# ADF won't eat



## Bubbles1011 (Jul 20, 2014)

I just recently got two african dwarf frogs, Remington and Shilo. They are both male and Remmy is alot more active than Shilo. He eats his food and treats but Shilo wont have anything to do with it. I have bloodworms I feed them with tweezers and Remmy can't get enough but Shilo doesn't seem to realize it's even there. I was concerned Remington was eating both their food so I put them in Betta cups with one pellet each and Remmy eats his but Shilo doesn't. Could it be Shilo just doesn't like pellets? Or something else? He is a bit paler than Remmy but I just got him so I'm not sure if he hasn't always been that way.


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

When I had ADF I noticed a couple of things. 1. was how sick a lot of them actually are. The stores buy them in bulk from factories designed to churn out enough fish and frogs to meet the demand, ADF are fairly cheap and disposable so care is not generally taken in maintaining their health. 2. They are extremely sensitive to water parameters. If even one thing is off, the frogs might get sick. 3. ADF are completely stupid about food. Out of 5, I had one that gorged on those expensive frog pellets. The rest wouldn't touch them if their lives depended on it (which, lucky for them, it didn't since I noticed right away and bought frozen food) 4. ADF don't need to eat everyday. Mine gorged themselves until they were roly poly balls who could barely move to the surface to breath. This meant days long fasts after feeding. In a tall community tank it was the only way I could get them to eat. 
5. After my ordeal of trying to feed my ADF I vowed to never again own them! What little jerks. 

I would say your frog either doesn't like the food or is sick. Does he hang out at the top of the water a lot of the time?


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## jadaBlu (Feb 14, 2013)

*Dietary needs*

Feeding your dwarf frogs is not very complicated; they will take most meaty foods. Frozen bloodworm, frozen brine shrimp are good for a main diet, reptomin, gammarus and finely chopped earthworms are good supplements to the diet. How the food is given to the frogs is the most difficult part. A small terracotta plate or similar is ideal to feed the frogs with, a small amount placed on it at a time. Just adding the food to the tank is not ideal; the frogs will not do a lot of foraging trying to find their meals, if the food is left in the substrate it can lead to fouling of the water. Only feed small quantities at a time, some keepers will only feed their frogs every two to three days. If the food is to be added to the tank direct, there are a couple of tricks to get the frogs to eat straight away. Always drop the food in the same place, they will pick up the scent of the food and return to the same spot at the next feeding time. The frogs can be tamed enough to be hand fed, feeding this way will ensure that all of your frogs get their share of the food. If they will not accept it from your hand straight away, keep persevering, they will take it eventually.
Using a turkey baster will have the same effect as hand feeding; the frogs will soon associate the baster with food.
Any food that is left in the tank must be removed after 5-10 minutes, either siphon it out or use the turkey baster to remove it. I can't link directly to another forum but if you look at Badmans Tropical fish profiles and scroll all the way down to inverts they have good information and comments on these frogs which I happened to read yesterday. Another person there mentioned using the turkey baster method.


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## Bubbles1011 (Jul 20, 2014)

No he mostly hides at the bottom. Thanks I will try that.


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