Baby frog food

What Do Frogs Eat? - AZ Animals

What Do Frogs Like to Eat?

Frogs eat crickets, mealworms, caterpillars, and even mice!

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By and large, most frogs eat a carnivorous diet that primarily consists of locally available insects and mollusks. That said, frogs will eat other small prey when available, including small mammals, birds, reptiles, and even other frogs. On average, frogs prefer live prey to dead ones, and adult frogs almost never eat carrion. However, the same can’t be said for tadpoles, which will occasionally eat dead insects and animal matter. In addition, when tadpoles, frogs will go through an herbivorous phase where they eat mostly plants. Much like a person, the tastes of a frog change as it grows from an adolescent into an adult. All of this is to say that frogs eat a wide variety of foods based on their age, size, and environment. To simplify things, we’ve boiled the list down to 10 items that most frogs eat at some point. The list includes:

Insects
Mollusks
Birds
Rodents
Fish
Algae
Spiders
Reptiles
Amphibians
Aquatic plants

Within these categories, you can find foods that make up the diet of practically every known species of frog. While most frogs eat primarily insects, they aren’t true insectivores as they may also eat other forms of meat. In addition, since others go through a predominantly herbivorous tadpole stage, the term carnivore also doesn’t suffice. Therefore, it’s accurate to say that most frogs live as omnivores, eating both plants and meat, although rarely at the same time.

How Do Frogs Hunt and Forage For Food?

Frogs can shoot out their tongue and catch prey in less than .07 seconds.

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Like other animals, frogs evolved a number of highly-developed senses to help them find food. First and foremost, frogs possess a keen sense of touch. Using the micro sensory organs beneath their skin, frogs can detect changes in temperature, pressure, and vibrations around them. Through these vibrations, they can identify the size and location of a particular prey. In addition, frogs also developed a sensitive sense of taste. As a result, frogs won’t eat certain foods that they find repellent. This likely explains why they avoid carrion, and generally only eat live prey. While frogs struggle to focus on objects up close, they possess great long-distance and night vision. In particular, frogs’ eyes are highly sensitive to movement, and their large peripheral vision helps them to spot prey. Frogs can also smell prey with their nostrils, as well as chemicals in the water around them.

Frogs use different hunting styles depending on their physiology and environment. That said, most frogs rely on their long, sticky tongues to catch prey. A frog can lift prey nearly 1.4 times its body weight with just its tongue. In addition, a frog can shoot out its tongue and snag prey in less than .07 seconds. This kind of speed makes frogs very effective at catching even agile, flying insects like flies and mosquitoes. Once a frog spots a target, it wraps its super flexible tongue around its prey and coats it with sticky saliva. Then, it will yank its tongue back with a force equal to twelve times greater than the force of gravity. Frogs swallow their prey whole, as they can’t chew. What little teeth they have serve only to hold prey in place rather than chew their food up.

What Do Frogs Eat in the Wild?

Frogs eat a wide variety of insects and mollusks.

©iStock.com/Massimo_S8

As previously mentioned, most frogs eat a carnivorous diet that consists primarily of insects and small animals. That said, some also go through a tadpole stage where they eat a mostly herbivorous diet. Suffice to say, frogs eat foods that they can find and catch in abundance in their local environment. At the same time, frogs can also be picky eaters, and will not eat foods that they find distasteful. Frogs as a whole tend to only eat live prey, and will rarely if ever eat carrion. Since frogs are ectotherms, they become less active in winter, and so only actively hunt for food when the weather is warm.

Common insects that frogs eat include fruit flies, dragonflies, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, ants, and termites. In addition, frogs will also eat worms, slugs, snails, and spiders. Outside of insects and other critters, frogs will also eat animals smaller than them. This includes small birds, bats, mice, turtles, and lizards. Some frogs will also cannibalize members of their own species and eat other, smaller frogs and frog eggs. Furthermore, many frogs will also eat small fish such as minnows, guppies, and goldfish.

What Do Pet Frogs Eat?

Pet frogs prefer live prey but may also eat frog pellet food.

©Ken Griffiths/Shutterstock.com

What do frogs eat when they get to live a pampered life of domesticity? The truth is that each species of frog possess its own unique nutritional requirements. That said, pet frogs tend to eat the same foods as wild frogs. An adult pet frog will eat a variety of insects including crickets, flies, grasshoppers, and locusts. In addition, they’ll also to worms, redworms, bloodworms, mealworms, slugs, and snails. If you own a larger pet frog, you could also feed it live minnows or pinky mice. Just remember, most pet frogs only like to eat live prey. This means you’ll have to monitor your pet frog’s habitat periodically to make sure its food stays fresh. Finally, you can also supplement your frog’s live diet with frog pellet food.

Additionally, there are several foods that you should never feed to a pet frog. These include:

Fruits
Vegetables
Leftovers

What Do Baby Frogs Eat?

Tadpoles primarily eat a diet of algae and aquatic plant matter.

