How to Feed a Frog

Many captive amphibians such as frogs are fed inappropriately, which causes them to suffer from skeletal deformities and shortened life spans. To prevent these problems, offer your pet frog certain types of insects, and prepare the insects in special ways. Some insects -- like crickets -- are easy to find in most pet stores, but you may need to hunt for others so you can offer the frog more variety.

Things You'll Need

  • Live insects, such as crickets, mealworms, wax worms, earthworms, silkworms, flightless fruit flies, houseflies and moths
  • Small enclosures to separately house and maintain insects
  • Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, carrots, sweets potatoes, apples and oats
  • Vitamin and mineral supplement powders for amphibians
  • Small sandwich bags
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Instructions

  1. Preparation

    • 1

      Purchase live crickets from a pet store. These insects will serve as the main source of nutrition for your pet frog. They are excellent feeder insects, as they are readily available and they easily breed on their own.

    • 2

      Make containers to house your insect feeders separately from your amphibians' homes. Feed these insects special food, as whatever good food goes into the insects also goes into the frogs that eat them. This process is called gut loading the feeder insects.

    • 3

      Gut load crickets for two to four days by feeding them high-quality foods like collard greens, mustard greens and/or turnip greens combined with carrots, apples, oats and/or sweet potatoes.

    • 4

      Purchase flightless fruit flies, mealworms, wax worms and small silkworms from a pet store. Dig for live earthworms and catch live moths, houseflies and/or other flying insects as needed. Frogs are insectivores, and they will eat insects up to the size of the frog's head.

    • 5

      Purchase high-quality vitamin and mineral powder supplements specially made for amphibians. According to many exotic veterinary specialists, avoid calcium supplements that have a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio greater than 2-to-1 and make sure the supplements do not contain both vitamins and minerals in the same formula. Provide calcium-fortified feeder insects to prevent metabolic bone diseases in your frogs and to see your amphibious friends flourish.

    Feeding and Aftercare

    • 6

      Dust the insects by placing them in a small plastic bag and sprinkling them with the supplement just before feeding them to the frog. Shake the bag for 30 to 60 seconds to distribute the supplement powder on their bodies.

    • 7

      Drop two to six dusted food items every two or three days into the frog's enclosure. This range is adequate for most of the common adult frogs, including red-eyed and green tree frogs, horned frogs and leopard frogs, as well as fire-bellied and American toads. Crickets should make up the majority of the diet, with offerings of the other insects every two to three feedings.

    • 8

      Remove any uneaten food after a few hours and any dead insects as soon as they are noticed. Use this excess as a gauge to better adjust the amount you feed your frog in the future.

    • 9

      Replace supplements six months after the date they are opened.