June Beetles

[Baelari]

They are occasionally found dead due to having tried to eat things bigger than they are. Doesn't seem like they're too picky about what they put in their mouths. If even mealworms carry a risk of impaction, I'd rather give mine a varied diet of softer shelled foods.

[SethD]

If even mealworms carry a risk of impaction, I'd rather give mine a varied diet of softer shelled foods.

The issue with mealworms is not only are they somewhat hard shelled you can compact a whole lot of them in a small area creating almost a solid mass. Mealworm beetles would actually be a little safer even though they are harder. Even with mealworms though issues are the exception rather than common and are generally the result of feeding far far to many at one time. That can be avoided by a little common sense. Just because your toad or frog might be willing to eat half his body weight in mealworms in one sitting that doesn't mean you should feed him that many. A complete avoidance of anything hard shelled in the diet of amphibians out of fear of impaction would the equivalent of of a human avoiding pretzels because George W. Bush choked on one and almost passed out once. Yes, there is a small theoretical risk there but in practice it is so small as to not be worth worrying about as long as a little common sense is used.

[lnaminneci]

I agree. Beetles, June Bugs (which do NOT have pinchers by the way, look it up...lol), Bean Weevils are all OK to feed to frogs and they eat them in the wild as well, but not as the Staple diet. All in moderation, just like we eat popcorn, peanuts and toffee, all crunchy but not as our main meal. At least not everyday anyway! A varied diet is good.

~Lesley

[DVirginiana]

Agreed. It's one of those things that is probably fine to do in moderation, when people know what they're doing. I personally wouldn't do it with my frog as he has a history of impaction (he was impacted on substrate when I got him from the petstore and barely made it) and because of that I'm paranoid about what I give him. It's possible to give the frogs a varied diet without risking wc prey or using prey with a risk of impaction, but it's probably just as possible to feed them things like june beetles and end up with a perfectly healthy frog.

[Kurt]

BTW DVirginiana, is the "D" short Didelphis?

[Baelari]

Mealworms getting compacted and causing an impaction makes more sense. I was wondering how small their intestines had to be for a mealworm to possibly block them.

As for the choking to death, so many of the pacman care sheets on the web I've looked at have mentioned this. Being the internet though, perhaps they've all quoted the same source. As much as I'd like to go, I've never been to South America to look for wild frogs, so I can't say for sure either way.

I still doubt I'll ever use anything wild caught for my frog. I just don't know enough about bugs to identify a good meal. I just found out yesterday that fireflies were toxic, for example.

[Kurt]

I still doubt I'll ever use anything wild caught for my frog. I just don't know enough about bugs to identify a good meal. I just found out yesterday that fireflies were toxic, for example.

Yes, they are! However, they are real cool to watch.

[DVirginiana]

BTW DVirginiana, is the "D" short Didelphis?

Haha... Yeah, it is, I used to rehabilitate them. Cute little critters

[Kurt]

Haha... Yeah, it is, I used to rehabilitate them. Cute little critters

Yeah we get them all the time at the Wildlife Center. They are cute. I don't work with them though, as I do not have a rabies vaccination.

[Kurt]

They are occasionally found dead due to having tried to eat things bigger than they are. Doesn't seem like they're too picky about what they put in their mouths. If even mealworms carry a risk of impaction, I'd rather give mine a varied diet of softer shelled foods.

I have never found a single frog that choked to death on its meal, well except that clawed frog that choked on a Corydoras.