How much should my green tree frogs be eating?

[aja]

i stopped at the pet store yesterday and picked up 30 gut loaded small crickets. we dumped them into the frog's barrel. we didn't see them eat any (although they seemed to be going wild in there after we turned out the light). we don't see very many crickets this morning. maybe 2 or 3 hopping around and several dead in the water. are they all hiding in the rocks? did these little frogs eat 2 dozen crickets last night?

[John]

Crickets are great at hiding - I suspect most escaped. A lot of people take their tree frogs out and feed them in a large plastic shoe box container, or similar. Tree Frogs are usually nocturnal and prefer to eat at night. When they tame down a lot they may be open to eating during the day.

[JimO]

I feed my green tree frog (along with a few other local species) about once or twice a week. It's a female and I've seen her eat 10 small to medium-sized crickets in one feeding. Then she sits fat and happy on a brom leaf for 3 or 4 days. She sometimes feeds when the lights are on, but I've dumped in two dozen crickets and watched half of them disappear into the substrate almost immediately. I have a very small snapping turtle in the pond who grabs any that end up in the water.

If your enclosure is pretty tight, the frogs will eventually get most of the crickets that are hiding.

[aja]

we don't have any moss or anything in there yet, just a collection of small rocks and some sticks. i was able to pick it up and poke through the rocks to count and there are at most 15 crickets left. they have been way more docile today, too so i think they are full and happy. they even let the kids stroke their backs and are a bit less jumpy.

[JimO]

If you take a slice of raw potato and/or piece of fruit, the crickets can live for quite a while and provide an ongoing source of food for the frogs. The crickets also need water. I usually put a wet piece of paper towel in with them as well when I'm storing surplus crickets.