Calcium deficiency in African dwarf frogs

[Kaitlyn]

Thank you; that is good to hear. I got paranoid after reading about metabolic bone disease in amphibians. I'll keep feeding pellets to the one frog who will eat them once a week or so and not worry about the other two for now. I think I might try to keep some live daphnia and add them to the frogs' diet, too. It sounds like fun.

Since you have kept them for 20 years, how long on average do ADFs live? I've heard everything from 5 years to 15 and I have no idea how long I should expect to have them.

[Geoff]

The oldest dwarf frog I ever had lived to be 8 years old but that was exceptional as I found that their usual lifespan was around 5 years. I've also read accounts of people having dwarf frogs that lived for 10 years or more.

It'll probably be interesting and worthwhile to try and culture Daphnia. I've never done it myself but there are plenty of videos on YouTube showing different methods.

[otofrog]

If you're really worried about the calcium, give them a couple fruit flies dusted with calcium powder. Also daphina, moina (a small relative of daphina), and fairy shrimp (and maybe clam shrimp) would be good foods. Daphina and moina can be cultured by keeping a bin outside filled with cheap plants like elodea out in the sun to get the water nice and green, feed them yeast a few times a week and they should be good. Fairy shrimp are just brine shrimp except can live in freshwater for a few months and can be cultured by adding eggs to an aquarium, filling it up, and once they lay new eggs and die you drain the water, let it dry, wait a few months, then repeat the process. Fairy shrimp can eat yeast and fish flakes.