Ornate Horned Frog Diet

[Peachy]

I looked up some info on ornate frogs, and was just curious about their stomach contents. After checking out AmphibiaWeb, something popped up:

"Ceratophrys ornata consumes primarily vertebrates; stomach content analysis of thirty-four specimens from Uruguay included 78.5% anurans, 11.7% passerine birds, 7.7% rodents, and 0.3% snakes, leaving only 1.8% as "other" (Basso 1990)."

Of course the invertebrate that we "gut load" and feed our frogs provide them with enough nutrition to maintain health, but since invertebrates aren't natural prey for these frogs as much as other frogs/toads/birds/rodents might be, wouldnt it's natural prey promote optimal growth?

[k0cky]

That's an interesting find (I'm sure not new, but a great question), I would like to know if anyone has applied this information as well.

[IvoryReptiles]

Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it sounds.....as is usually the case.
We do supply our Ceratrophys frogs with other tadpoles when the season permits, but breeding & raising the frogs doesn't allow for much room for feeder frogs. Each Spring we have Gulf Coast Toads spawning in our ponds in our back yard.......we will feed off the tadpoles to our Ceratrophys tadpoles as a supplemental food, but we also have to treat the ponds to avoid any possible transfer of parasites or chytrid fungus. It might be easier if you only have a few pet frogs to feed, but since we often have over 200 to raise, it just isn't feasible for us.

"Ceratophrys ornata consumes primarily vertebrates; stomach content analysis of thirty-four specimens from Uruguay included 78.5% anurans, 11.7% passerine birds, 7.7% rodents, and 0.3% snakes, leaving only 1.8% as "other" (Basso 1990)."

You notice that only 7.7% is rodent, but some people will feed their frogs a mouse or rat pup every week no matter what advice they are given. We do what we can to make sure they get a balanced diet and will supplement the diet as best we can with "Natural" diet items. We are looking into offering 1 to 3 day old chicks to our adult breeders. We've been working with these frogs for just over 5 years now and we sure as heck don't know everything there is to know! We learn new stuff on a daily basis and we are willing to learn at all times.

[Mentat]

Interesting that around 1.5 hours ago was at same page and read that information Peachy. Been trying to find a clear simple way to differentiate from Ceratophrys sp. Oh well, Amphibia Web has species info, but does not provide data on how to tell one species from another.

Agree with Ivory Reptiles, culturing frogs to feed Ornates is not as feasible as setting up a Dubia colony. Also, many frog keepers will have an issue feeding frogs to another frog, even if it's nature's way. I keep predatorial fish and they eat no live fish; just quality pellets and treats for variety. My cichlids grow, breed, and do just fine without their natural food.

[Peachy]

Yea I guess it could be a matter of preference..bottom line is with an insectivore diet, breeders can increase the longevity and health of their frogs without having to resort to their natural diet. I wonder if anyone has compared wild frogs vs. captive bred frogs as far as overall health is concerned?

[GrifTheGreat]

Yea I guess it could be a matter of preference..bottom line is with an insectivore diet, breeders can increase the longevity and health of their frogs without having to resort to their natural diet. I wonder if anyone has compared wild frogs vs. captive bred frogs as far as overall health is concerned?

That could be a long and costly study. Also as all frogs even of the same species differ like humans in body and personality it would be somewhat hard to do. You would have to study several wild specimens as well as several captive specimens and with there being multiple species of horned frogs out there and them not all living in the same area let alone country makes for an even more difficult task. Lots of money. And manpower/plane tickets/housing/food/ect. Don't think its been done yet or atleast I've never found any books or studies of this nature on the web.