20 Aug 03
As a rule of thumb, I would not set up fewer than three ff cultures per week regardless of size. This is just good insurance in case a culture, or even two, crash. I use small 1/2 pint sized culture vials and set up 8 per week (4 melangaster and 4 hydei) to feed about 20 adult frogs (ranging from thumbnails to P. bicolor) and up to 20 froglets. This produces a surplus of flies for me but many of my frogs are small.
A couple other thoughts are that letting insects just crawl through the dusting supplements probably won't be very effective because not enough of the supplement will stick to the insects. Also, dusting powders tend to absorb moisture pretty fast so it won't last long exposed to the humidity of the tank. Remember also that many of the vitamins break down when exposed to air so it is best to keep the supplements tightly sealed, cool, and out of the light. For what it's worth, I dust ff about 3-4 times a week and attempt to enhance cricket nutritional value by feeding them a variety of nutritious foods (gut loading in the broad sense). I do not dust supplemental foods like flour beetle larvae but if I were using them as a staple, I would.
As far as letting flour beetle larvae and termites loose in your vivs, I do. I don't think the flour beetles actually survive long in the moist environment but I don't think either one really poses a threat to anything. Others may have other opinions. I think the real disadvantage is that some of the insects are escaping into the viv without being eaten.
Brent
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Let me add a few things to Brent's comments. Everyone does this differently so I'll just tell you some of what I do differently than Brent. I make two sizes of cultures every other week. Roughly 36 -- 16 oz. pint jars and 24 -- 32 oz. quart jars. I also make enough medium to keep some in the fridge for more when or if needed.
The pint jars I often put directly into the froglet tanks. But if you do that BE VERY CAREFUL to take them out before they sour. Froglets need feeding continually. They can be hurt by missing a day of feeding. They can also be hurt if the medium confined with them spoils.
With my older frogs I normally just feed them whenever I can't find food in with them. Sometimes that's every other day, sometimes that’s every third day and sometimes that’s everyday. Right now they are hungry and eating me out of house and home.
I don't feed flour larva. They've always been a hassle I've not enjoyed messing with.
I do feed waxworms and some termites. The ones that escape into the undergrowth normally eventually get eaten or just fertilize the soil. But be careful about escaped crickets. I fed some gutloaded pinheads to my E. femoralis early in the summer and just found a 3/4 inch cricket eating a clutch of eggs lastnight.
You can also easily overfeed waxworms and termites as their fat content is high so I'd suggest (and believe most froggers would also) that you base your frogs diet on fruit flies.
All of your tincs, auratus, azureus, and leucs will do well on a diet of nothing but fruit flies if they are dusted often, but I have all of those same frogs eating 1/4 to 1/2 inch waxworms on a semi-regular basis also.
Tracy
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