Help with young leopord frog, please!

[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.

[Mattiez]

I read that article, though at times I found it a little confusing. Now I'm worrying that they're going to die without UVB light! Anyway, I purchased T-rex 2:0 Calcium and D3 with no phosphorus.

I also purchased a T-rex brand tree frog vitamin/mineral/calcium/superfood dust. They had a big sale so I picked it up too, hoping that it would also be acceptable for my semi-aquatic frogs. I figured since reptile supplements are okay for frogs, that a tree frog supplement should also be okay for at least young, growing frogs of other species. I've yet to use that yet, as I'd like to run it by all of your more experienced opinions first .

When I get home tonight I'll post the full ingredient list, but in addition to a host a vitamins it also has a lot of natural nutritional sources like hempseed meal as well as bee pollen.

Again, I'll post the list and you guys can tell me what you think. If everyone thinks it's not a great idea, that's fine- it was only a couple of bucks, and i just figured it would be worth a try

Thanks again everyone for all your continuing help!

[John]

I think you'll be alright with that one, though I do believe it's not a good idea to buy just one product - calcium is supposedly not meant to be stored mixed with the other minerals and vitamins.

There is no scientific evidence that UV light is essential to most amphibians - in fact it seems to be detrimental to most. Some amphibians bask (such as Waxy Monkey Frogs) but most amphibians are nocturnal, so it seems unlikely they would require UV light! Though not specifically about frogs, this thread over at caudata.org is very good and does include frog references: UV lights in the care of caudates - Caudata.org Newt and Salamander Forum

[Mattiez]

Hey guys, so here's the ingredients list on t-rex repashy superfood tree frog dust that I've yet to use:

Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin Premix, Hempseed meal, Whey Protein isolate, defatted wheat germ meal, Brewer's Yeast, spirulina algae, honey powder, dicalcium phosphate, bee pollen, rosehips powder, haemotococcus algae, marigold extract, kelp meal, rosemary extract, yucca extract, natural mixed tocopherols (as a preservative), vitamin A acetate, vitamin D, dried aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, dried aspergillus niger fermentation extract, dried lactobacillus fermentation product, dried bifidobacterium thermophilum fermentation product, dried bifidobacterium longum fermentation product, dried enterococcus faecium fermentation product and dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product.

Again, I know it says tree frogs, but if it's beneficial to them, I couldn't imagine it being anything other than good for my little guy, at least until he becomes an adult. Of course, maybe those ingredients aren't actually suitable for any frog, which is why I'm posting them for your opinions!

The one I have used is by the same brand and is called 2:0. Here's the list for that one:

Calcium Carbonate vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, Menadione, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine, Vitamin b12, Vitamin C, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, choline, dextrose.


Thinking about what has been said, I should probably buy one that is JUST calcium, so it's not mixed with and potentially de-activating the vitamins...

For now, he's just getting the 2:0, at least until we can make a decision about whether or not the 'superfood' would be beneficial, or just super junk. What do you guys think about that extensive ingredient list?

Again, I'm sorry to keep asking more and more stuff out of you guys, but due to his tiny size and young age I'd much rather be safe than forever sorry, and just don't want to do anything wrong, or potentially harmful.

Thanks again!