Hello fellow frog enthusiasts, I have a male African Clawed frog that is 14 years old. For the past couple months I’ve noticed that while his appetite has not gone down and he is willing to eat as ever he has been losing weight. Upon closer inspection he eats his food, but ends up loosing a good portion from excessive digging in his mouth with his front limbs. He is on a diet mostly consists sting of blood and tubifex forms (frozen and freeze dried) occasional brine shrimp and some commercial grow a frog diet. He lives in a 40 gallon aquarium with hides, large smooth rock substrate that he couldn’t possibly swallow and one other adult male African clawed frog several years younger than him who is not experiencing the same problem. I give frequent water changes and make sure there is minimal waste via spot cleaning. Does anyone know what is going on and how I can help my frog eat more? He is really precious to me as he kickstarted my love of frogs many years ago.
Edit: the photo in my profile is of the frog in question but he has been off of that substrate for over 7 years and as in the post is on substrate of rocks no smaller than 3”X2”
Last edited by Peyton13; January 10th, 2019 at 03:47 PM. Reason: Adding info
It's an impossible question to answer. My guess is that the problem's probably age-related but it's hard to judge. I can only suggest that you try feeding him a relatively large food item, such as an earthworm, which won't disintegrate like the other food items that you've mentioned.
I think the problem is your diet. Feeding freeze-dried "anything" can harm aquatic frogs. I suggest feeding one of the pellet foods that are available, like Repto-Min. Nightcrawlers are very much appreciated. There are many opinions about what to feed your frogs, I can only share with you how I have fed my clawed frogs. I have 2 pair of frogs that I have had for 20+ years.
Terry Gampper
Nebraska Herpetological Society
“If we can discover the meaning in the trilling of a frog, perhaps we may understand why it is for us not merely noise but a song of poetry and emotion.”
--- Adrian Forsyth
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