©greggnormal/Shutterstock.com

What do frogs eat in their newly hatched tadpole form? Unlike adult frogs, tadpoles eat a largely plant-based diet along with the occasional insects. Shortly after birth, most tadpoles will eat any embryonic egg matter leftover from their egg and then start hunting for food. Tadpoles typically live off of algae growing on the bottom of leaves, rocks, or logs in ponds, streams, or lakes. However, they will also feed on aquatic plants like duckweed as well as soft mosses. Once they grow larger, tadpoles will begin to catch fruit flies, worms, and other small insects. Meanwhile, froglets, or frogs that don’t go through a tadpole phase, eat a similar diet. From birth, froglets will eat a diet composed of plants leaves and roots, water striders, and insect larvae.

Pet baby frogs will eat a similar diet to wild frogs, although some insects may be difficult to source. If you own a baby tadpole, you can feed them algae wafers, leaves, roots, and leafy green vegetables. You can also feed them frog and tadpole pellets, which contain many of the nutrients tadpoles need to grow. On the other hand, you should feed your pet froglet worms, crickets, fruit flies, moths, gnats, and mosquitoes. If appropriate, you can also feed small shrimp or crayfish to your froglet. Before doing so, make sure that any food is smaller than your frog to avoid any choking hazard. It’s advised that you check with your vet or pet store expert before adding new food to your baby frog’s diet.

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A frog sheds its skin to avoid old skin hardening.

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What Do Baby Frogs Eat? – RidMyCritters.com

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Updated on March 10, 2022

Have you ever seen a baby frog? They look so cute, and that’s why some people choose to have them as pets.

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There are nearly 4,800 species of frogs on this earth. From all of these, baby treefrogs, baby bullfrogs, and baby Pacman frogs are more popular than any other type of little frogs.

Since there are thousands of species, it’s not possible to include all of them in just one article.

But here we try to cover all the important aspects and everything you need to know about these tiny adorable hoppers. So dive right in.

See Also: How to Get Rid of Frogs

What is a Baby Frog Called?

A baby frog is known by different names. The most common names used to describe a baby frog are a tadpole, froglet, or polliwog. These names are generally used to describe a little frog, depending on its life cycle stage.

In the first few weeks, a baby frog is called a tadpole or a polliwog. But a majority of people refer to them as tadpoles. In this stage, they have a long tail, and they live underwater.

The froglet is the stage when a baby frog is very near to becoming an adult. In this stage, as it develops lungs, limbs, teeth, and almost matures and becomes an adult, they have a small tail.

So, when the baby frogs are in the early stage of their life, you can call them as polliwog or tadpole, and when they’re just nearing to becoming an adult, you can refer to them as froglets.

When they become an adult, they’re naturally known as just frogs.

What Do Baby Frogs Look Like?

After hatching from the egg, a frog stays in the tadpole form for a few days. These tadpoles come out from the eggs in the water, and they stay underwater in their larval stage.

Slowly, these tadpoles change to an adult frog by absorbing their own tail. It is believed that they absorb their tail for the nutrients so that they can develop their lungs for breathing and the limbs for walking on the surface.

But, when a baby frog comes out from the egg, it has a small tail and underdeveloped gills.

Pictures of Baby Frogs

tadpolespolliwogfroglet

adult frog

What Do Baby Frogs Eat?

We already know that adult frogs eat insects and worms by using their strong tongue. But, what about the baby frogs? Do they also eat insects or something completely different?

These little frogs don’t eat insects like crickets and grasshoppers because they’re too small. At this stage, they don’t have teeth.

Also, if they ate insects and worms, they would have to go outside and hunt them, this could result in them being attacked by predators because of their small size and lack of defense.

As these froglets or tadpoles cannot defend themselves, they keep inside the water, feeling more secure there than the outside world.

After hatching from the egg, these tadpoles eat the yolk of the egg. After that, when they go outside, they stay well-hidden underwater for the next few weeks and survive by eating algae and other weeds.

Read Also: What Do Toads Eat?

How to Take Care of and Feed a Baby Frog

If you’re planning to have a baby frog as a pet, then you should know how to take care of it. In the early stage of their life, the baby frogs need protection and food.

So, the first thing that you have to do is provide them with a place where they can thrive and grow.

In the early stage of their lives, they are more dependent on algae and green plants and vegetables, so provide them plenty of those for their development.

Once they are out of the tadpole stage, they have similar food requirements as the adult ones like worms and insects, although their meal should be smaller in size.

Final Words

So now you know the different names of baby frogs that you can use to call them. The most common being tadpole or froglet.

Along with that, the eating habits of baby frogs are also different. They eat egg yolk and algae in the initial stage of their life, and then they move to the insects and worms.

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Whether raising a frog from tadpole to adult frog for a science project at school or simply having a pet, the baby frog stage is one of the best (and most adorable) parts.

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What frogs eat, how to feed frogs at home

From this article you will learn:

What frogs eat in the wild;
Where to look for frog food;
What are her favorite “dishes” that she can grow at home;
The order of feeding these amphibians;
How frogs drink.

Frogs are carnivores that generally only eat moving objects, which means you can only feed frogs live insects!

