# Frogs & Toads > Aquatic Clawed Frogs >  Feeding african clawed frogs earthworms

## Gemma

I've had my ACFs since August 2012 and all they eat is frozen bloodworms and occasionally krill or brine shrimp. Besides bloodworms (which they love), these are the foods I have tried so far:

Frozen brine shrimp - my frogs will eat these but they mess up the tank a lot so I don't like feeding them them.

Frozen krill - my frogs eat bits of these (I think) but spit out their eyes and other bits, so again mess the tank up.

Frozen beef heart - my frogs won't touch it.

Reptomin - I've tried all different methods of feeding these to my frogs, but they just spit them out and leave the tank a mess. I'll keep trying every now and then.

I want them to have a varied diet, but it's hard to know what to feed them that they'll eat and that won't mess up the tank. I don't think I'm going to try water fleas or any of the other small frozen foods because I think they'll probably just get sucked up by my filter or mess up the tank like krill and brine shrimp. Can anyone suggest any other foods that I could try that won't mess up my tank? Feeder fish aren't an option because there is only one local fish shop and I don't trust that the fish there are healthy (plus I like fish so I don't want to offer them as food). I live in the UK so I can't buy the food made specifically for ACFs.

I'm thinking of trying them with earthworms soon and was wondering if anyone has any advice on where to buy them and how to feed them to ACFs. There aren't any shops nearby that sell fishing bait, so I'm thinking of buying them online from a source that my dad says is trustworthy (he's a fisherman). Is this a good idea? My frogs aren't fully grown and I'm still feeding them every day. They're just under 2 inches long now, not including legs. The earthworms come in small, medium and large, so I'll probably go for the smallest size, but how do I feed them to my frogs? I'm clueless as I've never fed them live food before. Do I need to chop them up, or can I give them to my frogs whole? And how many should I feed them? Also, if it turns out that my frogs like earthworms, are they a good staple food? Any other information about feeding them earthworms would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

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## Michael

Earthworms are fine. I would wager they're close to 90% nutritionally complete enough to be considered a staple diet if fed exclusively. I feed my xenopus a lot of earthworms it makes up at least 70% of my frogs diet and I would say my frogs are very healthy.

I get my earthworm a from bait shops or Walmart bit if you can get some online that works too just store them in a cool place that stays under 70F.

You may need to cut the worms if your frogs are small but they can eat nightcrawlers whole before too long. Stay away from red rigglers or red worms get nightcrawlers which are bigger because red works are toxic or at the very least excrete mucus that frogs find distasteful.

I would keep trying to get your frogs to eat reptomin because its a good food to have just in case you don't have works and I think it helps round the diet out a not too. My frogs eat nothing but nightcrawlers and reptomin.

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## Jen

Also, sometimes you can introduce too much variety into the tank and spoil them. If earthworms become too expensive/out of season, you can make them adjust to Reptomin. 
 Fast them for a few days (even a week and it won't effect them negatively) and put a few Reptomin in.   Remember to do a small feeding at first so that they are eager for it and don't over eat after fasting. 

If they don't except it, fast again another few days and try again.  Be vigilant.  They are like kids...why eat the broccoli when they know dessert is coming?  

Once they are eating well on Reptomin you can use Earthworms 1-2x a week as treats. Do not use wild caught earthworms due to exposure to parasites and potential chemicals/plant and lawn treatments.   Use bait worms as suggested above or order online and grow your own colony.

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## Michael

I actually picked up some nice pesticide free dirt today for my own earthworm colony.. I'm going to try keeping them in my fridge in a critter keeper.

It took me a while to get my frogs to eat reptomin too, I didn't feed them for days at a time and eventually they accepted it. I shake the bottle in front of the tank now and they start their little 'feed me' dance so just have patience and let them get hungry enough to accept it, once they start eating it, they'll be hooked.

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## Gemma

Thanks for the advice. I had planned to buy lob worms (which I think are nightcrawlers?) online, but then I ended up buying dendrobaena worms instead because the smallest are only 3cm long. I think these will be a better size for my frogs, and you get more for your money. If my frogs like them, I'll look into growing my own colony. These are OK for ACFs, aren't they? I know they're good for other amphibians and for axolotls.

I'll definitely keep trying the reptomin. I tried to feed it to them again today and they just spat it straight back out again. They really are like kids! Hopefully fasting them will work. I'll give that a go.




> I shake the  bottle in front of the tank now and they start their little 'feed me'  dance so just have patience and let them get hungry enough to accept it,  once they start eating it, they'll be hooked.


