# Feeding ants



## A&MGecko (Sep 17, 2010)

I like to ask if anyone has a good source on where to buy and which kind of ants can be introduced to my frog diet. I am looking to give an extra variety of food to my frogs, not interested in farming them just to buy some, good for 1 feeding every few weeks. I would like to try something that needs a queen to breed just in case the frogs don't find em all they will not breed in my vivs but actually just die off.
I have looked some other threads about this but all seam to have very old records, latest reply 04-03-09 that I could find.
Thanks for the help, Alberto


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

Use caution when feeding ants as they can be aggressive and actually swarm and attack your frog. Feed moderately. I have never fed them to my frogs personally, but have read enough about it to have been scared away from trying.


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## Reef_Haven (Jan 19, 2011)

Alot of good info in this thread.
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/73775-ants-feeders.html
Looks like there would be more nutrition in the brood than the adult ants.
I think it would be difficult to contain a colony and then difficult to seperate the ants from the culture to feed out.


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## Lifeguard (Jun 30, 2011)

This could be done but in small numbers. If you got yourself a small ant farm just to keep them in and use the connecting hoses you could control the number that you get at a time. A short time in the fridge works to slow them down a bit as well if you want to keep them in a plastic cup w/ lid. I would keep them in a container that would sit in a tub of water or something. That way any that escape will drown. Not sure on where to find them. You could google search buy ants and get a whole list of places.


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## A&MGecko (Sep 17, 2010)

> Alot of good info in this thread.
> Ants as feeders?
> Looks like there would be more nutrition in the brood than the adult ants.
> I think it would be difficult to contain a colony and then difficult to seperate the ants from the culture to feed out.


I had seen other older links, I had missed that one, good reading, I think I am staying away from ants, to much head hake, and from the reading not worth the risk.
Thanks.


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## oneshot (Mar 5, 2010)

A&MGecko said:


> I had seen other older links, I had missed that one, good reading, I think I am staying away from ants, to much head hake, and from the reading not worth the risk.
> Thanks.


Good choice.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Lifeguard said:


> This could be done but in small numbers. If you got yourself a small ant farm just to keep them in and use the connecting hoses you could control the number that you get at a time. A short time in the fridge works to slow them down a bit as well if you want to keep them in a plastic cup w/ lid. I would keep them in a container that would sit in a tub of water or something. That way any that escape will drown. Not sure on where to find them. You could google search buy ants and get a whole list of places.


 
An ant farm will not contain ants the size that the frogs feed on... they are made to house large harvester ants....smaller ants will escape. 

Some comments

Ed


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## A&MGecko (Sep 17, 2010)

> An ant farm will not contain ants the size that the frogs feed on... they are made to house large harvester ants....smaller ants will escape.
> Some comments
> Ed


Reading from the other thread seams like is not worth the risk of feeding ants, maybe termites? I am afraid those will kill all the plants and wood in the vivs and worse if they escape make a nice meal of my house. I honestly was not asking about making a farm at home, but just buying some to feed each time, like buying 200 or so every 2 weeks and putting like 5 ants average por frog? (+/-) So buy just needed for 1 feeding to give an extra variation to the frog food.
Alberto


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

I used to use Harvester Ants when they swarmed on my dog's food when I lived in Ohio, they were great food, the perfect size and not aggressive (I would not think of using any ants found in Florida), I have never tried this site and am not sure how big they are but I have looked at this a few times:
hornedlizardants.com


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## A&MGecko (Sep 17, 2010)

I did come up with that website as well, just to buy some for feeding but from the look of it most people do not encourage ant feeding for the risk involved, I am not interested at all in to taking risks, so unless someone have experience with something 100% safe I rather stick with what I do now.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

many of the sites that sell harvester ants sell one of the Pogonmyrmex spp which are a large ant (@ 6mm) with a venomous sting... These ants tend to be a little on the large side for dendrobatids.... 

One of the species that has been used by a number of people is Tetramorium caespitum, the black pavement ant. As with other ants dumping a bunch of collected ants into the tank is a potential disaster since the ants are going to be agitated and prone to taking it out on other inhabitants. If instead you collected them and established them in small fake colonies in something like a small test tube the whole tube could be placed into the enclosure or a piece of airline tubing could be attached to the end of the tube and placed into the tank. 

