# Mint Terribilis feeders



## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

I'm looking into getting a group of 3 froglets in the next few months.
I have read that they accept a wide variety of larger foods, and wanted to know what I should definately have on hand for them.
I currently have melos and bean beetles. From what I understand the melos may just be ignored, so I will be getting Hydei again very shortly.
Do I need mealworms for them? 
I am very excited about getting these guys!


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

1/8" and larger crickets are great to help them grow and gain weight quickly.


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## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

mantisdragon91 said:


> 1/8" and larger crickets are great to help them grow and gain weight quickly.


I don't know how I forgot to mention them!
We'd prefer not to have to mess with crickets long term. They were very annoying when we had other cricket eating critters. If they are necessary I'll get some, though.


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

They are your best bet unless you have access to something else in the 1/8" to 1/4" range. I'd shy away from mealworms as a primary food because of the high chitin content.


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## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

Ok, I get that.
So meal worms would be more like a treat than a staple food for the most part. We'll just have to accept them as a necessary evil then, and house the crickets in the basement!
I don't know much about other types of feeders besides the ones I've mentioned. 

Thank you


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

other options if you can get them would be termites, juvenile roaches and flightless house flies. All of which make people even more squemish than crickets


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## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

Yeah. No thank you!!!


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## RMB (Nov 26, 2009)

dreamcatcer98 said:


> Yeah. No thank you!!!


A dubia roach colony is something you should seriously consider. On a diet of cat food and oranges they produce young like crazy which are right in the 1/4" range. They're also flightless, don't climb, or smell. I keep a colony of about 100 in a 10 gallon or so tub on top of one of my lights, and they feed my two juvenile beardies. I also know a guy who has adults on a diet of only melanos. I suspect that if you switch them to something larger, like crickets, and then try to go back to melos, then they'll ignore them, but if melos are all they ever know, they'll just need a whole lot of them.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

I raised and now breed my terribs on ffs, both melano and hydei, bean beetles and wax worms. Never a cricket!


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## D3monic (Feb 8, 2010)

This is the main thing keeping me from getting these. I absolutly HATE crickets! My wife is pretty tolerant of my bug cultures but roaches might be pushing it. She does want some Mints though so I might have to run it by her. I am thinking of putting a large viv in the playroom. Something that could eat my kids if they get out of line, Mints seem like a good option.


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## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

That doesn't sound too bad for the roaches... I would never be able to handle houseflys though. Need to look into that a bit more then!

It looks like the breeder I'm getting the froglets from is feeding them crickets. I will have to talk to him and see what he recommends then! I'm picking up the froglets on the 26th. They'll be two months old.

The husband said if I need crickets they have to stay in the basement. My concern with them is the diseases they carry- too many people saying how their frogs died from sick crickets!


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## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

D3monic said:


> This is the main thing keeping me from getting these. I absolutly HATE crickets! My wife is pretty tolerant of my bug cultures but roaches might be pushing it. She does want some Mints though so I might have to run it by her. I am thinking of putting a large viv in the playroom. Something that could eat my kids if they get out of line, Mints seem like a good option.


LOL- My kids were what pushed me over the edge on getting these guys. It's all they have talked about!


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

dreamcatcer98 said:


> That doesn't sound too bad for the roaches... I would never be able to handle houseflys though. Need to look into that a bit more then!
> 
> It looks like the breeder I'm getting the froglets from is feeding them crickets. I will have to talk to him and see what he recommends then! I'm picking up the froglets on the 26th. They'll be two months old.
> 
> The husband said if I need crickets they have to stay in the basement. My concern with them is the diseases they carry- too many people saying how their frogs died from sick crickets!


Cricket diseases tend to be highly over rated when it comes to being transferrable to reptiles and amphibians. In 20 plus years of working with reptiles and amphibians the only issue I heard of was Panther Chameleons dying at a breeder's facility in Florida which was later traced to fungus originating in spoiled water crystals that were used to water their cricket colonies( Keep in mind this was South Florida in the summer so very high temps definetely contributed to quick spoilage of the crystals)

Most diseases including the crikets virus which devasted many cricket farms last year have absolutely no affect on reptiles or amphibians.


