Frogs?????

[k2l3d4]

I keep hearing people mention frogs as food..... What kind of frogs? I would like to add more variety to my checkereds diet.... They have turned their spoiled little noses up at night crawlers, and salmon/ tilapia,.... adn they are not liking the feeder fish lately, and I switched brands of Pinkie mice and I am having issues wiht them about that ..... argggg.... spoiled children are driving me nuts.....

[k2l3d4]

Bump!!! anyone?

[Stefan-A]

Is it really necessary to bump after half an hour?

[guidofatherof5]

I keep hearing people mention frogs as food..... What kind of frogs? I would like to add more variety to my checkereds diet.... They have turned their spoiled little noses up at night crawlers, and salmon/ tilapia,.... adn they are not liking the feeder fish lately, and I switched brands of Pinkie mice and I am having issues wiht them about that ..... argggg.... spoiled children are driving me nuts.....

It sounds like w/c frogs. I won't feed those for one main reason. Parasites. I know that many snakes live just fine with them but in the end the snake pays the price. If I could find frozen frogs I might consider them. With so many other safe foods available I won't run the risk.

Kady, You do have spoiled snakes but we know whos fault that is, don't we.
I think your snakes would sing a different tune if they went without food for a week. It won't hurt them at all but it's you I'm worried about. When they get hungry enough, those worms and off brand pinkies will taste pretty darn good. Hunger usually wins!

[k2l3d4]

Yeah... Steve we do know whos fault that is... They are too darn cute though and I am asking because hudinie is on a two week hunger strike as of yet....

[Didymus20X6]

They sound like Morris the Cat from those old commercials, who wouldn't eat anything but 9 Lives.

My cousin used to have a saying about that, though: "I bet if you didn't feed him for 2 weeks, he'd eat a peanut butter jelly sandwich!"

[GarterGeek]

My snakes are wild caught so I feed them live frogs every now and then. Anything the appropriate size and without much color would probably be fine.

I'm not sure, but I've heard that if you freeze a dead frog for thirty days all the parasite will be killed.

[Didymus20X6]

I'm not even sure it would take that long. Freezing organic matter causes water inside to crystalize, which destroys cell membranes and does pretty bad damage to whatever is being frozen. Of course, the longer the crystals are given to form, the worse the damage becomes. We call this phenomenon "freezer burn."

Have you ever taken a plastic bottle full of water and put it in the freezer? Unless you leave room in the bottle for the ice to expand, the bottle will break. This is pretty much what happens when a cell becomes frozen.

A month would certainly give the ice crystals plenty of time to pretty much eradicate anything living within the organism, but I'm willing to bet that few organisms would survive more than a few days after being frozen.

Please note: I am not a professional biologist. I just watch a lot of Good Eats with Alton Brown.

[DrKate]

I'm willing to bet that few organisms would survive more than a few days after being frozen.

For normal cells, you're absolutely right about the ice crystals destroying membranes. (BTW: I love Alton Brown!) So for bacteria and adult worms and things, this is true. But there are parasite egg and cyst stages that can survive freezing very well (their cell structures are resistant to the ice crystal formation and damage). I don't know why longer-term freezing kills these things when short-term freezing doesn't - it might just be that they eventually starve to death inside the dead, inactive host tissue. But anyway, it's those kinds of parasites that you're worried about when you freeze for a month instead of a day.

[GradStudentLeper]

I keep hearing people mention frogs as food..... What kind of frogs? I would like to add more variety to my checkereds diet.... They have turned their spoiled little noses up at night crawlers, and salmon/ tilapia,.... adn they are not liking the feeder fish lately, and I switched brands of Pinkie mice and I am having issues wiht them about that ..... argggg.... spoiled children are driving me nuts.....

You live in California, therefore Thou Shalt Not Feed Native Frogs to Your Snakes. Between bullfrogs (these you can feed to your snakes) chytrid, agricultural runoff in the central valley and habitat destruction, there is not an frog in CA which is not in danger of extinction, other than introduced bullfrogs, kill them with fire if you can.

That having been said, snakes eat plenty of frogs in the wild, and they live to sexual maturity and a long time thereafter. Parasites are not a problem unless the snake is suffering from some other sort of stress such as a lack of food or improper temperature. It is of course better to feed lab raised frogs. Thankfully there are biological supply companies that can ship tadpoles to your door in bulk...