesnt move so well afterwards. I wish there were a better staple b/c I have come to really hate crickets and all their biting, smelly, dirty, escape artist ways.

[Ebony]

Sometimes mine will miss her target, but touch the cricket with her tongue just a little. The saliva must be powerful alone b/c the cricket will just kinda be rendered useless and doesn't move so well afterwards. I wish there were a better staple b/c I have come to really hate crickets and all their biting, smelly, dirty, escape artist ways.

I know what you mean Kristy, You should try Locust's if you are able to get them where you are. They don't smell and they range in sizes to suit small and large frogs. They are a little dippy so are bad escape artists. They also don't make a noise. I have them in my album if you want to cheek them out..

[hyla]

Ebony I just posted a comment under your locust setup pic about them

[Kurt]

Sometimes mine will miss her target, but touch the cricket with her tongue just a little. The saliva must be powerful alone b/c the cricket will just kinda be rendered useless and doesnt move so well afterwards.

Insects breath through spiracles, little pores in their exoskeletons that lead to its organs. The frog's saliva is probably blocking some of these spiracles, cutting off some of the insects air supply, so before the cricket can move again it needs to catch its breath.

[UncleChester]

Sometimes mine will miss her target, but touch the cricket with her tongue just a little. The saliva must be powerful alone b/c the cricket will just kinda be rendered useless and doesnt move so well afterwards. I wish there were a better staple b/c I have come to really hate crickets and all their biting, smelly, dirty, escape artist ways.

Frog slobber seems to be sticky too, maybe they are slimed? Also, they could be partially squished, imagine having an enormous frog land face first on your arm/leg/head/whatever. And partly drowning like Kurt mentioned... maybe a near miss is worse than just getting it over with. If the crickets were smart, they'd just jump into the frogs mouth.


As for the original post, the swallowing process doesn't look to gentle on the crickets either, I always figured they were pretty well squished between the tongue and the roof of the frog's mouth on the way down.

[hyla]

Interesting Kurt, I did not know that. Its hard for me to feel bad for them regardless.

[Kurt]

I have never had an emotional attachment to any feeder insect.

[Crystal6]

I have come to really hate crickets and all their biting, smelly, dirty, escape artist ways.

Your crickets BITE you? That's odd. I pick up mine with my bare hands every time I need to get out for feeding/cleaning the cage purposes and I've never been bitten. I thought they only used their mouths for food I guess.

[hyla]

Crickets will bite your frog, thats what I was talking about. Their bites can lead to an infection and that is just one of the reasons why you should remove them from the enclosure after a certain amount of time if they haven't been eaten. I myself have not been bitten by a cricket.

[Crystal6]

Ohhhh. I see. My frog has a sorta flooded aquarium so I have to feed him in a separate tank anyway. (Thus I've never had that problem before.)

[Kurt]

I leave crickets in myself. Cricket bites are rare. I have only seen two in the past ten years.

[Paul Rust]

I leave crickets in myself. Cricket bites are rare. I have only seen two in the past ten years.

I have had the same experience. If the crickets are appropriately sized it shouldn't be an issue.

[daziladi]

I'm not emotionally attached to crickets per se, but even when I find a spider in the house it get's released outside and not ever killed. It was a huge jump for us to get a frog that required live feed but Chester does'nt come across as the vegetarian type. Crickets are filthy... I won't even house them anymore I just buy what he'll eat that day and that's it. Bleh.

[Ebony]

I bought 50 less than 10mm sized crickets yesterday and they arrived this morning, Cost me $35.00 including postage. I have been a bit apprehensive with crickets as i tried them a year ago and lets just say i had to completely pull my adult enclosure apart as the noise was driving me crazy. I bought this lot for Philomenia & Inshallah so i can get calcium into them. Im out of Locust hatching's so thought they would be just as good. I only put 2 in this morning so well see how it goes. I hope they dont bite Philomenia & Inshallah. I will keep a close eye on them.

Hyla... Have you had a cricket bite your frog?

[Kurt]

Crickets are filthy... I won't even house them anymore I just buy what he'll eat that day and that's it. Bleh.

But that's not helping the planet. Unless you are walking (bicycling) to the pet store, you are producing green house gasses, thus contributing to global warming.

[Kurt]

Ebony, you bought 50 crickets for $35? OMG! That's criminal.