General Feeding Guidelines for Frogs

frogs are truly generalist predators - they eat anything found in the wild. They will eat spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies and anything that gets in their mouth. Water frogs feed on a variety of aquatic invertebrates.

Each type of frog has its own nutritional recommendations, but in general your pet frog will eat a mixture of the following on the list.

Crickets

They form the basis of your pet frog's diet. This is not because they are the healthiest, but simply because they are the easiest to buy or grow at home.

Meal worms and woolworms

This is another delicious snack for frogs. Like crickets, mealworms are fairly easy to find in pet stores or raise at home. You can also buy them from fishing lure shops, but they won't come with a loaded gut.

Locusts and grasshoppers

They may be a little harder to find in pet stores or buy for frogs, but they add a much-needed variety of nutrients to your pet's diet.

Caterpillars or worms

They are getting easier to find in pet stores. Be sure to get caterpillars of the right size for your frog, as they can get pretty big!

Bloodworms, brine shrimp and black worms

These, along with other small worms, will be the main diet of water frogs.

Mice

They are part of the diet of large frog species such as Pacman frogs and African bullfrogs. As the frog grows, start feeding it to newborn mice.

You can buy them frozen or live, but be aware that most frogs do not eat frozen. Larger frogs will eat small or even adult mice. If this does not suit you, choose a smaller frog.

Be sure to feed the frog food that is smaller than the width of the frog's head, otherwise the frog's intestines may be damaged. If possible, try to buy insects with intestines, as they are much more nutritious for your frog!

If you can't buy food with a full gut, your frog is at risk of vitamin A deficiency.

Do not feed fruit or vegetables, human table waste, or wild-caught insects to your frog. Wild insects pose a serious risk of pesticide exposure, which can be very dangerous for your frog.

How much and when to feed the frog

The exact schedule and amount of frog feeding depends on its species, age and activity level. Like humans, frogs can become obese if overfed.

To keep your pet healthy and healthy, it is important to feed your frog in the right amount.

High energy frogs (eg pygmy clawed frogs) and young frogs (less than 16 weeks old) should have frequent access to food. Feed young frogs and high energy frogs every day or even twice a day. This may mean leaving some food, such as fruits or vegetables, in the tank for the insects to eat.
Medium energy frogs should be fed every other day or every other day. In general, they should be fed about five crickets per meal. Make sure you feed enough to keep the frog from eating within seconds, but don't feed so much that you see crickets the next morning!
Larger frogs should be fed less frequently. Large mouse frogs may eat infrequently - once a week or once every two weeks.

Your pet frog should have access to clean, dechlorinated water at all times. You can buy a dechlorinator at most aquarium stores.

Either create a pool of water in the tank, spray the tank regularly, or both. Frogs don't drink through their mouths, so it's important to keep them moist. They “drink” by absorbing water through their skin!

In the wild, frogs eat a wide variety of things. Feeding your pet frog should include a mixture of various insects with an intestine to ensure proper nutrition.

Plan how you will store these live insects before you bring home a new frog!

More about domestic frogs

Domestic frogs - care and maintenance

Domestic frogs - dwarf claws

Eastern fiery pot-toad-care and content

Leopard frogs (meadow frogs)-Content and Care

African frog-Control and maintenance and maintenance pond. Breeding edible frogs. Is it possible to feed a frog with live food

Frogs are poikilothermic animals, their temperature is directly dependent on the temperature of the environment. Young frogs and tadpoles tolerate cooling down to -1.1 °C, but they do not tolerate high temperatures well. Adult frogs can withstand a minimum temperature of -0. 4 to -0.8 ° C and tolerate temperatures of +39°C At a temperature of +5 ° C, the reflex activity of frogs almost stops.
Pond and lake frogs overwinter in water bodies, while common frog and ground toad - on land, burrowing in sand pits, cellars, under leaves, sawdust, moss or in the ground.
Frogs are harvested for laboratory needs in the autumn season. Pond and lake frogs are caught from reservoirs with nets.
Frogs in large numbers should be kept in special terrariums, which are organized in dark places and basements. Frogs should be in concrete pools filled with clean water. The water level is small (only 3-4 cm), so that the frogs can freely stick their heads above the water. Place a few stones in the pool that protrude above the water so that the frogs can climb on them. It is better if the pool is divided into sections isolated from each other. The depth of the pool and the height of the partitions between the sections is 1-1.2m. It is advisable to change the water frequently, and give the water aged in tubs. The pool from above must be covered with nets. The temperature in the terrarium should be 6-10 °C.
Small numbers of frogs may be kept in enameled tubs, tubs and aquariums. To do this, you must observe the above water level and change it frequently.
Dead frogs or tadpoles must be disposed of in a timely manner.
Maintenance and delivery, especially in winter, of pond, grass and lake frogs are associated with significant difficulties. In addition, more females than males are found among these frog species, making it difficult to conduct a biological test to detect early pregnancy in a hospital setting. Breeding frogs in the laboratory is impossible. Recently, instead of frogs, earth toads have been successfully used, which are easy to keep throughout the year in simple, specially built nurseries or in basements, in boxes. In addition, according to Jungfes, the ground toad has 100 males for 18.5 females. All this distinguishes them favorably from frogs and speaks of the expediency of breeding ground toads at every hospital.
Ground toads are kept in terrariums. The bottom should be covered with light porous earth and covered with pieces of moss and turf. The earth is slightly moistened. In a terrarium for toads, it is useful to arrange small ponds (puddles) or put flat dishes filled with water. It is quite possible to keep ground toads in the wild in shady places (where there are puddles), fenced with wire mesh or a concrete wall. In winter, toads are placed in cellars, boxes filled with crushed and moistened peat.
Fat frogs and toads harvested in autumn go without food throughout the winter. By spring, they lose weight, and in order to keep them until autumn, feeding should be established in late spring and summer.
J. Prokopich (1957), studying the question of the diet of the pond frog, showed that 96% of the captured prey are beetles, bugs, mollusks, and 4% of the contents of the stomach are plant foods. Quite often (up to 10% of cases) the phenomena of cannibalism are noted.
You can feed frogs and ground toads with their natural food (earth and flour worms, mollusks, spiders, flies and other insects, small fish). You can feed with finely chopped strips of meat (including frog meat). Food must be taken with tweezers and held in front of the mouth, as frogs and ground toads only capture moving prey. If the animals refuse to take food themselves, then it is necessary to resort to force-feeding, i.e. pushing food into the mouth. Feed should be 1-2 times a week.

