# Leaving food in the tank?



## Feffie (Jun 19, 2012)

Is there any problem with leaving live food in the tank with my frogs?
Fed them for the first time this morning with some crickets and roach nymphs, frogs appeared to be semi interested but didn't really go for any, maybe one or two crickets.

I'm just wondering is it fine to leave th ecrickets and cockroaches in with them? There are some small pieces of cucumber in the tank for them to eat and I guess the frogs will hunt them down when they decide they are hungry (they have been rapidly depleting my springtail culture throughout the night since I got them home)


----------



## bastimentos (Jun 23, 2012)

you really shouldn't be feeding your pdfs crickets, unless maybe if they are terribilis otherwise the crickets are to large for the frogs to eat.


----------



## Feffie (Jun 19, 2012)

bastimentos said:


> you really shouldn't be feeding your pdfs crickets, unless maybe if they are terribilis otherwise the crickets are to large for the frogs to eat.


They are pin head crickets and some of the isopods that the frogs have been eatting last night are actually bigger than them so I'm sure they can manage just fine with them.

Alsoo most people I've talked to here in the UK feed their PDF's on crickets and they appear to have no problems?


----------



## Shinosuke (Aug 10, 2011)

From what I've read you can over-feed your frogs. If there's too much food left in the tank it will crawl on and stress the frogs. I've heard stories of crickets biting / eating on the animals they were supposed to feed if t here were too many to eat at once, but I don't know how much truth there is to that.


----------



## Feffie (Jun 19, 2012)

There weren't many put in, only 10-15 all togeather, so it's not really over run with them, plus there is plenty for them to eat if they do become hungry (crickets that is) 
Also I made sure to use brown crickets which I believe are far less likely to take a midnight snack on a tank inhabitant...though I'm not sure.

I'll keep an eye and make sure the frogs don't seem stressed and if I see any tommorrow I'll see if I can set up a cricket trap of some sort to catch them.


----------



## volsgirl (Mar 29, 2012)

I believe I read that some pdf's need to be trained to accept new food items. So, when introducing a different food item.....Only put in a couple at a time to watch how the frogs accept them. After they get used to them as food, they should eat them with gusto!!

Also, crickets are a great feeder for pdf's as long as they are size appropriate!


----------



## Pacblu202 (May 8, 2012)

You should be fine as long as there aren't too many. When I feed mine with ff's I put a bunch in, they eat te majority and the rest roam around and get picked off with in the next day or two till its feedinging time again


----------



## frog dude (Nov 11, 2011)

well, I would strongly recommend switching to fruit flies soon, as the frogs grew up on that food and you won't need to go to the store often to spend money on crickets, unless you breed crickets.


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

bastimentos said:


> you really shouldn't be feeding your pdfs crickets, unless maybe if they are terribilis otherwise the crickets are to large for the frogs to eat.


Crickets are a fine food source... I'm not sure why people think that there aren't any crickets that are acceptable as a food item...... 

Ed


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

frog dude said:


> well, I would strongly recommend switching to fruit flies soon, as the frogs grew up on that food and you won't need to go to the store often to spend money on crickets, unless you breed crickets.


Why do you think the diet that a frog was fed as it grew up would make one food item more acceptable to the frogs? 

Ed


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Shinosuke said:


> From what I've read you can over-feed your frogs. If there's too much food left in the tank it will crawl on and stress the frogs. I've heard stories of crickets biting / eating on the animals they were supposed to feed if t here were too many to eat at once, but I don't know how much truth there is to that.


Typically predation by crickets on the animals that were intended to eat them is more due to a lack of food and water than numbers. If you place a starving and/or dehydrated cricket into an enclosure with no food or water that they can access, then they can (not always) chew on the animal causing small lesions. If there is food and/or water accessiable to the crickets then they don't tend to predate on other animals (since food and water is readily accessiable)

Ed


----------



## Feffie (Jun 19, 2012)

frog dude said:


> well, I would strongly recommend switching to fruit flies soon, as the frogs grew up on that food and you won't need to go to the store often to spend money on crickets, unless you breed crickets.


I breed crickets for my other frogs, chameleons, tarantulas, geckos etc etc, I also breed turkish and dubia roaches. I will have a FF culture and a springtail culture, but the main diet for my frogs will be crickets as that is what I have the best access too and I know I will always have a nice supply of appropriate sized crickets.

Are Firebrats suitable to feed as well?


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

You may want to be not offer those roaches as a main staple in the diet of the frogs or other animals since at least dubia roaches store excess protien in the form of uric acid which can increase the risk of gout in the consuming herps. 

Ed


----------



## Feffie (Jun 19, 2012)

Ed said:


> You may want to be not offer those roaches as a main staple in the diet of the frogs or other animals since at least dubia roaches store excess protien in the form of uric acid which can increase the risk of gout in the consuming herps.
> 
> Ed


Roaches aren't and won't be a stable in any diets of the animals I have as I was aware of the uric acid, they are used a couple times a month as something a bit different.
Thanks for mentioning it though as I'm sure a fair few people will it interesting


----------

