My frog is much skinnier than other frogs

[ekfishlover2011]

I feed my african dwarf frog triple the amount i was told to when i first got him. Yet when i look up african dwarf frog online i see all these heavy-bodied ones. Is he supposed to be round? Hes flat and long and skinny, but i watch him eat and feed him one pellet at a time and after he finishes one i give him 1-2 more. Hes not like, starvingly skinny, i had another and that one was starvingly skinny, because it starved to death. Hed be like a size 2 while other frogs i see online are size 6, and then his starved friend was size 00. So i dont think hes too bad, but im curious as to if he needs to gain more. I feed him everyday. I was told to feed him two pellets every monday and thursday, and thats it. I thought he looked hungry, thats why i feed him more. Why is my frog so much leaner than online ones? Is he still not eating enough? Is there something else that could keep a frog slim? Or are the other frogs i see just fat? He doesnt stay still, so i cant get a picture. Ill keep trying.

[smaug]

They really should be round and chunky. I have kept a few over the years that no matter how much they ate they never filled out and eventually died.

[ekfishlover2011]

Still cant get a pic, but heres what i mean:

Frogs online looking what they say they are supposed to look like:
23762

And my frog is about the same size as this one:
23763

But my old one that this frog starved looked like this:
23764

So i know hes definitely not starving. But hes nowhere near these other frogs. Is he at a healthy weight?

[ekfishlover2011]

So he should look like the first ones? Or is he okay at his weight?

[smaug]

That second frog looks ok to me.

[ekfishlover2011]

Ok. He looks like that. Except that ones tan and hes a gray with black spots and his skin is smooth. Im trying to train him to sit in my hand while i feed him, or take his pellets out of my fingers. I like getting up close and personal to my pets.

[smaug]

You do realize that a frogs skin is permeable and that any toxins on your hands go directly into the frogs system? It is especially important to remember this with such a small tank,any thing introduced by your hands will be a high percentage in the water. Not to mention the stress of the big giant hand invading its house day in and day out.

[ekfishlover2011]

O. I saw a youtube video of somebody hand-feeding frogs and i thought it looked fun. Only stuff on my hands is whatever i got from other tank, because i always come home, wash hands feed main tank, do head count, and slightly lift up loach house (they dont usually even notice if i do it right) to count them. Thats where my hands get wet, because i have to reach whole way to bottom of tank to grab the house right so as to not disturb them. Then i shake hands around to air dry mostly before i get a paper towel to dry them rest of way before feeding betta, or in this case, the frog. Since the tank is heavily planted for the betta i have to put my hand down in water to take food most of way down anyway, because if i just drop it it gets stuck in up the plants and then he never finds it unless i reach in anyway and shake it out of the plant. Hes used to his tiny cube that was centerpiece to my kitchen table and all the movement around him when he was there, so he doesnt even move at all when he sees giant hand heading for him here. He know hands always seem to find food somewhere, because he used to watch so cutely out of his cube as i went got his food out of the bag and then hed look up and wait for me to drop it in and run for it, so i figured training him to eat from hand should be piece of cake.

[Waterfroggy]

I too am struggling with this, just moved my frog into a 31 gallon and it's so deep (16.5") that I worry my slow little frog won't get his food.
I've tried a slurpee straw, a tea strainer on a stick and now am looking to invent a long turkey baster type contraption.

What I notice is that if I don't put the food in front of his nose, he may or may not find it. He's really fat right now, but I want to get more frogs and a few more fish and I'm afraid if I don't figure it out, competition for food will harm him.

How is it now going with your frog?

I feel really blessed that I work from home and my aquarium is right next to my desk so I can witness all of this behaviour, but I'm pretty new to keeping frogs and keep hearing of them starving...terribly sad.

Sara

[ADF Whisperer]

I feed my african dwarf frog triple the amount i was told to when i first got him. Yet when i look up african dwarf frog online i see all these heavy-bodied ones. Is he supposed to be round? Hes flat and long and skinny, but i watch him eat and feed him one pellet at a time and after he finishes one i give him 1-2 more. Hes not like, starvingly skinny, i had another and that one was starvingly skinny, because it starved to death. Hed be like a size 2 while other frogs i see online are size 6, and then his starved friend was size 00. So i dont think hes too bad, but im curious as to if he needs to gain more. I feed him everyday. I was told to feed him two pellets every monday and thursday, and thats it. I thought he looked hungry, thats why i feed him more. Why is my frog so much leaner than online ones? Is he still not eating enough? Is there something else that could keep a frog slim? Or are the other frogs i see just fat? He doesnt stay still, so i cant get a picture. Ill keep trying.
Pretty old thread, I know, but I did want to add here that ADF's need much more to eat than that. I feed my breeding colony almost everyday, rotating between HBH frog & tadpole bites (4-5 pellets per frog) and frozen bloodworms or brineshrimp. Females will be noticeably plumper than males, but even the males should not be so skinny. In a community tank the nearly blind frogs are often outcompeted for food. In a species tank feeding is easy because you can just deposit the food in a feeding dish (or dishes depending on the number of frogs) and they quickly learn that's where the meal is at. If they have fish tankmates, target feeding is necessary. Either way, I use a turkey baster to deposit the food. Your frogs should not be stressed by this. They should be excited.

[ekfishlover2011]

My frog is now at a much bigger weight. He eats 3-5 pellets every day PLUS half the betta's food twice a day. Its funny to watch him swim now. He seems to have trouble balancing with a belly so distended its like a pregnant woman. Is this now the correct weight, or has he skipped proper weight and gone straight to obese? Hes similar to this frog now that i found online:
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