HOME KEEPING TOADS AND FROGS

If many people have toads and frogs made of metal and stone, and even with a coin in their mouth as a symbol that brings money and prosperity, then some prefer to have live real amphibians at home. Under natural conditions, toads, and they are gray and green, lead a twilight lifestyle, always avoid bright light. Toads are very useful if they are in a summer cottage or garden plot, they exterminate harmful insects, including pests such as slugs, and in very large quantities. If there is a pond on the site, and there are no frogs, you should try to attract them by laying driftwood and shards near the pond, frogs like to hide under them. Often we cannot deny ourselves the desire to have a piece of wildlife next to us all year round, so we keep frogs and toads at home. Keeping toads at home deprives them of their freedom and natural instincts. However, toads and frogs are often settled in a living corner.

Toads are kept in high humidity and in aquaterrariums specially equipped for their keeping. They should have enough snags, pieces of bark and stones that serve as shelter for the toads, because during the daylight hours it will be impossible to see the toad, it does not come out of the shelter. The temperature of the content should be 18-20 degrees. Toads should be fed by running live insects into the terrarium, toads eat only moving insects and invertebrates. Cockroaches, bloodworms, slugs, flies and earthworms are good food for toads. A toad needs 3-4 grams of food per day.

The skin of toads is quite bumpy due to the many venom glands, the largest glands are located behind the eyes. These glands are the most dangerous, they can give out a poisonous secret at a distance of up to one meter. If you take a toad in your hands, the glands located on the body and legs work, you can feel this liquid, it has an unpleasant odor and a bitter taste. In the old days it was believed that they appeared precisely from this secret allocated by the toad.

Keeping frogs in a pet zoo does not differ much from keeping toads. Frogs can live in terrariums with a pond, at a temperature of 18-20 degrees, or in aquariums with created islands or stones protruding from the water, on which frogs can periodically crawl out. Only now the frogs need to create a very high humidity. If the humidity is low, the frog's skin dries out quickly, which can lead to its death. The food for frogs is the same as for feeding toads, only tubifex is to be excluded. Frogs should be kept in aquariums without fish, because fish can be excellent food for them. Keeping frogs as domestic amphibians is an occupation only for rare exotic lovers. The most popular frog for the home aquarium is the clawed frog. The homeland of such a frog is Africa, in nature, frogs live in reservoirs with stagnant water and often move overland in search of another reservoir, but they cannot live without water. The bottom of the aquarium or aquaterrarium should be covered not with sand, but with fine gravel, frogs dig in it, and the water becomes cloudy. From plants for an aquarium with frogs, it is better to use large aquatic plants with a powerful stem, otherwise the frog can damage them by simply breaking them, and it is better to place plants floating on the surface, they can also serve as islands of land for frogs.

In an aquarium with frogs, you need to constantly change the water, or install filters, frogs emit a lot of organic matter, and the water quickly becomes cloudy and dirty. Compressors can be omitted, as frogs breathe when leaving the water on the islands. From above, the aquarium should be covered with glass or a grate; frogs can easily jump out of it.

If you have a pair of frogs, they can reproduce by laying eggs. Aquarium clawed frogs can be observed laying eggs 3-4 times a year. Tadpoles emerge from the eggs, and then, after about two months, frogs develop from them. Tadpoles and frogs can be fed fish food. Frogs in an aquarium can live up to 15 years.

