Frogs are carnivores and eat live prey such as insects, snails, spiders, worms and small fish. Some of the bigger species of frogs will even eat small mammals like rats and small reptiles like lizards. Some frogs have a long sticky tongue they use to grab flying insects like fruit flies.
If you have a pet frog some popular things to feed them are crickets, moths, flies, and worms. Sometimes they will find their own food by eating fruit flies, houseflies, moths and other insects that happen to buzz by. They can survive about two days without food.
What to Feed Pet Frogs
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Unlike other pets you or your kids have found in the yard frogs can be a great pet. Frogs are carnivores, which mean they eat meat. So, what do frogs eat? Well as a general rule frogs will only eat live food. There are some tricks to getting your pet frog to eat dead food, but we will cover that in a later section.
Before attempting to feed your pet frog for the first time make sure you have a shallow dish, such as a mason jar lid filled with water. The mason jar lid will rust, but it will work until you find a better dish. Without water frogs will not live! Once you have the water then you may begin experimenting with what your new pet frog will eat.
The first step to figuring out what your new pet frog will eat is by determining its size. In general frogs come in 3 sizes, small, medium, and large.
- Large Frogs: 3 to 6+ inches
- Medium Frogs: 1.5 to 3.5 inches
- Small Frogs: Less than 2 inches
What do large Frogs eat?
An example of a large frog would be the bullfrog. A bull frog can be anywhere between 3 to 6+ inches in size. Bull Frogs will eat most anything that will fit in their mouths. For larger bull frogs you may feed them small mice, which can be purchased at your local pet store. As well they eat many larger insects like grasshoppers, crickets, and roaches. They have even been known to eat small turtles and other smaller frogs. Adult frogs only need to eat 3 or 4 times a week. Younger frogs should be feed every day. Note: Bull Frogs will eat dead mice if they presented as alive.
What do tree frogs eat?
Tree frogs are any frogs that have adapted to living in tree branches. To help them maneuver at dangerous heights, they have sticky pads on their feet and eyes that are excellent at judging distances. So, what exactly do tree frogs eat? Tree frogs are primarily insectivores, which means they feed on insects and small vertebrates. Flies, ants, moths, crickets, butterflies, spiders, and beetles are all eaten by smaller frogs. Snails, lizards, and even mice are caught by larger frogs!
A basic diet of crickets is recommended if you have a pet tree frog. Depending on the size of your frog, you can feed it goldfish, guppies, mice, worms, and any other bugs you find crawling around your house. You should mix calcium and multivitamin powders and coat your frog’s food once in a while to ensure it gets enough nutrition.
What do medium and small sized Frogs eat?
Crickets by far are the most popular frog food. They can be purchased at any pet store, Wal-Mart, bait shop, and even many convenient stores. If you have a small frog you will need to purchase baby crickets, which are normally only found at your local pet shop. If you were to ask me What do frogs eat? my first answer would be crickets. By far they are what frogs eat. Especially pet frogs.
Some other common foods that may be feed to your pet is just about any insect you find on your windows at night. Flies are great, but for smaller frogs you will need to pull off the wings. This will enable your small frog to catch the fly. One other item that should be noted is that pet store do carry Frog and Tadpole Bites, or other varieties which some frogs will eat. Blood worms are another good choice for feeding small and medium sized frogs. Just make sure you place the worms is a small lid such as a gallon milk lid.
What do tadpoles eat
Tadpoles eat a wide variety of things. It ranges from species to species. In the wild most tadpoles will eat micro plants and algae. Some species are omnivores and eat organic debris from decomposed plants or animals.
In captivity they can eat a wide variety of food. For example baby food, egg yolk, and lettuce. If you are raising tadpoles your choices will vary for different types of tadpoles. Some popular things to feed them are lettuce and spinach.
Before hatching Tadpoles eat their own yolk sacks. A few days after hatching their gills start to develop and they becomes vegetarian. When the tadpoles back legs start to develop or soon after all tadpoles become carnivores. They will eat insects, larvae, and other insects or small animals in the water. If they do not get enough meat to eat they will eat other tadpoles.
Tadpole and Frog life cycle
Frogs and toads lay thousands of eggs covered with a jelly-like substance that helps protect them from being eaten by other small creatures in the water. These eggs clump together and float to the top of the water. This is known as a frog-spawn.
After a few days tadpoles with hatch. Tadpoles live and swim under water. After about a month their hind legs will start to grow as well as their lungs for breathing. After a few months their front legs start to grow and their tails will disappear.
Tadpoles as pets
If you want to have pet tadpoles you will need to fill a large container or fish bowl halfway up with chlorine free water. If using tap water let it set for at least a week in the sunlight to get rid of any chlorine or chemicals used to treat the water. Do not put the tadpoles in direct sunlight and replace dirty water on a regular basis.
You can feed your tadpoles boiled lettuce or cabbage. Chop it up and freeze it so it does not go bad. Give them just a pinch every few days. If you give them too much it will pollute the water.
Put in some stones, branches, or leaves so there si a surface level for the tadpoles once they develop legs.
When they start growing legs feed them meat such as live bloodworms. They will be too small to eat crickets at this stage.
