What do they eat? When adults, all tree frogs are either carnivores or insectivorous. Some larger frog species feed on small mammals and birds. Others eat smaller frogs, fish, or reptiles. In captivity, though, most can be accustomed to feed on insects or rodents that are easily available to them.

Still, you should be familiar with your frogs natural dietary habits. Some specialized species may refuse to eat anything else. You may need to be innovative to persuade your frog, toad, or tree frog to feed. If it has been deprived of food for a lengthy time by the collector or wholesaler, it may take some considerable prodding to start feeding again. You have the responsibility of offering fresh food in such secure and calming surroundings that your specimen cannot resist the temptation. Once it has begun feeding again, you can continue to do so. It may even expand its horizons to include a food type quite different from that natural to it.

Insects: So your frog likes insects – what could be easier? At first, finding a few crickets, houseflies, or grasshoppers seems simple. After a week or two of daily searching for insects, reality sets in. Buying feed insects is much easier than hunting for them. There is more to feeding insects to your frogs, than tossing a few crickets into the cage. You need to feed the insects well before offering them to your amphibians. A poorly fed, or otherwise unhealthy insect offers little but bulk to a reptile or amphibian. You may watch your frogs or toads eat insects everyday. However, if the insects are not nutritious, your amphibians may slowly be starving or developing a malady such as a metabolic bone disease. Making certain that feeding insects themselves are in top notch health should be a main concern of any herpetoculturist.

Feeding your Food Insects: Gut loading means feeding your insects an abundance of highly nutritious foods immediately before feeding them to your frogs. Calcium, Vitamin D3, fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh alfalfa and/or bean sprouts, honey, and vitamin/mineral-enhanced (chick) laying mash are only a few of the foods suitable for gut loading insects. You might also consider one of the gut loading diets. Insects quickly lose much of their food value if not continually fed an abundance of highly nourishing foodstuffs. Most insects eat continuously. So your insects will benefit greatly if fed the highest quality diet possible.

Field Plankton: Insects straight from the wild are already well fed. Because they have been able to choose their diet, the nutrition value of these insects is high. Field plankton are a good choice for your frogs. The field plankton are a mixture of the various insects and arachnids that can be field collected in any given location. To gather the field plankton simply sweep a suitable meshed field net back and forth through tall grasses or low shrubs in an area you know to be chemical free.

Crickets: The gray cricket is bred commercially for both fishing bait and for pet food. Other cricket species are readily collected in small numbers beneath debris in fields, meadows, and open woodlands. If purchased in suitable sizes, all species of crickets are ideal frog foods.

Where to get them – If you need only a few crickets, they can be purchased from local pet or bait shops. If you use several hundred to several thousand weekly, purchase them from wholesale producers that advertise in fishing or reptile magazines. The boxed crickets are sent via U.S mail.

Grasshoppers and Locusts - Grasshoppers and locusts are widely used and commercially available as reptile and amphibian foods in Europe and Asia. In the united States, you will have to breed them or collect them in the field. However, grasshoppers are fast, and it may take some time for you to build up your “netting” skills. You may wish to remove the large hoping legs before you place these insects in with your amphibians.

Waxworms - The waxworm is the larval stage of the wax moth, which frequently infests neglected beehives. Fishermen use them as bait, so look for wax worms at your local tackle stores. Check the ads in any reptile and amphibian magazine for wholesale distributors. Some pet shops also carry waxworms.

Waxworm tip – If you buy large quantities of wax worms you will need to feed them. Chick laying mash, wheat germ, honey, and yeast mixed into pasty syrup will serve adequately as a diet for these insects.

Giant Mealworms – Giant mealworms are the larvae of a South American Beetle. This is a great food source for many frogs. Keeping your own – Giant mealworms may be kept in quality plastic trays with about 1 inch of sawdust. They may be fed a diet of chick starting mash, bran, leafy vegetables, and apples.

Roaches – Although roaches can be bred, collecting them as needed is nearly easy. Roaches, of one or more species are present over much of the world. The size of the roach proffered must be tailored to the size of the frog being fed. A meal of several roaches is usually better for your frog than one or two large roaches. Collect from pesticide free areas.

Termites - Collect termites fresh as needed. Should you decide to hold “extras” over, they may be kept in some of the slightly dampened wood in which you found them. Termites are most easily collected during the damp weather of spring and early summer. One hobbyist has placed a huge pile of wood shavings some distance from his home and introduced termites to the pile. There the little insects can be collected nearly year round. This is certainly not a great idea for everyone; as this will result in a permanent terminate home! Collecting them as needed and using them immediately is best. Termites are among the best of foods for frogs.

Fruit Flies – Breeding stock of these tiny dipterids can be purchased from a biological supply house or collected from the wild. Biological supply houses will be able to supply you with flightless fruit flies. The genetic mutation will make handling them much easier. Mashed fruit and agar are good foods for the flies. If you use flying species, have a flyswatter handy. This is why the flightless ones are better.

Mice – Many of the largest frogs will relish adult mice. In the case of tree frogs, very few are large. Yet even moderate size specimens will accept nestling mice. These can be purchased from pet stores and biological supply houses. Be cautious if you plan to feed specimens that you catch yourself. Wild- caught rodents often carry diseases that can be passed onto your specimens or even you!

Tip – Caution

In some southern area, large slow grasshoppers called lubbers may be found. Many of them have a brightly colored (often black or yellow or red) nymphal stage that can be fatally toxic if eaten by your specimens. The use of these insects, even the adults, is not advisable.