There are many types of frogs, but some of them are very dangerous. These are toad frogs and spadefoot frogs. It is better not to keep them at home. Frogs imported from America are even more poisonous and dangerous. The poison secreted by toads and frogs will not cause serious poisoning in humans, but getting on the mucous membranes can lead to inflammation, redness and irritation. Skin areas should be thoroughly rinsed with water immediately after exposure to the poison.

Frogs are mostly green, gray and white, with a yellow belly, but cannot be colored. Be careful, colored frogs are imported from China, these are artificially colored frogs.

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07/26/2017

Everyone knows that frog legs are considered a gourmet delicacy in France, and many fans of this dish around the world idolize their refined and delicate taste, which slightly resembles chicken.

Frog dishes adorn the menus of the most famous and respectable restaurants in Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Great Britain, Holland and many other European countries.

Frogs are also in high demand in countries such as China, Vietnam, Laos, where they are bred on special farms, since frog meat is valued much higher than veal and costs an order of magnitude more expensive. In the East, no one will be surprised by the assortment of a supermarket, where, next to the hams of various animals and birds, frozen paws of these amphibians will lie.

In Peru, they even manage to add frog meat to chocolate and biscuits after drying and grinding it. It is believed that such an unusual delicacy cures anemia and helps women with infertility.

Fried frog legs have also appeared in the menu of many Ukrainian cafes and restaurants (as a rule, they prefer to sell French or exotic cuisine). True, not every frog goes into food, but only large green ones, which are the edible species.

It is noteworthy that in many countries of the world, frog legs are equated with pike and even sturgeon caviar in terms of their biological value.

frog species

Only five varieties of frogs are found in the reservoirs of Ukraine: grass frog ( lat. Rana temporaria ), moor ( lat. Rana arvalis ), quick ( lat. Rana dalmatina ), pond ( lat. Rana lessonae ) and lake ( lat. Rana ridibunda ). The first three species have a brown and brown body color, and the last two species are combined by scientists into a group of "green frogs", which, when crossed, give the very famous edible species.

For the first time a large green frog as a separate species was described by Carl Linnaeus back in 1758. It was he who gave her a name (lat. Rana esculenta), which translates as "edible frog." This hybrid species is widely represented in the reservoirs of Transcarpathia and lives in the Danube Delta.

During the Soviet Union, these amphibians were massively exported to France, since their value in foreign currency was three times (!) Higher than the price of expensive fish species. Every year, up to eighty tons of this first-class product were exported from the country.

At present, due to the spread of diseases and massive epidemics of birds, pigs and cattle, the demand for frog meat has increased dramatically. True, in Ukraine it still remains quite low, since the use of a frog by many residents of the country seems unusual and unnatural, therefore, today, the most promising direction is the cultivation of amphibians for export.

Description of the edible frog

When creating optimal conditions for growth and development, individual specimens of frogs can gain weight up to one and a half (!) Kilograms, but on average their weight does not exceed one kilogram.

An amphibian reaches sexual maturity at the age of three years and one female is able to lay up to fifteen thousand eggs during the year.

Frog rearing

Growing an edible species of frogs for commercial purposes is simple and technologically similar to breeding ordinary pond fish (the fattening period to obtain a marketable species is from twelve to twenty months).

To start, you need frog caviar, which can be collected in a pond during spawning, and in three or four years, the amphibian population will increase tenfold.

It is desirable to grow caviar in a closed pond with clean running water, since open ponds significantly increase the mortality rate of the population. The incubation room should be warm (it is necessary to maintain the temperature at least twelve degrees Celsius), bright and clean. It is advisable to change the water once every three or four days, while first passing it through the filter (or letting it settle), since highly chlorinated water can kill the entire population of frogs.

Consideration must also be given to the ground. An ideal basis for an incubation pond is a mixture of earth, peat, crushed sphagnum (peat bog moss), expanded clay or charcoal (in a ratio of 3:1:1:1). Such soil will not turn sour, and harm the skin of tadpoles and young frogs.

After mass hatching of tadpoles (which grow for about
four months old), they are intensively fattened until they turn into young frogs, and then they are moved to an open pond.

It is desirable to leave the largest and healthiest frogs for subsequent reproduction, thus forming a strong breeding stock of frogs.

Diet

The diet of frogs (at all stages of development) is quite varied. The food is based on small invertebrates (bloodworms, worms, caterpillars), crustaceans and insects (mosquitoes, flies, beetles). All swimming, jumping, crawling and flying small animals that a frog can swallow at one time are used.

Young frogs need to be supplemented with vitamins to prevent rickets.

Upon reaching marketable weight, the frog is slaughtered with a mallet, the skin is removed, the legs are separated, packaged and frozen. This is how they are implemented.

Frog legs in Europe range from $4 to $6, while live amphibians go for $1 to $4 per kilogram (equivalent to about sixty adults).

Breeders need to remember that catching an adult frog is not easy, because it can overcome a distance of three (!) Meters from one jump, and at the same time it can knock down even an adult person. This "animal" is able to swallow a mouse, small snake or duckling.

However, the same French prefer to eat frogs of a much more modest size (weighing about one hundred grams).

