Can frogs hiccup??

[charlamanda]

Last night one of the biggest frogs of the bunch almost 2", who is growing at an incredible rate, was sitting in the "swimming pool" for at least and hour or two. I sat for about an hour watching him/her and every few seconds he/she would...hiccup!
Since 5 of the 10 have gotten so much larger and have been eating so many small crickets at a feeding I decided to try giving those 5 larger crickets for the last 2 feedings. They have each managed to eat 2 each.
They seem to ok, but it was so odd watching him/her "bounce" rhythmically in the water.
So, do frogs get the hiccups or can this be something else?
I am also wondering at what point are the froglets considered frogs?

[tgampper]

The simple answer is yes, frogs do hiccup

"Christian Straus and co-workers at the Respiratory Research Group, University of Calgary, Canada, propose that the hiccup is an evolutionary remnant of earlier amphibian respiration; amphibians such as frogs gulp air and water via a rather simple motor reflex akin to mammalian hiccuping."

Straus, C.; Vasilakos, K; Wilson, RJ; Oshima, T; Zelter, M; Derenne, JP; Similowski, T; Whitelaw, WA (February 2003)."A Phylogenetic Hypothesis for the Origin of Hiccough". BioEssays 25 (2): 182–188.

[charlamanda]

Very interesting!!! Thank you Terry. It was too weird and since it was so rhythmic all I could think of was hiccups. He or she seems fine, but it's very scarey when you are not sure of these things.
One of my Lop rabbits, Binky or Mama Lop(she's had 2 pregnancies and 5 bunnies), sits on the couch with me at night for several hours. She's so good, she will sit there and sleep on and off, but occasionally she will get the hiccups and it's pretty funny watching her. She bounces and her floppy ears lift up.LOL I have to get it on video it's really amuzing. Poor bunny, I shouldn't be making fun of my baby.LOL