Help with young leopord frog, please!

[John]

You think it would be beneficial to move him to a room where he'd be left alone virually all day, except for me feeding/changing his water?

Well he'll never get used to people if he's hidden, but he will be stressed less on an ongoing basis. Hard choice to make.

[Mattiez]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give a little update. For a long while, I was pretty nervous about my little guy, since he'd just sit in the corner for hours when I was home, and I'd never see him. Now he is trained to greet me in the morning when he receives breakfast. I'd put new flies in each day when I wake up, before I leave for work (around 6:40am). Now, every time I wake up and open the blinds, he's sitting in the middle just waiting for the flies. He doesn't get too scared when I open the lid, and when I dump flies in he actually eats them in front of me. I think he's got a good appetite, as his little tummy is nice and robust. Tomorrow I plan on getting calcium powder, and start dusting his flies.

Right now I'm feeding pretty generously once every morning- is that fine for a young froglet? Also, how often should he be fed dusted flies?

[John]

That's good news Mattiez. I would feed him some tiny crickets too - fruit flies aren't the best growth food long-term. I would recommend dusting the flies for a young frog twice a week.

[Mattiez]

Alright, sounds good. I'll be on the look out at pet stores for some tiny crickets. So when I go to petco after work today, I should just get a standard reptile calcium powder? Or should I look for a multi-vitamin thing too? Thanks again for your constant help, John. Peter (the little guy's name) and I appreciate it greatly.

[John]

I would get both. For young frogs, at feeding time I get the fruit flies or whatever into a small plastic tub. I add a little bit of vitamin/mineral supplement and a little bit of calcium powder and then swirl the whole thing around until the flies are well coated. Then I add them to the tank of the young. Generally it's not the best idea of mix these two supplements but the young frogs are going to get so much in each bite that I don't find any problems. Mix the supplements at feeding time, don't store them mixed together.

[Mattiez]

I plan on dusting crickets for my fire belly as well. Since he's bigger, should I do one feeding session of calcium and a separate one for the minerals? Also, can you recommend a brand? I've seen people talk about specific ratios of ingredients to each other, should I be looking out for something in particular, or will it all be beneficial at this stage?

[John]

I know some people recommend one brand over the other and there is at least a grain of fact in some of their reasoning (calcium : phosphate ratios for example). However this is a great page by Melissa Kaplan on vitamin and mineral supplements sold for reptiles and amphibians: Vitamin and Mineral Supplementation for Herps

She talks about them in the context of iguanas (vegetarian lizards) but most of what she says very much applies to amphibians so give it a read.