Frogs are Insectivores

Many frogs are insectivores, meaning they eat living insects. Many people will not own frogs because they are insectivores and they eat live insects. However, not all frogs eat live insects. There are a few that don't eat live insects, such as the African Clawed Frog and the African Dwarf Frog.

Tree frogs that need to eat live insects can eat mealworms, waxworms, crickets and red wigglers. If you would like to own a frog that doesn't need to eat live insects, you can purchase freeze-dried crickets, mealworms and brine shrimp at the petstore in the reptile/amphibian section.

When feeding your frog, you need to have lots of variety in the frog's diet. I own a Blue Bumpy (aka Dumpy) Frog that eats live insects, and I've heard that mealworms are almost nutritionless. Alternate between mealworms and crickets for a balanced diet.

If you are like me, you don't prefer to touch or have to handle live insects of any kind. So here is my suggestion to you. Either purchase a frog that doesn't have to eat live insects, or make this easy insect container that prevents you from touching/handling live insects.

Using a yogurt container (plastic cups work great too), punch holes with a thumbtack in the sides of the top. Make them small enough so that worms/crickets cannot get out/eat their way out, but so they can still breathe. Also punch holes in a strong, tight fitting lid that even a large cricket could not get through.

Cut a large hole in the side of the container near the top. You need to plug this with a cork or rubber stopper so the insects can't get out.

Finally, when you purchase your next batch of insects at the petstore, dump them into the container and store it somewhere warm and dry. When your frog is ready to eat, unplug the cork and sprinkle a few insects in the terrarium through the hole that you cut and plug the hole back up.

Housing Crickets

Crickets need to be kept in someplace like a garage. I have heard that crickets stink, but have never experienced it. I purchase small crickets and keep them in my basement. If your frog is small, purchase small crickets and feed him 2-3 a day. You will also need to purchase gut-loading food for the crickets, such as Fluker's Cricket Calcium Fortified.

If you add this insect food to the container before adding the crickets, it stuffs the crickets' guts full of calcium that is excellent nutrition for your frog. Make sure to add this to the crickets the day before feeding your frog so they have a chance to get "fattened up."

The image to the left is Fluker's Cricket Calcium Fortified Gel. It is not food, however it is water for the crickets. If you don't want to purchase cricket food, crickets will also eat potatoes, carrots and other vegetables. Put a chunk of vegetable in your cricket container.

It is possible to kill off your crickets by overfeeding and overwatering them.

Housing Mealworms
Mealworms are much easier to house than crickets; however, they don't provide your frog with half the nutrition. Mealworms can be stored in the refrigerator where they are put into an induced hibernation. The worms will begin to wake up once they start to warm when taken out of the fridge.

Mealworms, since they can't be gut-loaded like the crickets, need to be sprinkled with calcium dust. You can take a plastic spoon and put some mealworms in a plastic ziplock bag. Add a pinch of calcium and "Shake and Bake" the mealworms.

The calcium on the worms provides the frog with a little more nutrition than he would otherwise get, but I still suggest alternating between crickets and mealworms.

How many insects to feed?
This is probably one of the most common questions ever asked about frogs! What your frog eats and how much he eats depends on the frog alone (what kind of frog he is, what he likes/dislikes). Your best bet is going to be to experiment and see how much your frog will eat.

Start by feeding your frog 3 insects the first time. If he consumes all of these without a problem, you can add 4 insects the next time. If your frog still looks hungry or underfed, boost up the number of insects in his diet. I keep mealworms and crickets at the same time to accommodate what my frog wants to eat (i.e. if he won't eat mealworms, I switch to crickets).

You will know if you're feeding your frog too much if there are still insects crawling around the terrarium 2-3 days after you fed him. And sometimes the frog might have missed a few in his hunts. I feed my frog every two days and it seems to work well.