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FAQs About African Dwarf Frogs, Foods/Feeding/Nutrition

Related Articles: African Dwarf Frogs, Amphibians, Turtles,

Small, meaty, discrete foods... not just dried... they won't sustain these animals.

My ADF has stopped eating completely. 2/29/08
I've had my little guy only for a couple of months now, and yes, I am a first time frog pet owner. Recently my frog has stopped eating completely. I try to get him to eat but every time it gets food in his mouth he just spits it right back out. He did this before when I ran out of food and I switched to using fish flakes. (which he absolutely hated but would still stomach eating a couple of them). That was about a month ago and I went out and bought more freeze dried bloodworms. So I've been feeding him about three times a day. In the beginning it used to just spot the food floating on top and swim up like a shark to eat it, but now for the past month or so it will only eat off of my finger. I'm not sure what's happening here. He's shedding a lot too. He's shed twice already and I got him in December of 2007. Is that normal? I don't know what to do to get him to eat. I've recently went out and bought Reptomin food sticks but he seems to take no interest in it. Is my frog sick or do they sometimes go through periods like this where they don't want to eat? Thank you.
<Greetings. The best foods for Hymenochirus frogs are wet frozen (not freeze dried) bloodworms or live bloodworms. By all means supplement these with pellets or flake, but they shouldn't be used as a staple. When they stop feeding, your first instinct has to be to check water quality. All frogs are sensitive to water pollution. Given how much food you have given in the past, and the persistent skin shedding, I'd suspect water quality issues, so go do a nitrite test right now. Then get back to us. Frogs need feeding once daily when settling in, and once they are settled then skip a meal once or twice a week. At any one meal the frog should get just enough for its belly to become very slightly convex, but that's all. Lots of people try to keep these frogs in unheated tanks, tanks without filters, or tanks with other fish. They end up with dead frogs! Keep your frog in its own tank with a heater, a filter, provide regular water changes (using dechlorinator) and take care not to overfeed. Cheers, Neale.>

Re: My ADF has stopped eating completely.... 3/1/08
Thank you for responding so quickly, but im afraid there are still no signs of improvement. His sides are sinking in and he still has no appetite. I've looked online to see signs of diseases or other things but when I've checked with my frog none seems to be identified. I will keep trying. I recently bought him tetra Reptomin sticks but still no interest. :(
<As I said in the last e-mail, pellets and flake are no good. Stop using them! The frog will starve do death before eating them! Go buy some (wet) frozen bloodworms or live bloodworms, and use those, sparingly at first. Very small earthworms might be used too, if you can collect them from an area that isn't sprayed with pesticides (e.g., wilderness or an organic garden). Do also check water quality -- you haven't told me what the NITRITE concentration is, and almost without fail sick frogs are sick because of poor water quality. Measure the nitrite concentration and get back to me. These are the two things you have to do... sending e-mails and looking on web sites won't help! So get going! Cheers, Neale.>

Two ADF's In The Same Tank - 04/04/2007
Hey Guys, My boyfriend has 2 African dwarf frogs that coexist with a black skirt fish. He has had them for maybe 3 months now? We feed them sinking shrimp pellets (the fish gets tropical flakes), one or two pellets at most every day or every other day. One of the frogs is big and fat, not bloated, and the other is tiny and skinny! The smaller one is probably half the size of the other. We were thinking that the smaller one might not like the food, but haven't tried anything else yet, or that perhaps there is some competition going on, where the bigger one isn't letting the smaller one eat? We want to make sure they frogs are both healthy, but their opposite extremes are worrisome. Thanks for any insight you can offer!-Kamielle PS: I know you post faq on the website, and I assume you email responses too, but I just want to double check that I can get a response in email because I don't check your site all the time.
<Not all frogs adapt to eating pellets. Try offering some small Tubifex/blackworms from the local fish store. Very small washed earthworms could be offered at the end of a pair of tweezers too. If a few get lost in the sand they will stay alive and the frogs will get to them later.-Chuck>

African dwarf frogs 8/24/05
Hi, have a question.     I have searched your site & do not see a similar problem.      I have 2 ADF in a 2.5 gallon tank, with a filter running.      We first bought pellet food, then found out through research online they should be fed frozen bloodworms.
<... and other meaty live, non-live foods>
    Purchased those 3 days ago now, feeding them pea-sized amount every other day (is this correct???)
<Best to look at their "tummies"...>
     My main question is an odor.
<Interesting>
   It's gotten milder/better since switching from pellets, but it still is unpleasant.     Had water checked at the petstore, they said water levels are fine.      Should we do a partial water change to see if there's disintegrated pellet food causing odor?
<Yes... should do these change-outs weekly...>
    Any other suggestions?      My pet peeve is pet stores selling these frogs with zero info on feeding, correct water levels, cleaning of tanks, etc.      Thanks for the help, Lisa
<Thank goodness for books, magazines, the Net... Bob Fenner>