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## BOOSHIFIED (Jun 23, 2009)

RMB said:


> A dubia roach colony is something you should seriously consider. On a diet of cat food and oranges they produce young like crazy which are right in the 1/4" range. They're also flightless, don't climb, or smell. I keep a colony of about 100 in a 10 gallon or so tub on top of one of my lights, and they feed my two juvenile beardies. I also know a guy who has adults on a diet of only melanos. I suspect that if you switch them to something larger, like crickets, and then try to go back to melos, then they'll ignore them, but if melos are all they ever know, they'll just need a whole lot of them.



Dubia roach colonies are what a lot of people are using instead of crickets.

In the cham community it seems everyone is using them.


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## girlwithafrogtattoo (Mar 4, 2009)

I think I'll have to wait for roaches or something along those lines. 
I did double check with the person I'm getting the froglets from, and right now they are eating Turkish Gliders, so I'll pick some of them up at the show with the frogs. 

We've steered clear of tree frogs (which I used to have and loved) because of the crickets. I'm definately happy to find out that it's not so much an issue with the mints!
Thank you everyone for the info! I really appreciate it!


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## melas (Oct 24, 2007)

I work in harrisburg and could give you enough dubia to get you started . . . it doesn't take long to have more than you need! 

You can always give me the extras back! PM me if you want to pick some up . . .


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## D3monic (Feb 8, 2010)

How do you prevent escapees? I could deal with a loose cricket or ff's but roaches? As messy as my wife is they would take over in a heart beat.


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## edwing206 (Apr 9, 2008)

My younger brother has a few chameleons and he feeds a lot of dubias, they don't climb or fly.


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## JJhuang (Feb 5, 2010)

Ill be feeding my larger Isopods, Hydei, and bean beetles


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## melas (Oct 24, 2007)

D3monic said:


> How do you prevent escapees? I could deal with a loose cricket or ff's but roaches? As messy as my wife is they would take over in a heart beat.


I just put the 1st/2nd instar roaches in glass petri dishes. They get destroyed with very few hitting the viv floor. They can't climb "clean" glass and don't fly.

Once in a while I'll find larger ones in the viv. I just squish them whenever I see them. I feed roaches to some tree frogs, basilisks, monitors, etc . . . I have lateralis and dubia.


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## BOOSHIFIED (Jun 23, 2009)

just a clarification....


the full grown adult males dubia can fly but even then it is rare


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## FwoGiZ (Jul 8, 2008)

cant fly...
can barely hover.... they pretty much crash down on the floor when u drop them

i ll ask only one question: Can anyone here that ever tried dubias say it wasnt a drastic positive change in their herp life?
i ve yet to meet that guy


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## melas (Oct 24, 2007)

Changed my life . . . 

Yeah they fly as well as a guy with a torn parachute . . . haha! 

They are not going to take off and leave an open top container . . .


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## D3monic (Feb 8, 2010)

I might give them a try...just worried them getting loose from viv especially if they manage to reproduce in it.


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## FwoGiZ (Jul 8, 2008)

i dont really think they could ever reproduce themselves properly in a viv... these are one of the slowest roach to reproduce..
i usually just bowl feed them as they cant even climb a 2-3 inch high ceramic bowl... sometimes they ll escape the bowl via the frog feeding but like i say, i NEVER had problem with them feeding reproducing

considering all of you guys would use the tiniest dubias for darts, then i could even go and say its impossible
these roach cant reproduce before several monthes 4-6

when i feed adults, i ONLY feed males
females are lucky and get to lives until they die
so this way, my colony is always HUGE and it pretty much cuts the chance for reproducing in a viv...
AND IF THEY WOULD EVER Manage that, well a female wont hatch more than 30 baby in 1 month... so yyyyyyeaaaaaaaahhhhhh
not a problem

i like to metaphor with parachute guy ;P it looks exactly like this


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## melas (Oct 24, 2007)

FwoGiZ said:


> when i feed adults, i ONLY feed males
> females are lucky and get to lives until they die
> so this way, my colony is always HUGE and it pretty much cuts the chance for reproducing in a viv...


Guess you've never seen Jurassic Park? 

I do the exact same thing. I've never seen them BREED but I have found the occasional adult roach in with my tree frogs. So they can certainly *survive *in a tank though I doubt they would take it over.


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## oddlot (Jun 28, 2010)

Dubia are very easy to raise.They need humidity to shed or they will die.I never had one escape but if someone dropped one it is unlikely to survive.Unless your house is humid they would die if they got out.They are a good resource to have.You might want to culture some isopods as well.

Lou


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