# Possible to never feed a pacman frog crickets?



## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

I know what you're thinking, I'm going to try feeding one lettuce or something ridiculous like that, but not the case. Truth is, I really want to get one of these guys and I've done some research. I was hoping I could feed it nothing but thawed pinkies, clearly that's not healthy for them (see, research). But here's where I have trouble.... staple diet of crickets.

Crickets are quite honestly, the main reason I've never owned any reptiles, amphibians or whatever. They're god damn disgusting. I don't know why, but god damn they are foul foul foul and wretched creatures, and there's my problem. I won't get an animal I can't properly care for, but I won't keep crickets, so this may be the deal breaker and reason I don't get a pacman frog.

What I want to know, is if it would be possible to feed them a staple diet of earthworms or anything but crickets. How tricky is it to keep mealworms, and would these be ok as a staple diet? I'd greatly prefer to keep earthworms since they're the least unpleasant of insects (mealworms are kind of gross, but still better than crickets). It is my understanding that most of the nutritional value of crickets comes from the powder they're dusted in and what they're gut loaded with, so in theory the same nutrition could be gotten from worms that have been gutloaded and dusted as well, right?

Any insight would be really great right now. I'd love to get one of these guys, and I've already got a 10 gallon planned out with a good moss substrate, undertank heater, and maybe a fogger to keep things really humid in there. But if crickets are a necessity, well I'm sticking to fish after all. I'd love to keep an amphibian, but I've got little desire to keep insects as well







Thanks in advance


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## CrocKeeper (Dec 26, 2003)

WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!









A well thought out question!
Crickets nutritional value is definately related to what you feed them, and the vitamin and mineral dustings aid there obviously...

Earthworms could be offered, but would more than likely require the use of really long tweezers so that you could "tease" feed the frog...you could also use







Cockroaches...but as you have an arguably strong dislike for crickets, they are probably not your favorite option either. Mealworms could be used...but would not be a best option....adult mealworms (the beetles) would actually serve you better.

The bottom line is that these guys are going to require a diverse diet, and that crickets are the cheapest, easiest basic food item, aside from cockroaches.

You could use minnows...again at the end of tweezes "tease fed"....minnows could be collected by yourself and frozen, then you could thaw your food, dust the thawed minnow, and bingo no crickets...but that would be a lot of work..and I would still recomend you spice up the diet a bit and offer change of pace items as often as possible...nestling zebra finches work well witrh the Ceratophrys, as do hatchling doves and pigeons.

The more you can diversify the diet, the better the range of nutrients you provide your frog.
Ultimately if you can get a young one to tease feed readily..you could look into commercial pellet diets, like those used to rear bullfrogs comercially.

You have options if you want to work with the Ceratophrys..so do not give up...keep up the research!!!!!!


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

Fantastic. Not only a comprehensive answer, but the answers I wanted to hear









I can't lie, an awful lot of my attraction to this species is that it eats things a frog doesn't seem likely to eat (mice for example). The idea of feeding hatchling birds has me even more excited, I'm pretty set on getting a frog now.

So far as I know the local pet store sells frozen minnows, so that's perfect for me as well. Cockroaches... definately less perfect for me, haha.

So what I'm looking at right now, is a staple diet of dusted minnows maybe every other feeding. From there, I'm not completely opposed to crickets it's just that I really was disgusted by the idea of a cricket keeper to clean out and such. So the other feedings would be maybe once or twice a month bringing home a meals worth of crickets, throwing them into a bucket with some gut loading stuff for 12 hours (and some egg carton and sponge) for variety, rounded out by some frozen bird hatchlings and the occasional pinkie (once a month) as my diet. Does that sound healthy enough?

Mostly my aversion to crickets was from a friend of mine who keeps bearded dragons. Just the idea of keeping dozens of crickets, looking after them and cleaning out their enclosure was really unpleasant for me, aside from that I find them just generally gross insects. As a rare mix into the diet, I think I could put up with it. I don't much care for snapping smelt in half for my piranhas either, but I get by 

Thanks for the answer. Hopefully I'll have everything all set up tommorow with pictures of the setup and all. I'm getting rpetty excited at this point


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## CrocKeeper (Dec 26, 2003)

Just remember that the rodents and hatchling birds are veryhigh protein....

KEEP US POSTED!


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