Delicious frog legs are easy to make. To begin with, they are kept in cold water with lemon juice (like asparagus), and then fried in vegetable oil in breadcrumbs or batter. The dish turns out to be crispy, fragrant, tender, and small bones are not a hindrance for enjoyment.

While working in the garden, you can often stumble upon frogs unexpectedly jumping out of the green grass or important and clumsy toads barely crawling out. Many of these animals are disgusted. Meanwhile, it should be remembered that there are benefits from frogs. They are tireless hunters for all sorts of small pests, bringing invaluable benefits.

The information in the article will allow you to get acquainted with the life of these animals, perhaps many will even feel some sympathy for these interesting creatures.

Before we find out what the frog eats, let's present its description.

General information about toads and frogs: differences

Toads and frogs are tailless amphibians living in water and on land. Even when leaving the water, these animals are very dependent on it. In addition to pulmonary, they also have active skin respiration, which allows amphibians to stay under water for a longer time. But dry air and prolonged exposure to the sun's rays have a detrimental effect on them.

What does a frog eat? You can find out more about this in the article below.

Frogs and toads are closely related. Their difference lies in the fact that frogs have smoother skin, long strong hind legs have well-developed membranes between the fingers. All this helps the frogs to jump well and swim quickly. And the toad has dry skin covered with "warts", their paws are weak and short, allowing them to move only waddling or in short jumps. The membranes between the fingers are not developed, and therefore they swim poorly, and spend less time in the water (in fact, only during the breeding season).

It is difficult to determine what the frog eats by its structure and appearance, but it can be assumed. She has a flat back and head, and her eyes often protrude above the water surface like liquid bubbles, without betraying the animal itself. The hind legs are strong, like a spring, and the front paws, arranged like palms, are grasping. The jaws of the frog are studded with sharp, small, inward-facing teeth. A sticky tongue is located in a wide mouth. Comparing all of the above external signs, we can assume what the frog eats - mostly small aquatic inhabitants.

Distribution

This family (true frogs) belongs to the anurans order. The composition of the latter is numerous, it includes 32 genera and about 400 species. Most of them are inhabitants of the jungle (wet tropics).

The largest of the tailless amphibians is the goliath frog (3 kilograms), which lives on the coast of the Republic of Cameroon in Africa. Most recently, the smallest frog was discovered in New Guinea - the size of a little finger nail.

In central Russia, mainly varieties of the common and common toad live. They are widely distributed in Russia to Sakhalin, as well as throughout Europe and Africa (northwest).

Most of these amphibians have a modest inconspicuous coloration, but some of the outfit can be quite bright, especially for poisonous species that live mostly in the tropics.

Types of frogs and toads

Before we find out what frogs eat in a pond, as well as in other natural and domestic conditions, let's consider the most common varieties of these amphibians. Their life (toads and frogs) is closely connected with water, however, there are species that, in their adult state, mainly live and hunt only on land.

There are 4 types of frogs in central Russia: lacustrine, pond, herbaceous, moor. The first two species are green in color, the second are closer to brown.

Among the inhabitants of Russian gardens, moor and grass are more common. The first has a protective coloration that allows it to be invisible on the ground, but it is much smaller in size than grass. The second has a gray-brown or brown back with spots of different colors, and the belly is mostly light with dark spots.

In addition to the common frog, the Siberian frog also lives in Siberia. Its distinctive feature is pink spots on a brown abdomen.

Among toads, the most common are 2 species:

common, or gray, with a dark brown back;
green with large green spots on a light gray back.

Feeding characteristics

All types of frogs are tireless in obtaining food. What does a frog eat? It is known that the grass frog eats about 1300 insects - pests of gardens and orchards during the entire summer period. And the moored one exterminates many pests, including stinky bugs and beetles, which even birds shun.

As a rule, frogs forage during the day, and toads destroy pests mostly at night and at dusk.

What does a frog eat and how does it do it? They, like toads, are insectivorous animals. Frogs have teeth only on the upper jaw, and toads do not have them at all, so they have nothing to bite off pieces of food with. In connection with these features, food is swallowed whole by frogs and toads. They catch their prey with the help of their original tongue - long, strong and forked at the end. It is thrown out of the mouth with lightning speed in the direction of the victim, and then, due to the fact that it is sticky, it returns back with the prey already stuck.

Another curious fact is that food enters the esophagus through the eyes. When blinking, the eyes sink deeper, pushing food into the esophagus.

Toads have an excellent appetite. The main food for them is invertebrates: worms, insects, bugs, spiders, caterpillars, molluscs, and so on. More than half (60%) of all insects eaten by the toad are agricultural pests. Also, these animals feed on slugs. Many gardeners observe unpleasant slugs on strawberries, which usually hide in damp ground during the day, and come out to eat soft juicy fruits of sweet ripe strawberries in the evening. It is very difficult to fight them. Just in this toads are great helpers.

Adult frog is a carnivore. The frog feeds on mosquitoes and other types of insects. For the lake, tasty prey are fish fry. As a result, fish farms suffer considerable damage. Hiding in shallow water, the frog waits for a flock of fry, and after waiting for them, it sharply opens its mouth, where a bunch of fish are involved in the flow of water. Tadpoles may also be in the mouth with fry.