African Dwarf Frog Not Eating – 03/09/07
Hi there.  I have read so much info on your sight and am very impressed with you guys and so unimpressed with my pet store!
< This is an unfortunate state of the hobby and why we volunteer out time to help save organisms. Pet stores are there to make money and can't be experts at everything. Usually they have their strengths and weak points. Some are better than others.>
Unfortunately, as beginner aquarists, we had no idea about cycling our tank and the store was more than happy to sell us all the supplies (should have made it obvious that we were setting up) along with 7 neons, 4 cloud whites and 2 ADFs. As you'd expect (unless you're clueless like us), all fish died of toxicity within about 4 hours of placing them in the tank.  The store manager told me that even though my water levels must be poor, the frogs will be fine because they are not as sensitive.  Well the first one died yesterday (4 days after purchase) and I am very concerned about the other. These all were for my young daughter and she's devastated. I have promised to do anything I can to save her last "pet".  The tank is now cycling, I am small water changes with R.O. water.  I'm adding de-chlorination drops for the tap water that is still in the tank, and treating the tank daily with Seachem's "prime".  The last frog will not eat a thing - hasn't at all since purchased 5 days ago.
They sold us their homemade pellets (dried shrimp) that sink and eventually puff up.  I have even tried holding it in front of the frog with tweezers but he continually buries his head in the rocks/marbles at the bottom of the tank.  I am concerned that he is dying - extremely inactive and apart from the odd climb up the corner of the tank, he stays face down, feet up in the marbles (very scary looking to my daughter). After some reading on your site, I see that the pellets probably aren't
appealing.  I am scared about the blood worms after reading of how they can multiply and become a problem.  I am not willing to go to the store every few days to get anything fresh and I don't want to get anything smelling or so disgusting that my 9 year old daughter won't take responsibility for the feedings.  Please help! kudos to you and your crew for trying to make up for the yahoos that call themselves "knowledgeable" pet store owners. Julie
< Frogs are carnivorous ambush predators. They wait until something swims buy that is good to eat. Unfortunately this means you need some live food to get him starting to eat. I would recommend a small washed earthworm to start. Go out into the garden and flip a few rocks or logs and find a few small earthworms. You could always go to  bait shop to and see if they have small worms for sale. Large ones could be cut up into smaller pieces. Wash them to remove the soil but don't drown them. Take the tweezers and hold one end of the worm in front of the frog in a manner so he is not scared away. You might even try just dropping the worm down in front of him. As the worm struggles under water the movement should get the attention of the frog. If he is close then he will swim up to it at bit at it. A good sized worm will fill him up for awhile. Other food items to try would be meal worms, wax worm or Tubifex/black worms. Sometimes these frogs can be somewhat trained to eat pellets. I think that they stumble onto them while fish are moving them around. Once you get fish in the tank then they will be going after the worm and it may never make it down to the frog. This is where the black worms come in. Feeding them a couple times a week will make sure that some worms get down to the frogs. They are not a problem unless they die and pollute the tank. I am aware that you were looking for some nice /child friendly food for your frog, but I don't think there is one.-Chuck>

African Frog Death 3/6/07
Hi there, our little frog was found lying on the bottom of the tank when we got home from a 2 day holiday. I found out my son had not give him his usual bloodworms but rather placed an algae tab as well as a few frog pellets in the 20 gallon tank (which the frog shares with an Albino Cory and 2 Killi fish) the day we left. The last time the frog had bloodworms was 4 days ago when we dropped them right in front of him. There is no proof that he ate any of the pellets or algae - as he usually can't find them. Is it possible he starved to death?
< Frogs do best with live prey items like washed worms and insects. Frogs are carnivorous and do not eat algae. A long diet of algae pellets would probably starve him to death.>
We have had him for 2 months. The fish all seem fine so I'm not sure it's a water quality issue - the water was checked a couple of weeks ago and everything was normal. The bloodworms were still semi-frozen and I don't know if that might be a problem. Thanks for any help as we are so sad to lose our little guy and don't want to make any mistakes if we get another one. His colouring looked fine except for the white film around him (fungal growth).
< Next time try washed earthworms, brine shrimp, or mealworms.-Chuck> <<...? Too big for an African Dwarf Frog... are you thinking this is Xenopus? RMF>>

