First post! Feeding question

[MonsterPyxie]

I generally recommend feeding these guys as much as they will eat in 15-20 minutes a few times per week. You are correct that he can manage large food items. However, he will be able to digest smaller food items more fully than larger ones.

thanks, thats what I've read. I will try to give him slightly smaller roaches. I'm going to supplement some worm's in too. Wal-mart fishing night crawlers ok to feed?

Check out the care sheet for pixie frogs written by John under the 'Care Articles' tab to find more information to your unanswered questions. The rule is you should be feeding him feeder insects that are half his length. Feeding time should be for 15 minutes as much as he can eat daily for a baby. Temps during the day 80-85, with a slight drop at night time, but not necessary (I keep the temps the same for mine). Actually with your baby you might want to watch how much he eats and decide whether or not that is too much for him because babies tend to just eat and eat till they bloat up. Where is your heat pad placed on your enclosure? If it is placed on the bottom and your frog is burrowing down to it he can dry up and die down there. If you're going to use a heat pad place it on the side of your cage.

Thanks for the advice. I'm still working on the temperature. I do have the heating pad on the bottom, but the programmer is working perfect. I have a additional temperature probe pushed down to the bottom of his enclosure to monitor temperatures, and when first regulating the temp. I had my wife hold up his enclosure just after the heating pad shut off, and I used a infrared temperature gun to check for hot spots, and there where none. So far so good.

with this in mind, do you think its still bad for the pad to be on bottom? I'm just afraid with the pad on the side his enclosure will not get up to the proper temp.

[MonsterPyxie]

You guys don't think its going to stress the little guy out to unbury him every day to feed him? I've just been feeding him when he is unburrowed, which is every other day or so.

[Sublime]

You guys don't think its going to stress the little guy out to unbury him every day to feed him? I've just been feeding him when he is unburrowed, which is every other day or so.

No, as long as he's not trying to aestivate due to certain environment in his cage (dry, cold weather), he shouldn't get too stressed out. I do this with my little guy when he has his head popped out while being burrowed to feed him in his water dish.

[MonsterPyxie]

Sounds good.

I picked up some worms today from walmart, after a few hours of them being on the counter getting up to room temp, I went and checked on my Pyxie, and he had his little head poking out of the dirt. I pulled him out into his dish. He gobbled up two worms aggressively, then wanted nothing to do with the rest. He then jumped out of his bowl, and began digging down into the substrate immediately.

just now I was in the room and peaked in, and he was in his bowl again. I offered him the worms, and he ate one more, then again ignored the rest I tried.

so not sure if he likes the worms over the dubia. He jumped on the dubia instantly, didn't think he would due to there dark color blending in with the dirt.

So we will see. the worms where like $2.50 or 2.90 for 35 I think, so I will just offer those first, and then a few roaches and see how that goes.

[Sublime]

Yeah night crawlers are a great staple diet, so are dubias. Night crawlers have a high nutritional value and they're super easy to keep just by storing in the fridge. Sounds like you got a happy frog. I feed mine night crawlers and crickets as of now, hopefully I can get to breeding some dubias pretty soon here for my pixie, dubias are preferred over crickets.

[MonsterPyxie]

well more then anything I bet he is going after the dubia better because of there movement. The worms where staying under the water and moving around, so he didn't really see them? or just couldn't grab them. So I laid them over the side of the dish, and that didn't really help.

the dubia he just goes after no issue.

I think the dubia will be my staple. They are "free" at the moment because they will be self sustaining pretty soon, so that is a big perk and the main reason I want them as the main food sorce. My colony is about 1,500 strong, with 50 adult mixed breeders on the way to spark the colony a little more since im pretty heavy on SMALL nymph's. The worms I will use to mix it up, and then throw in a pinkie mouse every month or so.

In about a month to two month's im sure I'll be up to my ears in roaches due to me not needing to feed too many off right now. So If you'd like we can work out a deal, and you can buy a starter colony off me. 200-300 roaches would double themselves in 1-2 months time pretty easy. After 6 months you probably would have to start giving them away or selling them.

So if your interested let me know, as I will probably be selling the extra local to me.

Rob

[BG]

Welcome to the site,your'e def in the right place. Mine love to burry them selfs after they eat. Keep up the good work, feeding him different foods. Just make sure the temp is right,and the water bowl clean . He should be ok with everyones advice. Belive me ,mine did.

[Sublime]

well more then anything I bet he is going after the dubia better because of there movement. The worms where staying under the water and moving around, so he didn't really see them? or just couldn't grab them. So I laid them over the side of the dish, and that didn't really help.

the dubia he just goes after no issue.