In the stomachs of frogs, plant remains are also often present, because part of the leaves and flowers on which their prey sat on sticks to their tongue. All this is quickly swallowed by the frog, after which it again goes for new food.

The larval stage is very similar in different frog species.

Tadpoles hatched from eggs do not have a mouth opening. The embryonic supply of nutrients ends after about seven days, when their length reaches 1.5 cm. During this period, the mouth breaks and self-feeding begins.

The main food of tadpoles is unicellular algae. Random impurities that are absorbed by the frog's body along with the main food are mold fungi, protozoa, and other microorganisms.

The tadpole's mouth apparatus is well adapted for scraping off algae plaque and is a kind of "beak" surrounded by fringed lips. The lower one has rough outgrowths and is larger than the upper one. Tadpoles feed during the day, being in heated water on the shallows and near the coast, forming mass accumulations (up to 10,000 pieces). Not everyone survives from them, since frog larvae serve as food for birds, fish and many other inhabitants of the reservoir.

Tadpoles turn into frogs of the year. They are pretty greedy. In the filled state, the volume of their stomach exceeds 1/5 of the total mass.

One more curious detail - with insufficient amount of animal food in the reservoir, the tadpole hibernates in the larval stage, postponing the transformation into a predator until spring.

Aquarium frogs

Especially popular among aquarists is the clawed frog, whose skin secretions have the effect of a natural antiseptic that disinfects water well. Such a frog is usually planted in an aquarium with fish that have some kind of infection. However, there must be a mesh partition between them, since the frog can eat its “patients”.

Usually, amphibians living in an aquarium feed on live food: earthworms, daphnia, bloodworms, etc. Due to the fact that in captivity frogs move little, they tend to become obese. They should be fed no more than 2 times a week. They may also eat thinly sliced lean meats or fish.

What do frog tadpoles eat at home? In the very first days, milk powder is suitable for them (baby formula is also good). In the second week, mixtures of insects and herbs can be introduced into the diet after a good steaming in the oven or in the sun to avoid various putrefactive processes.

Beef liver and small bloodworm are introduced in the last days of metamorphosis to strengthen the body of small frogs, but all this should be crushed to the smallest size.

Conclusion

Creating the animal world, nature has shown incredible ingenuity. Amphibians can be attributed to the number of amazing miracles.

They emerged from the World Ocean millions of years ago, but their connection with the water element was not interrupted. And they begin their life in the water.

Frogs, leading an aquatic lifestyle, have long taken a strong place in amateur aquariums. And the touching little frogs, which are now sold in almost every pet store, cause an irresistible desire among people who are inexperienced in aquaristics to buy, as they say, "there are those two white ones and this gray one." But no matter how cute they are, let's first figure out what kind of frogs they are, what conditions they need and with whom they can live in the same aquarium.

Two types of frogs are currently kept in aquariums: the smooth clawed frog - xenopus (Xenopus laevis), which has been bred in captivity for many years, and the dwarf frog - hymenochirus (Hymenochirus boettgeri), which has become popular not so long ago. Adult frogs of these species vary greatly in size, appearance, behavior, and content. Frogs in pet stores are often kept in the same aquarium and when selling, they do not always focus on their species.

Clawed frog.

So, if aquarium frogs are white or pinkish, with red eyes, then regardless of size they are clawed. The albino clawed frog was artificially bred at the Moscow Institute of Developmental Biology for laboratory experiments.

If a small frog is grayish, brownish or olive in color with dark spots, then to determine the species, you should pay attention to the length and thickness of its limbs, the presence of webbing between the fingers of the front paws and the pointedness of the muzzle. Wild-colored clawed frogs are more dense, they have thicker legs with bandages, like babies, a rounded muzzle, and there are no webbing on the fingers.

Hymenochirus, on the other hand, has membranes, long and slender legs, and a pointed muzzle. The size of an adult hymenochirus, as a rule, does not exceed 4 cm, while the clawed frog grows up to 10–12 cm.

These frogs also behave in different ways. They are active, strong and completely shameless. But they are clearly visible, they have large expressive faces and they have a habit of stretching out beautifully to hang in the thickness of the aquarium water.

Hymenochirus are calmer, quieter, slower and more delicate. They slowly crawl along the bottom, climbing on underwater objects and periodically freezing for a long time. As one amateur aptly put it, pygmy frogs resemble "meditating scuba divers." They almost do not damage plants, do not disturb fish (they simply do not have such an opportunity due to the size of their body and mouth), pollute the aquarium a little.

In a large aquarium, they are almost invisible, because they constantly hide on the bottom or in thickets of plants, and if active fish live nearby, then hymenochiruses may not keep up with food.

Aquarium frogs: maintenance and care

Both species are not too demanding in terms of keeping conditions. For clawed frogs, an aquarium of 20-30 liters per couple is enough, while it needs to be filled with water by half or a third. The aquarium should be closed with a lid or net. The soil is a large pebble. The aquarium is equipped with a compressor or a small internal filter, you can use a waterfall filter, but there should not be a strong current. There is no need for bright lighting.

