Frogs?

[katt]

So I was thinking... Polecat's diet consists primarily of whole prey arnd carrion. The whole prey is usually a variety of rodents, frogs and toads, and small lizards. Feeding pet store frogs is usually not a great idea because of the chemicals they sometimes use in the cages...but what if one got some frogs (I do believe you can buy tadpole kits pretty cheap on educational sites and stuff, or adult frogs on websites) and bred them? I don't know much about breeding frogs but I wonder if it would be feasible and bow difficult. Obviously they're far more complicated than mice as they need a semiaquatic set up and whatnot but once you had it a set... Then I wonder if there is a safe and humane way to kill them or if the boys could keep up? I don't think this is something I'll be doing any time soon by any means, just curious. Thoughts on this anyone?

[dook2dook]

Sounds like an idea, I could never kill a cute little froggy . I know alot of reptile keepers over here have built their own kind of gas chamber to kill the mice. I hate the thought of it but its an idea

[Sherry]

I believe TTFR fed frogs as well, and did a simple cervical dislocation for them. Maybe message her about it? There's something in either whole prey here, or live feeding. Can't remember which, but it wasn't in it's own thread but part of a conversation.

[Deleted]

I just bought a pack of frog legs from my grocery store I think it would be easy to raise the frogs.. but the amount of space you will need to do it will be an issue.

[orv420]

We have a small (4x6) pond that is nearly maintenance free (we remove some of the dead vegetation every spring and add water from the garden hose if needed) All that was put in were a few large koi, lily pads and some other aquatic plants about 13 years ago. About 5 or 6 years ago, we noticed some bullfrogs living in the pond and every year since there have been tadpoles. I don't think it would be too difficult to raise and breed them, since they are obviously doing fine in our mini pond. We did have a crane visit 2 years ago which ate most of the large koi, so now all we have are 2 large and dozens of goldfish sized ones. It's amazing how the pond can freeze solid in winter and everything in it goes into a type of suspended animation.

As far as cervical dislocation on a frog goes, I'd think it would be very difficult to do since their skull is pretty close to their body leaving little room to work. Likely an implement through the brain and spinal cord (double pithing) would be required. It may sound cruel, but it's instantaneous and more humane than freezing or other methods (some amphibians are resistant to O2 deprivation), unless you don't mind feeding Orajel or ethyl alcohol to your ferts... Also, polecats will paralyze frogs to eat later by puncturing the spinal cord/brain cavity.

Here's a link to a site discussing amphibian euthanasia: www.caudata.org/cc/articles/euthanasia.shtml
And another from Rutgers University which recommends double pithing: las.rutgers.edu/?q=content/policy-pithing-method-euthanasia-frogs
And one more that explains the effects of CO2 and freezing: www.aalaslearninglibrary.org/demo/course2.asp?strKeyID=633174D9-1D46-4829-9824-9603E5578731-0&Library=10&Track=11&Series=17&Course=2601&Lesson=27772