Dwarf African Frogs Don't Eat - 02/22/07
I'm worried about my two African Dwarf Frogs and appreciate any help. The tank is a 2.5 gallon, with rocks and two small ornaments, all levels check out ok, temp is right on. One of the frogs has a big tummy, he eats everything and always seems hungry. We have curtailed his diet and waiting for his tummy to shrink before indulging him more. The other frog doesn't seem to want to eat. He is much skinnier and it didn't appear as though he was eating at all, so we put in him a little holding tank in the same tank to monitor if he eats. It's been at least a week under observation and he has eaten. The contrast in behavior worries me, is this sort of thing normal? Thanks for any help!
< Only feed your frogs if they are moving and in search of food. Too many times frogs are over fed and the food rots in their stomach and causes gas and other digestive problems. Offer them a washed small earthworm. make sure it is alive and wiggling. If they don't eat that then they are not going to eat. Keep the tank clean and increase the water temp to 80 F and see if that makes any difference.-Chuck>

Frog Problems 8/2/05
Hope You can help us we are trying to start a African dwarf frog tank, with no luck. we have a small 5 gallon acrylic bow front tank with a corner bubbler type canister filter, all the water conditions are fine i.e. ammonia, nitrates, ph.... it is NOT heated , the water stays around 72 degrees, the tank has been running for about a month ,MT,  we have tried twice to add frogs (4 young about 1 inch each time) but both times they all died with in a week or two. We are feeding them HBH frog and tadpole bites. We have no problems with our other 3 tanks (thanks to your GREAT help) , 55 Gallon Cichlids tank , 30 gallon GSP tank (soon to upgrade) and a 25 gallon community tank. We have read your forums and seen to have the tank set up right, Caves to hide in, Low water movement, i.e. the canister filter, broad leaf plastic plants (no live plants)  HELP why are we always committing Frogicide? Thank You, Mike
< Many frogs are held at wholesalers and retail stores and never seem to get enough to eat. If would recommend that you get a few frogs and feed them Calif. black worms. Just throw them in the tank and the frogs will find them and fatten up. Once they are eating then you will be on your way.-Chuck><<These animals won't live indefinitely on only dried diets. RMF>>

Frog/pleco/goldfish
Hello, I have a few questions.  I recently just set up a 10 gallon tank, with 3 fantail goldfish, 1 pleco, and an African dwarf frog.  I bought algae wafers for my pleco, which I'm concerned that the goldfish are eating them instead.
the goldfish are also eating the frog food.  I feed the frog the sinking tadpole/frog pellets.  I have heard that feeding bloodworms can actually make the fish sick???
< Feeding bloodworms has been known to cause digestive problems in some fish. It may be from overfeeding.>
I'm not sure how that all works but I was told that the frogs like frozen bloodworms, so is it possible for the bloodworms to come alive after they have been frozen??
< Once they are frozen then they are dead.>
I am looking for a substitute to feed my frog so I will have to deal with worms of any sort...ugh.  and I am also trying to find away for my pleco and frog to get food without the goldfish eating it all first.
please help!
< When you turn out the lights the goldfish will go to sleep and the pleco will come out to eat. So feed the algae wafers at night. Unfortunately I think the goldfish may still find some of the wafers , even in the dark but it is worth a try. Your frog is a carnivore and will require some sort of critter to feed on. I suggest that you get some small earthworms and wash them and place them in front of the frog. I am sure he will snatch them up right away and hide so the goldfish won't get them.-Chuck>

Snail Stocking Part Two
Hello again,
Thanks for the response, I've got two in the 10 gallon right now (I had a regular brown one in there, what I've seen called the 'wild-type' shell pattern, then saw a little blue one shoved into one of the 'Betta cups' at Wal-Mart the other day and decided it needed a home). The only other one I'm possibly planning to add in the future is maybe the one from my 6g African dwarf frog tank if any water problems develop there.
So far no problems with the 10g since adding the second mystery snail, other than slightly elevated nitrates (25 rather than 20), but I think that's likely due to overfeeding of the bottom feeders, or my trimming back a lot of the anacharis that's in there. I'm going to try adding a little duckweed (I know, it
takes over tanks. I read somewhere about someone making a 'corral' with airline and airline clips to keep it within an area of their tank. So I'll see if that works.) to pick up the extra nitrates. Plus I heard there's a chance the mystery snails might like to nibble on it.
<Duckweed is an excellent way to suck up excess nutrients.>
I'll let you know if there's any problems with either level of snails in the future.
On a different topic, since WWM's amphibian area is a bit sparse right now, I thought I'd offer the following feeding idea, if you'd like to post it:  One of the biggest problems I had with African dwarf frogs was trying to get them to eat before their food (frozen bloodworms) fell between the gravel, resulting in hungry frogs and food polluting the water. So as a solution, I got a plastic water bowl from the reptile section of PetSmart and half buried it under the gravel. The plastic's a single piece of unpainted molded plastic, so I figure it should be safe to use. Now I just squirt the defrosted bloodworms (mixed with water from the tank) into the bowl with a turkey baster. The frogs swim
right over and start feasting, they've also taken to trying to nip at the turkey baster if it's in the tank since they've figured out that's where food comes from. Posted this idea on a few forums and the regulars seemed to like it, so figured I'd pass it on incase it's of use to any of WWM's regular readers.
<Great idea, I have heard of something similar for feeding Corydoras live worms that dig into the substrate before the fish get a chance to eat them.  Thanks for the info, best of luck, Gage>
Thanks again,
       -Chris

