Feeding with Xenopus

[hjelte]

Hi all! Sorry for not being active on the forum for some time, I´ve been helping out my girlfriend moving to her new apartment, you know how it is
ANYWAY I was thinking-It´s kind of a drag that I can´t feed my garters frogs since I´m sure they would love it. I know that it´s a matter of parasites when collecting from the wild and I won´t play with that. And of course they are protected here in Sweden.
But I came to think about the xenopus frogs Xenopus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (African clawed frog I believe) wich are readily available in petshops. They are kept in the same tanks as the feederfish wich I sometimes offer my snakes as a treat, and I know for a fact that they are captive-bred so I´m thinking that parasites should be the same as with the fish(?)!. They seem to be the perfect solution in that they can be put in the waterbowl just like feederfish and as far as I know they aren´t poisonous. Have anyone else considered this as an option or is this a bad idea? Feedback please!

[GarterGuy]

I have actually fed Xenopus to a southern hognose snake that I was raising with out any detrimental affects. I would imagine they would be fine (yet rather expensive) to feed to garters as well. Maybe as a special treat!
Roy

[hjelte]

yeah exactly my thought, as a treat after shedding or something like that That´s great to hear, it is such a good workout for them as well to hunt for food.

[Stefan-A]

While we're on the subject, what about Bombina orientalis and Cynops orientalis? If I remember correctly all three species (yes, also Xenopus laevis) should secrete some form of mild poison.

[hjelte]

well I´ve actually kept them both! I´m sure the bombina as well as the newt secretes poison but I have no idea as to wether the xenopus does or not. I can´t find the info anywhere.

[Stefan-A]

I've kept all three.

I googled a bit, found this:

Entrez PubMed

Xenopus skin mucus induces oral dyskinesias that promote escape from snakes.


African clawed frogs fed to American water snakes induced yawning and gaping which slowed ingestion and facilitated the frogs' escape without inducing flavor aversion. The peptide and/or indolealkylamine contents of the frog's poison glands caused the effect because frogs with purged glands did not induce these behaviors and rarely escaped. Poison gland mucus, applied orally, elicited similar oral movements. The frog's clear lubricating mucus was inactive. As several compounds in the poison glands have known neuroleptic properties, the oral behaviors may be induced by neural mechanisms reported to govern neuroleptic-induced orofacial dyskinesia in schizophrenics.

[hjelte]

Aaarggh....bummer...BUT! What about the dwarf-frog then, the "cousin"? Do some detective-work for me Stefan! You seem to do it well!

[Stefan-A]

Can't be arsed.

[hjelte]

lol. Well anyway, isn´t all anurians toxic in some way or another? I mean, it doesn´t seem like something you can get around no matter what type of frog you use to feed. And apparently the hognose which Garterguy fed clawedfrogs to didn´t seem to be affected. Hmm...this is tricky....

[Stefan-A]

That's what I've read too, most frogs are allegedly poisonous, but I have no idea how poisonous they are. Which is why I was interested in knowing if C. orientalis and B. orientalis are ok.