The water temperature is about 22-25°C, xenopuses are practically indifferent to the chemical indicators of water. The exception is the content of chlorine and fluorine in the water, so it is recommended to defend it before adding it to the aquarium for at least 2-3 days. They change the water once or twice a week for 20-25%, a number of authors recommend changing less often, as it becomes cloudy.

Only hard-leaved plants may be planted, always in pots, otherwise they will be dug up immediately. Some lovers of these animals act as follows: they put a pot with a houseplant with hanging shoots next to the aquarium, and place these shoots in the aquarium. In this case, the aquarium becomes green, and the roots of the plant remain intact.

For hymenochiruses, the volume of the aquarium can be even smaller, 1-2 liters of water for such a frog is enough.

A cap is required - hymenochiruses, especially those caught in the wild, often try to escape.

They require a minimum water temperature of 24°C. A filter or compressor is desirable, but it should not be too powerful to leave areas of still, stagnant water in the aquarium.

At the bottom, it is necessary to equip small shelters under which these quivering creatures can hide. Plants are very desirable, it is good if they form dense thickets in places. It is also better to plant them in pots. It is necessary to equip the aquarium with lighting, since hymenochiruses sometimes like to rise among the thickets to the surface and bask under the lamp, sticking their head and upper body out of the water.

Feeding

Decorative aquarium frogs - both xenopuses and hymenochiruses - are preferred.

For claws, these can be mealworms, earthworms, crickets, bloodworms, fry and tadpoles. You can give pieces of liver, meat, fish, shrimp with tweezers.

Clawed frogs should not be fed tubifex, pork, fatty beef.

Hymenochirus are fed small bloodworms, live daphnia or fish. Dry and immobile frog food is usually ignored. Food for adult xenopus and hymenochirus should be given twice a week.

The feeding behavior of these two frog species also differs. Spurs have an excellent sense of smell, in addition, they have a very developed sense of touch (the receptors are pits located on the sides of the frog and resemble the lateral line of fish). Therefore, frogs are good at detecting smells and the slightest movements of water, quickly find food and greedily pounce on it.

Hymenochirus, on the other hand, usually need to bring food directly to the nose. You can teach them to feed in a certain place or according to a certain signal (for example, tapping with tweezers), but they will take a long time to get to the food, as if thinking along the way whether it is worth doing this at all.

Xenopus are extremely voracious and therefore prone to obesity, so the amount of food they eat must be strictly controlled - a healthy frog must remain flat.

As for the clawed frog, knowing the peculiarities of its behavior, one can answer unequivocally - it has nothing to do in an aquarium with fish.

She will swallow everything that fits in her mouth, wipe out most of the plants, dig up the soil, raising the dregs, and move carefully placed scenery.

In addition, she does not like fresh water with a good current, and most fish will not like the swamp she is used to.

The only advantage of cohabitation between fish and clawed frogs is that the frogs' skin mucus contains antimicrobial substances that can have a curative effect on sick fish. But at the current level of development of aquarium pharmacology, this can hardly be considered a serious argument. If you really want to do without chemistry, it is much easier to place a sick fish in a small container, where the frog had been for some time before.

Some aquarists advise keeping xenopus with , as they do well in old water and breathe atmospheric air. But why do it? A separate small aquarium with frogs will take up very little space, and everyone will be fine as a result.

Things are not so scary with hymenochiruses. It is believed that they get along well with calm, not too large, non-predatory fish. They will not violate the beauty of the aquarium either. However, in a large aquarium, hymenochiruses spend a lot of time in shelters, so it is almost impossible to observe them, and it can be quite difficult to control the process of feeding them.

Diseases of frogs

Aquarium frogs may experience the following health problems:

In the treatment of frogs, preparations for tropical aquarium fish are usually used, selecting them according to the causative agent of the disease (anthelmintic, antifungal or antibacterial). Sick frogs are isolated. With dropsy, a puncture of the skin is often effective.

It should be known that individuals usually fall ill if they live in unsuitable conditions for them, are prone to obesity or experience prolonged severe stress.

And finally, some interesting facts about clawed frogs:

the clawed frog was the first vertebrate to be cloned;
at the beginning of the 20th century, clawed frogs were used to diagnose short-term pregnancy: if a frog is injected with the urine of a pregnant woman, it starts spawning under the influence of chorionic gonadotropin;
The clawed frog does not have a tongue, therefore, when eating prey, it helps itself with its front paws, and it cannot bend its fingers, it keeps them outstretched, as if eating with Chinese chopsticks;
When clawed frogs accidentally entered the waters of the tropical United States, they destroyed native species of frogs there, therefore in some states the keeping of clawed frogs is prohibited, while in others it is limited.

Fortunately, keeping frogs is allowed in our country, so everyone can get these undemanding funny animals at home, watch and care for them, getting a lot of positive emotions and acquiring the skills of keeping an aquarium.