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 #1696235


Nukem95
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 CANNED CRICKETS?

I am new at this so I am sure that I will exhaust everyone with my tons of questions. Has anyone fed thier frogs canned crickets? I have a green tree frog and a whites frog. Is it only recommended that you feed live bugs? My crickets would not eat....should I worry that my frog is not getting enough nutriants? Thanks Much!
04/09/08  03:52pm

 #1696260


Keechoo
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   Message To: Nukem95   In reference to Message Id: 1696235


 CANNED CRICKETS?

Alot of frogs and toads won’t eat dead food. Some people manage to get theirs to eat it but mine starved themselves a week instead of trying it.
04/09/08  04:11pm

 #1696270


Nukem95
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   Message To: Keechoo   In reference to Message Id: 1696260


 CANNED CRICKETS?

how do you get yours to eat crickets without eating the coconut substrate? I use eco earth for the bottom of the tank



04/09/08  04:25pm

 #1696279


JackAsp
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   Message To: Nukem95   In reference to Message Id: 1696235


 CANNED CRICKETS?

To be honest, I think gutloading is over-rated for carnivores. I mean, think about it. All your doing is stuffig them with grains, fruits, and vegetables, none of which your frog’s extremely short intestinal tract can actually digest. I think that if you’re feeding a water dragon who doesn’t like eating his vegetables, so you feed the crickets a lot of collared greens, that’s a good idea. Or if you’re feeding an insectivorous lizard that’s known to occasionally eat some fruit in the wild, but yours won’t, then you can cheat the way I do by gutloading. But if you wouldn’t feed your frog cricket gutload, and he wouildn’t eat it if you did, and he couldn’t digest it if he did, then you’re not really missing out on much.

Crickets should be fed a clean, nutritious diet just to assure that your pet is eating healthy crickets that are carrying all the nutients that a cricket is supposed to (since calcidust isn’t going to add, say, amino acids), but for a complete carnivore, reverse gutloading is probably better. In other words, using crickets that haven’t eaten in a while, so there’s nothing in his belly except crickets. I don’t really worry about it. If I have bugs that have just eaten, and it’s feeding time, then whatever’s in the bugbellies will just end up getting pooped out by the frog later. But for all the well-meaning advice people give about gutloading EVERYTHING regardless of what you’re feeding it to... kind of pointless with frogs. Try to use good healthy prey items, without a lot of fat or exoskeleton, and if they don’t have an inherantly high calcium content then dust them once a week, maybe more if he’s still growing.

There’s another problem with gutloads, which is shared with canned crickets, actually. There’s no FDA regulation on herp supplies. And even if there were, look how rapidly we keep learning thngs about our own nutrition, despite having studied it for as long as we’ve been eating. I don’t for a minute believe there isn’t somethng in fresh crickets that deteriorates when they’re processed. Even if they stay fresh while the can is sealed, it’s gonnabe open for a while before they’re all used up.

I don’t actually use crickets any more. Once you get over the "Eeek! But they’re roaches!" reflex, feeder roaches are way less hassle. But when I did use crickets, you know what I used canned bugs for? I’d give them to the live crickets so they’d have something to nibble on while they were in the herp cage. I’ve had bad experiences with, for example, my toad having to pass a big hunk of carrot that she accidentally swallowed while snapping up a cricket, so I opted to use a bugfood that, while not actually as good as fresh bugs, was still at least edible, digestible, and more or less harmless as long as I took it out before it got old.
04/09/08  04:35pm

 #1696302


Whitie
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   Message To: Nukem95   In reference to Message Id: 1696235


 CANNED CRICKETS?

You can use those in a pinch if your frog will eat them. Most whites won’t eat anything unless its moving.
The crickets in the can are not as good for them as the live crickets.
Be sure you are dusting the crickets at least once a week, 2 times a week if possible with vitamins with D3 before feeding if your frog is young.

Since you have a tree frog, post your questions on the tree frog forum you will get a lot more info.



04/09/08  05:06pm


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