I think the dubia will be my staple. They are "free" at the moment because they will be self sustaining pretty soon, so that is a big perk and the main reason I want them as the main food sorce. My colony is about 1,500 strong, with 50 adult mixed breeders on the way to spark the colony a little more since im pretty heavy on SMALL nymph's. The worms I will use to mix it up, and then throw in a pinkie mouse every month or so.

In about a month to two month's im sure I'll be up to my ears in roaches due to me not needing to feed too many off right now. So If you'd like we can work out a deal, and you can buy a starter colony off me. 200-300 roaches would double themselves in 1-2 months time pretty easy. After 6 months you probably would have to start giving them away or selling them.

So if your interested let me know, as I will probably be selling the extra local to me.

Rob

Oh that's weird, the first time I fed my pixie worms in the water he instantly started diving with his mouth until he got one. How high is the water in his dish? Haha yeah man you're definitely going to overwhelmed with so much dubias for one frog. I'm definitely interested in getting a starter colony right now, if you hooked me up or something I would maybe consider it soon. The problem is I could buy them locally at a reptile shop near my house, so I think you would be better off just selling them locally on Craigslist or something. Thanks for the offer though.

[MonsterPyxie]

Welcome to the site,your'e def in the right place. Mine love to burry them selfs after they eat. Keep up the good work, feeding him different foods. Just make sure the temp is right,and the water bowl clean . He should be ok with everyones advice. Belive me ,mine did.

Thanks!

The burrowing threw me off a bit. I knew they like to do it, but not as much as he does. I'm sure once he gets more size he won't burrow so much.

Oh that's weird, the first time I fed my pixie worms in the water he instantly started diving with his mouth until he got one. How high is the water in his dish? Haha yeah man you're definitely going to overwhelmed with so much dubias for one frog. I'm definitely interested in getting a starter colony right now, if you hooked me up or something I would maybe consider it soon. The problem is I could buy them locally at a reptile shop near my house, so I think you would be better off just selling them locally on Craigslist or something. Thanks for the offer though.

well today was different still. middle of the day found him in his dish so I offered him the worms. he kept missing them so I held one up in front of him, and he would grab it, then spit it right back out. Made me think he just had a bad grip or something, but he kept spitting it out.

So I just went with the dubia, and he went N-U-T-S!!

He freaking leaped a good 3 inch's and grabbed that thing. I was kind shocked how quick it jumped! So gave him a minute to get it down, dropped in another and BAM he snatched it up in a fury.

again dropped in another that went to the other side of the tank, the Pyxie spun around in a flash, and just chased it down.

I was shocked with the aggression! he was going nuts!

He ate about 5 roaches, then with me not being so careful was trying to push the roach in his direction and I must have scared the little guy with my quick hand movement or something, because he darted to the corner of the tank, was trying to jump through the plastic, then was trying to burrow poor little dude.

I felt bad so I put his lid back on and left the room.


The water is in a shallow dish, and only goes up to his neck/shoulder area, so its not deep at all. so idk why he was ignoring the worms but being RABID over the dubia. very interesting.

As far as the roaches, If im going to sell them, its not going to be for a profit. I'm not really worried about making money off them man. I would expect to be covered for my time, as far as picking through the roaches, and packing them up, also to cover the shipping, but anything above that im not worried about. Even if I sell them local im just going to expect people pretty much just compensate me for my time.

Thats cool that you have a local reptile shop with dubia, we only have a few reptile shops, and there all pretty much garbage.

Rob

[Sublime]

thanks, thats what I've read. I will try to give him slightly smaller roaches. I'm going to supplement some worm's in too. Wal-mart fishing night crawlers ok to feed?


Thanks for the advice. I'm still working on the temperature. I do have the heating pad on the bottom, but the programmer is working perfect. I have a additional temperature probe pushed down to the bottom of his enclosure to monitor temperatures, and when first regulating the temp. I had my wife hold up his enclosure just after the heating pad shut off, and I used a infrared temperature gun to check for hot spots, and there where none. So far so good.

with this in mind, do you think its still bad for the pad to be on bottom? I'm just afraid with the pad on the side his enclosure will not get up to the proper temp.

To answer your first question; Yeah walmart is great for night crawlers, just make sure it's the night crawlers that have nothing added to them for fishing like garlic and all that. There's the regular ones that just say large night crawlers in 12-25 ct, get those ones.

Well is there any way you could buy a lamp for the top of his cage and use the heating pad on the side for night time optional. As long as he's not burrowed down there for days upon time near the pad he should be fine, although I wouldn't recommend keeping it there. The heat pad on the side should provide good temps in there and he can move away or closer to it in the substrate if he needs to. The problem is with having the pad on the bottom is he'll just burrow and will dry up even though you have the temperature accordingly.