Help- African dwarf frog with curled toes. Nutritional deficiency likely    10/3/06
I am very impressed with your site.  I would appreciate some help if you can.  I've had my African dwarf frog for about a year.  It's fingers and toes have been slowly but severely curling.
<Interesting...>
  It looks as if it is holding a small ball in both hands. The back feet look as if they were holding a pencil.  The frog can still swim just fine, but it can't straighten it's fingers or toes at all anymore.
<Am wondering what would cause such a "clubbing" of feet?>
It lives in a 5 gallon tank with goldfish.
<Oh...>
  I feed it tadpole bites
<...>
and it also eats the fish's flake food.  Wouldn't want to have an uncomfortable frog-any ideas?   Thank you, Jennifer
<Likely a nutritional deficiency at play here... need more (animal source, Tryptophan, Lyseine, Threonine...) source protein, and vitamins than the foods you've supplied. Please read here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/amphibfdgfaqs.htm
Bob Fenner>

African Dwarf Frog, tetras, and ghost shrimp gang:   1/19/07
In separate 5 gallon tank with 4 tetras and 5 ghost shrimp. I understood the ghost shrimp wouldn't mess the biolevel too much, so put them in for clean up (I wanted an algae eater but didn't want anyone messing with the frog - and I knew the tank would be too small for a growing algae eater).
<Good choice>
First question, WHAT CAN I FEED THE FROG THAT THE OTHERS WON'T TAKE FIRST?!
<Mmm, nothing>
Ha, those ghost shrimp are so good at taking food even if it is right in front of the frog (one even tried to take a piece of meat from the frog's mouth!).
Oh yeah, the frog is most likely male and is smaller than a quarter.
I've managed to feed him dried-bloodworms (by hand), frozen brine shrimp (by hand), and ground turkey (by hand). I recently crafted a little feeder wand just for this sucker (and the salamanders) and wanted to see if any other alternatives exist. I know we aren't supposed to feed them but once a day (or two) and I've seen some people's frogs online turn to little porkers.
<Yes... with shortened lifespans>
I understand that they are naturally supposed to be slim since they usually skip meals so how much should I feed regularly.  I wanted to try the sinking pellets but didn't want to count on them since I know the ghost shrimp will eat anything they can grab.
<Mmm, won't likely eat pellets, prepared dried foods period>

Feeding ADFs  1/23/07
<Hi, Pufferpunk here>
My dad bought me a African dwarf frog but didn't buy any food. I don't live in a big town so there are  no pet stores around and the next time I go out of town is in February. I have sinkable beta food and fish food but that's it. What should I feed him?
<If your frog isn't interested in the pellets of flakes, you can try feeding tiny pieces of fish or shrimp.  Try not to overfeed or you will pollute the tank.  ~PP>

Starving Frog 1/24/07
Hi Pufferpunk!
<Sue>
Thank you so much for your reply. I have been using the Melafix for over a week but since I started using it, the little toad hasn't eaten a thing. He/she was skinny to begin with (probably a result of the eye problem and poor water quality) but is now so emaciated that I'm afraid we will lose him/her. We had always hand fed the toad crickets "dusted" with a supplement, so he/she isn't used to any other food. Is there something I could try, like bloodworm or some kind of mixture, that might be easier to digest and could tempt our little friend to eat? I'm unsure of whether or not the toad can see, but I think he/she can sense the food, as he/she turns away when I put the cricket near his/her nose. Thanks for any suggestions you can give me!
<You'll have to force-feed the lil guy. Get a syringe (no needle) & fill it with Nutrical. It is a highly concentrated vitamin/molasses mixture. It may be difficult to pry his mouth open--you may have to find a flat tool for this. Be very gentle, do not break his jaw. Feed small amounts & try not to choke him with it. Good luck. ~PP>
Sue

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