How to Raise Wood Frogs? A Detailed Guide to Practical Farming Techniques

When it comes to the wood frog, I believe everyone is fairly familiar with it, because the wood frog is a well-known medicinal and economically valuable frog species in China. The wood frog not only has extremely high medicinal value and can serve as a precious Chinese medicinal material, but its food value is also particularly high, with effects of moistening the lungs and nourishing yin, and strengthening the brain and boosting intelligence. So do you know how wood frogs should be raised? Let's learn about it together with the editor below!

How to Raise Wood Frogs

After about 50 days of feeding, the tadpoles become young frogs, come ashore, and after becoming young frogs they need to eat small insects, such as mosquitoes and flies, yellow mealworms, and fly maggots. As long as the temperature is suitable, the young frogs begin to move about and catch insects. Feed them small yellow mealworms or maggots every day, and when feeding, scatter the insects directly on the ground around the frog enclosure. In actual farming, yellow mealworms or fly maggots are generally bred to feed young frogs and adult frogs. Yellow mealworms are bred with rice husks, and for fly maggots, 1 part pig, cattle, or sheep blood (any one of them) can be mixed with 40—50 parts water, add a small amount of rice husks or cornmeal, and place it in an outdoor vat, basin, cement pool, or earthen pool, and after 3—5 days a large number of maggots will be produced naturally. This method is simple and quick, comes fast, and produces a large quantity.

Wood Frog Farming Techniques

First, in spring each year (April), release enough frog eggs or retain enough frog stock. The density of frog eggs in the hatching pool should not be too high, not exceeding 2000 per square meter. During the period when frog eggs are hatching, pay attention to keeping the water fresh, change the water in a timely manner, feed scientifically, and prevent frog diseases in a timely manner; make sure the hatching pool is disinfected. After the tadpoles metamorphose, introduce them into the forest in a timely manner. Although young frogs and adult frogs do not live in water, they must live on moist land. When the humidity is insufficient, humidity must be replenished in a timely manner so that the humidity is always kept above 70%, ensuring that wood frogs can carry out normal skin respiration. For this reason, sprinkler irrigation facilities can be set up in the frog field, and sprinkler irrigation or artificial rainfall can be carried out during dry and drought periods, or water can be sprayed with a watering can.

When wood frogs return to the pond for overwintering in winter, the pond water temperature should be kept below 4°C, and the water depth must not be less than 1.5 m, to prevent the water surface from freezing dry. The pond water should be changed in a timely manner, and slow flowing water is better. Place some straw, branches, and other coverings in the overwintering pond to facilitate hibernation of the wood frogs.

Another method is hibernation in pits. Overwintering earthen pits can be built outdoors or indoors. The earthen pit is 2 m wide and 2 m deep, and the length is determined according to the number of wood frogs. Place some stones, tile pieces, branches, and straw at the bottom of the pit as hiding places for the wood frogs during hibernation. Rat-proof equipment must be installed at the pit opening to prevent rats from harming the overwintering wood frogs. Place river sand 1 chi@ thick in the earthen pit and spray it wet. During the overwintering period of wood frogs, be sure to replenish moisture so that the frog's skin remains moist and breathing is normal, preventing carbon dioxide poisoning in the body.

Precautions for Wood Frog Farming

Adaptation period for entering hibernation. In the early stage of formal overwintering, the climate is unstable from late autumn to early winter. During this period, the Chinese wood frog transforms from lung respiration to skin respiration and needs a process of adaptation. Affected by climate change, the wood frog continuously adjusts its own physiological functions. When the temperature drops, the wood frog enters the water, and when the temperature rises, the wood frog leaves the water. This repeats many times, and finally it gradually adapts to full skin respiration, thus entering the overwintering period. If wood frogs are forced into the water for overwintering, it is very difficult for them to adapt to the transformation of their own physiological functions, and they will inevitably die from suffocation.

Adaptation period for emerging from hibernation. This is the adaptation process for wood frogs from ending dormancy to living on land. As spring temperatures rise, the temperature difference between day and night is relatively large. When wood frogs emerge from hibernation, they must adapt to temperature changes. At low temperatures, they seek hidden cover.

Living Habits of Wood Frogs

The living habits of wood frogs differ from those of other frogs. Its annual life cycle can be divided into two different stages: the aquatic life period and the terrestrial life period. During the aquatic life period, it hides in relatively deep water bodies and enters a hibernation state to avoid the cold winter and pass through the dormancy period. During this period, the wood frog does not eat, activity stops, and the body's metabolic activity drops to the lowest level. After the aquatic life period ends, the wood frog leaves the overwintering water body, completes reproductive activity in marshy areas, and after a brief reproductive dormancy in the soil around the spawning site or under dead branches and fallen leaves, enters the forest and begins terrestrial life. This is the time of greatest activity in the year. The wood frog ingests large amounts of food to meet its needs for growth and development. At the same time, it stores materials for hibernation and for reproduction the following spring.

Wood frogs are distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and other places.

As people learn about the benefits of wood frogs, more and more people are beginning to catch wild wood frogs for profit, causing wood frogs to become fewer and fewer and even face the danger of extinction. Meanwhile, wood frog farming is gradually increasing, and it is a farming project with relatively broad prospects!