With that said, there isn't any real reason to feed out ants to the frogs.. There are a wide variety of feeders that can be cultured for use in feeding the frogs, several different fruit flies, crickets, small mealworms, fire brats, wax worms, firebrats, flour beetles, springtails, isopods to name the one's I can think of right off the top of my head. 

Some comments 

Ed


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## A&MGecko (Sep 17, 2010)

Hmm, wax worms? Are those not to big for the frogs? I use to let them turn in to moth to feed some geckos, will they go also after the moth? I guess I could use some of those for the larger ones.
Alberto


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

If you are buying them, then yes the wax worms tend to be too large for most dendrobatids (terribilis is an exception) however if you culture them, then you can harvest them at the right size to use as a feeder. There is a small window of when they are the right size but if you collect and refrigerate them, you can stretch that period of acceptance out to a longer period. 

Some comments 

Ed


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## oneshot (Mar 5, 2010)

Ed said:


> With that said, there isn't any real reason to feed out ants to the frogs.. There are a wide variety of feeders that can be cultured for use in feeding the frogs, several different fruit flies, crickets, small mealworms, fire brats, wax worms, firebrats, flour beetles, springtails, isopods to name the one's I can think of right off the top of my head.
> 
> Some comments
> 
> Ed


Ed, is there anything wrong with feeding FF's only forever? Never offering other choices Supplemented, of course.


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

Ed said:


> There are a wide variety of feeders that can be cultured for use in feeding the frogs, several different fruit flies, crickets, small mealworms, fire brats, wax worms, firebrats, flour beetles, springtails, isopods to name the one's I can think of right off the top of my head.
> Ed


Green Banana Roach

Just to add to Ed's list, I recently tried these with great success!  I had varied sizes as well so I fed out the larger ones to the terribs and the bicolors and the small ones went to everyone else. They were a big hit, a little expensive for a staple but a nice treat on occasion.

Side note: I had a hell of a time getting any supplements to stick to them, it's like they're coated in teflon! haha


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

oneshot said:


> Ed, is there anything wrong with feeding FF's only forever? Never offering other choices Supplemented, of course.


None that has been detected as of yet. There is some unsupported dogma that different feeders provide different nutrients but this isn't supported on analysis since the with the exception of some isopods, they all have a poor calcium to phosphorus ratio, are poor sources of preformed vitamin A, are a poor source of carotenoids,........ 

On an anecdotal basis there are people that have used fruit flies as the sole source for multiple generations. 

Some comments 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

tachikoma said:


> Green Banana Roach
> 
> Just to add to Ed's list, I recently tried these with great success! I had varied sizes as well so I fed out the larger ones to the terribs and the bicolors and the small ones went to everyone else. They were a big hit, a little expensive for a staple but a nice treat on occasion.
> 
> Side note: I had a hell of a time getting any supplements to stick to them, it's like they're coated in teflon! haha


I culture them and use them from time to time as feeders.. the real downside for the frog tanks, is that the conditions for thier life cycle are perfectly adapted to the enclosures. 

Some comments 

Ed


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

Ed said:


> I culture them and use them from time to time as feeders.. the real downside for the frog tanks, is that the conditions for thier life cycle are perfectly adapted to the enclosures.
> 
> Some comments
> 
> Ed



I was concerned about this as well so I literally fed out single ones at a time and made sure they were consumed, I am not a fan of roaches roaming my apt. haha


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

tachikoma said:


> I was concerned about this as well so I literally fed out single ones at a time and made sure they were consumed, I am not a fan of roaches roaming my apt. haha


 
The greens don't do well outside of the culture conditions so they die within a couple of days, a big plus in my opinion. 

Ed


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## A&MGecko (Sep 17, 2010)

I was mainly looking to add to my Paru diet, those are pretty big, you think they will take large wax worms and the moth morphing out from them?
About those green banana roach, what the concern is that they will breed in the viv condition and can over run the tank? Or the Paru will be able to take the larger ones as well?
Alberto


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