Ah, I love their 'feed me' dance!

Thanks again.

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## Michael

I'm not really sure what lob or dendrobaena worms are, I think they are european nightcrawlers? They use the term red wriggler (smaller, somewhat toxic red earthworms) and canadian nightcrawler (the ones I use, bigger worms) here in the states. I imagine they'll do just fine. If they're good for axolotls, I doubt a clawed frog would turn their nose up at it, there is very little they won't eat.

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## MatthewM1

Red worms arnt toxic they just secrete a slime that has an upleasent taste when threatened but a lot of people use them as feeders and their frogs seem to get over the taste and enjoy them. Just make sure any kind of worm you use is free of dyes or scents that they sometimes add to fishing bait.

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## Michael

> Red worms arnt toxic they just secrete a slime that has an upleasent taste when threatened but a lot of people use them as feeders and their frogs seem to get over the taste and enjoy them. Just make sure any kind of worm you use is free of dyes or scents that they sometimes add to fishing bait.
> 
> Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2


They're toxic to garter snakes supposedly, I have no idea if this is true or not though.

A lot of frogs won't eat them because they will secrete a distasteful mucus, honestly I highly doubt ACF would mind them. I've not seen Xenopus turn down much if it's made out of meat..

I figure better safe than sorry and my frogs are big enough to down the larger nightcrawlers regardless. I figure with red wrigglers my frogs would either puke them back up because of the mucus or could be harmed if the rumor mill on the internet is true that they are somewhat toxic. That's just my take on it though, I could be easily be wrong about them.

Perhaps off topic here but I would really love to be able to add some more variety to my frogs diet. In the wild they seem to eat worms, small fish, terrestrial insects trapped on the water surface, tadpoles, recently morphed frogs, and even the occasional vertebrate however the vast majority of their diet is apparently arthropods and zoo-plankton, the closest thing that you can really find to this is krill, but I hear krill is loaded with thiaminase, as are shrimp, goldfish, ect so I steer clear of them.

Source (good read for ACF keepers, the diet of feral Xenopus Laevis in South Wales)

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## MatthewM1

I've heard that pre cooked, shelled shrimp with no salt/seasonings added make a good treat. Mine also really loves the reptomin sticks, she jumps at the surface if she hears us shaking the container. 

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## Michael

> I've heard that pre cooked, shelled shrimp with no salt/seasonings added make a good treat. Mine also really loves the reptomin sticks, she jumps at the surface if she hears us shaking the container. 
> 
> Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2


I've fed my frogs pre-cooked shrimp before and they seemed to like it, the only down side (though it was cool to observe) is that when they 'catch' the shrimp they instinctively use their claws to rake the flesh of the shrimp, it made quite a mess. I have not fed them shrimp since, since it was annoying having to clean up shredded shrimp out of the tank. 

(Note: I did cut the pieces fairly small, not sure why they felt the need to go crazy with the claws on it.)

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## Gemma

Well I've been feeding my frogs earthworms for 3 days now and they LOVE them! I'm going to look into growing my own colony. They wolf them down whole in seconds. I'm not sure how many I should be feeding them since I'm still feeding them once a day (they're not yet fully grown). I've been giving them one worm each, but I gave one frog 2 worms yesterday and she had no problems eating them both, and she was swimming around happily afterwards (looking for more, the greedy little thing!). 

The only thing that concerns me is my male frog has been croaking every single night for a month or so, but since I've been feeding him the worms I haven't heard him croak once. He seems healthy enough though and he's acting normally otherwise.

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## Michael

> Well I've been feeding my frogs earthworms for 3 days now and they LOVE them! I'm going to look into growing my own colony. They wolf them down whole in seconds. I'm not sure how many I should be feeding them since I'm still feeding them once a day (they're not yet fully grown). I've been giving them one worm each, but I gave one frog 2 worms yesterday and she had no problems eating them both, and she was swimming around happily afterwards (looking for more, the greedy little thing!). 
> 
> The only thing that concerns me is my male frog has been croaking every single night for a month or so, but since I've been feeding him the worms I haven't heard him croak once. He seems healthy enough though and he's acting normally otherwise.


Perhaps he was looking for love and has stopped now that he found his one true love, earthworms!!

Anywho, really not sure. My male never seems to be vocal either, he's about 10 months old now and I really wish he would.

That being said, earthworms are a particular favorite of these frogs. I swear my frogs know when I'm preparing to drop worms in to the tank, they start going crazy.

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