How Often Do African Dwarf Frogs Eat?

Last Updated on January 29, 2021 by cmoarz

Young African dwarf tadpoles will begin to grow very very quickly, and because of this, a simple salad diet will not be able to meet their protein requirements. In fact, they may snub their nose at it completely and only focus on eating protein-rich foods.

Because of the rapid growth, young African dwarf frogs must eat almost every day. You should keep this up until you start to notice the time between molting/shedding has decreased. Ease off on feeding every day at this point and slowly adjust to every 2 days.

This denotes a slow down in the frog’s growth, and will eventually end to about 1 molting a month. At this point, it’s time to start spreading out their feeding every 2-3 days.

At this point, you can also start giving a more varied diet. It’s good to remember that as omnivorous, they can eat both greens and protein, but need more protein than greens to stay alive.

Be wary of overfeeding your frogs. If you find they are leaving food in the tank uneaten, pull back on how much you give them. These little guys can get hilariously fat really quickly.

As much fun as it is to have a fat frog floating around, it’s not ideal for the health of the reptile. So it’s best to avoid overfeeding.

Types of food to give them

As a youngling tadpole, they will survive off the yolk and algae for short periods before they are large enough to start ingesting insects. If your tank doesn’t have enough algae it’s possible to supplement it with algae wafers.

At this point, you want to give them a large amount of protein to kick start their growth and well being. You can do this with a combination of:

• Small fish (smaller than tadpoles, brine shrimp, etc)
• Insects, such as insect larvae, mealworms, and various types of flies.
• Fish food pellets (should soak these until soft first, can expand in the stomach if you don’t kill your frog.)
• Fish flakes
• Bloodworms, aphids
• Algae Wafers

Adults will eat much of the same except in larger quantities and longer durations. They will also enjoy the occasional fresh leafy green or earthworm.