Fire-Bellied Toad's Diet

The fire-bellied toad, also called a bombina frog, or an Oriental fire-belly, is a hearty, easy to manage amphibian that thrives in home vivariums and has been known to live up to 20 years. In the wild, bombina feed on a variety of invertebrates, small fish, and mollusks. They feed both on land and in water. In captivity, they are voracious eaters who rarely refuse to eat.

  1. What to Feed

    • Live crickets can make up the majority of the toad's diet, supplemented with other insects and worms such as black worms, meal worms, fruit flies, earthworms, silkworms, or wax worms for variety. Coat the bugs in a high-calcium reptile vitamin, and gut load the feeder insects with vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes which are high in betacarotene. This will help keep the toad's colors bright. Make sure the feeder crickets, worms and bugs are size-appropriate for your frog. Large frogs may enjoy an occasional "pinkie" mouse or feeder guppy, but it should not be a major part of the bombina's diet. Likewise, some pet toads may learn to take strips of meat or fish offered on tweezers from their owners, but this should be a treat, not given often. And, of course, a frog should have plenty of fresh water available at all times.

    How Often to Feed

    • Feed juvenile frogs once a day in small amounts. Feed your fire-bellied toad two to three times weekly with two to six food items per toad. Bombinas rarely accept dead food, so remove any uneaten leftovers.

    What to Feed Tadpoles

    • Tadpoles of the fire-bellied toad can be fed ground-up, powder-fine fish food, freeze-dried or flakes. Larger tadpoles can have cut-up worms. Tadpoles turn into frogs in about four weeks, at which point they should be fed small crickets, worms and flies. Toadlets will develop yellow bellies unless fed foods containing canthaxanthin. Canthaxanthin is naturally found in freshwater crustaceans such as bloodworm, water shrimps and daphnia. You can also get canthaxanthin into their systems by feeding apples to their crickets.