Pacman Care! Help!!!!!!!!

[Douglas]

Moss is added to keep humidity up. But there is a high risk of impaction when using moss. I avoid it.

Your frog's diet should be composed primarily of things like crickets, roaches, and earth worms. Rodents can be fed as a treat occasionally (no more than twice a month). As for dusting, it is possible to over-supplement your frog. Dust once to twice a week max. If you gut-load the insects with nutritious foods high in calcium (which is best), just dust once a week.

[John]

Tom - I go with which ever is cheapest that I've heard of. I prefer to gutload though, and I only dust when it's a frozen mouse or an earthworm.

[Tom Highum]

ooh ok thanks

[Douglas]

Be careful when dusting earth worms. Don't just stick the whole worm in powder or it will collect too much dust due to their sticking coating.

[Tom Highum]

How do you do it then?

[John]

Be careful when dusting earth worms. Don't just stick the whole worm in powder or it will collect too much dust due to their sticking coating.

You can't overdose the frogs with vitamin dust, don't worry.

[Douglas]

There actually IS A RISK of overdose. Without looking at scientific reasoning, just think about this...would you take 15 multivitamins in one day when the recommended dose is 1? Probably not.

Although lethal levels are very high of some vitamins and minerals, it is still possible. Over supplementing your frog can be just as harmful as under-supplementation.

[Douglas]

And to dust worms, I just place a small dose on a feeding dish and rub the worms in it. This allows me to control the amount of powder I want to use rather than just sticking the whole thing in powder and collecting too much.

[Tom Highum]

That is because of the threat of an iron over dose.

[Douglas]

Iron overdose is common because iron is only needed in low levels compared to other vitamins. Therefore, the most frequent overdose is iron -- it is not the only thing that is possible to overdose on.

Back to frogs. Vitamins and minerals are only needed in small levels. If more is supplied to the body than can be used, these will be processed and sent out of the body. By giving more than is needed, organs like the liver will have to do extra work to get them out of the body. Extremely high levels can cause serious problems and even death.

If you stick earthworms into a pile of powder every time you feed, your frog may appear just fine. Your frog may even live a happy life. But if you were look at the internal processes that were going on, you would see that this is not good for your frog. By only providing the amount of supplements necessary, your frog will surely live longer and healthier life than if feeding supplements in excess.

[Tom Highum]

Ooh ok i'll keep that in mind.

[John]

Douglas, I think you'll find it's hard to get a frog to absorb that much iron through it's stomach. Do you have any real world examples where that's been proven to be the case?

[Douglas]

The iron was an example related to humans and their vitamin/mineral needs.