# how often to feed froglets?



## Danyal (Apr 15, 2006)

i have two pacific treefrog froglets, the oldest came out of the water thursday iirc. so far i've been feeding them for the last two days on a culture type thing i made out of a newspaper bin, about 2.5" of very moist rose potting soil with a bunch of leaf litter in it. i came upon the idea when i was looking around for food for the very first one who came out a week ago(but unfortunally drowned) and found a bunch of leaf litter in one of the bins that was somewhat damp(not really, but enough) and was crawling with little bugs, including springtails, and under it another bin with a half bag of rose potting soil and about a half inch of water and leafs, there was again little bugs everywhere and lots of fruit flys(and misquitos, not fun) so i combined the two into one bin(the base is 20x14 lots of space) and it seems to be working i've probalby gotten nearly 150 bugs the last 3 days by going out with a glass cigar tube and shaking them off leafs and cardboard. saturday i feed them 2 or 3 times, yesterday i feed them twice and i feed them about 50 bugs today at 4pm. how often should i be feeding them? also how long with they last in my 11" cube with 6" of it being under water and having an area about 8"x2.5"x2.5" of rocks that are sticking about the water? i can't move them into something else at the moment other than a medium critter keeper(11.5"x7.5"x6.25") which doesn't have a light. i orginally bought these guys as tads with the intention of releasing them once they got legs but now i'd really like to keep them atleast until they get nearly full grown. i have a 20g tall that i;m going to make into a vivarium but it will probably take me aleast a month, maybe two. and today i threw about a dozen crickets into the newspaper bin because i went to the lps to get a half dozen med. crickets for my anoles and they gave me about 20 sexually mature(or very close to) will they have a negative impact on the existing microbugs or will they coexist and i'll get a bunch of tiny pinheads?


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## Danyal (Apr 15, 2006)

ok i've got another problem. my mom is planning to spray the backyard and frontyard for aphids and fleas. will my culture be ok if i move them into the garage when she does this and put it back out a day or two afterwards? will my frogs be ok when/if i let them go?


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## Danyal (Apr 15, 2006)

this is the first time i've attempted raising frogs. i've keep adults and tadpoles but i've alway let the tadpoles go once they get legs so any help will be greatly appriciated.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Usually for any animal the recommendation is to feed only what they can eat in a day. 

Your culture should be fine if it's in the garage. To add some more protection, cover it with plastic, or put the whole thing inside a garbage bag. I'd probably keep it covered for a day, but use your best judgement. 

Has your lawn been sprayed at all this year? If so, and the bugs you are feeding your froglets are from it, that's not good.


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## Danyal (Apr 15, 2006)

to the best of my knowledge the lawn has no been sprayed in over a year. we've lived in this house for the last 14 months and other than the occasional dish soap and water mix for aphids on the roses we've never sprayed the yard. i don't know of the gardners spraying either. we did spray the house for fleas(stupid cat, this is one of the many reasons why i perfer my herps and fish) last weekend though and i believe we will again this weekend. whenever we spray inside the house i cover all aquariums/terrariums with garbage bags and towels and tape the covers down to the sides so nothing gets in.


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## Danyal (Apr 15, 2006)

so far they seem to love the springtails, they will eat everything i put in but i'm afraid that i'm still not feeding them enough, they absolutly attack the bugs and don't stop until they can't find more. how can i tell if they are getting enough food? also i took mixed charcoal bits, wood chips and a handfull of house plant potting soil into a plastic container and left it in the bin overnight, this morning i saw a springtail in it. should i throw in some rice and/or yeast and when should i bring it inside? how long should it take to get a good population going? this is the first time i've tried raising my own food and as you have probably figured out by now i'm a helpless newbie.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

From one of the stickies at the top of this page:



> Section 2: Springtails
> 
> 1.) There is some debate on if springtails are insects or not. They are tiny arthopods of the genus Collembola, about 2mm long and 1mm thick. Springtails have the peculiar property of floating on water. I often see mats of them whirling around in the pool in the viv. Whereas you might get a few weeks of production out of a FF culture, a springtail culture can last years.
> 
> ...


Also check this out for a thread about their foods: http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12245&highlight=springtails


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## Danyal (Apr 15, 2006)

thank you very much. very helpful though of course this will just lead to more questions.


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