Experienced Methods for Keeping Artificially Farmed Frogs Safe Through Winter

I think everyone is very familiar with frogs. They are a common insect [sic], and I remember that when I was young, I could often hear frogs croaking in the fields. But as people hunt and kill frogs, there are fewer and fewer wild frogs now, so farming frogs has become a farming project that many people value.

 Frog Farming Techniques1. Living Habits. Frogs inhabit the grassy banks of ponds, ditches and small rivers, and rice fields, where they prey on insects, mainly agricultural pests. Adults live an amphibious life on land and in water. During the day they generally hide in grass or rice fields, and come out to move about at night and in the early morning. When the temperature drops below 10°C, frogs burrow into the water's edge or into the soil to hibernate, and in the following spring (early March in the Yangtze River basin) they emerge from their burrows and become active. They generally breed from April to July. A female frog can lay 34 eggs at a time, and the fertilized eggs can hatch into tadpoles in 12 days. After the tadpoles grow to a certain degree, they begin to metamorphose.

2. Construction of Breeding Pools. Frog breeding pools are divided into spawning pools, tadpole pools and adult frog pools. Generally, a damp, warm and shaded place should be chosen, and a long cement pool or earthen pool is suitable. For a large outdoor pool, 4×6 m is one single pool; the pool walls are best plastered with cement, while the bottom of the pool should still keep soil; for a small courtyard pool, 1×1.5 m to 2 m is generally suitable, the pool depth is generally 1 m, with a water inlet and a drainage channel, and the water depth is 20~50 cm. A shade board must be set up over the pool surface. Generally, 40 adult frogs can be raised per square meter. Frog breeding pools can be earthen pools, brick pools or rice fields, and the key lies in preventing escape. If conditions permit, a brick wall can be built, or netting can be used, generally 1~1.2 m high. The water depth in the pool is 30~60 cm, and in the middle of the water or on the sunny side a mound of soil is piled up as a land habitat for the frogs, occupying about 1/3 of the whole pool [sic]. Grass or crops are planted on the mound. A small amount of floating aquatic plants is put into the pool water. For a pond used to raise tadpoles, only a small area of land is left for the metamorphosed young frogs to come ashore. A cement pool is better for the tadpole pool, and the pool wall slope should be gentle so that the tadpoles can rest there.

Feeding and Management of Frogs1. Feeding and Management of Tadpoles. For artificial breeding of edible frogs [sic], they must be raised and hatched after artificial egg collection. The tadpoles after hatching out of the membrane are raised in the original hatching pool or in net cages, with 600~800 tails stocked per square meter of water surface. On the 4th day after the tadpoles hatch, artificial feeding begins. After the tadpoles have been raised for one week, they are moved into the rearing pool. After about 20~30 days, they gradually take red worms, water fleas and fly maggots as their main food, and can also take soybean milk, soybean residue, soybean cake powder and chlorella as their main food; adding a certain amount of fish meal can promote their growth. Generally, for every 10,000 tails, 15 cooked eggs are kneaded and crushed and sprinkled with water for feeding 1~2 times. After the 5th day, switch to compound feed of soybean milk, wheat bran and tofu residue, or feed such as rice bran and fish meal, put in 1~2 times a day. The feed is placed on the feeding platform; powdered feed is first mixed with water into a viscous state and then sprinkled for feeding. Management of tadpoles: when bubbles are found in the pool water or the water quality has a rotten smell, new water should be changed immediately, generally once every 3 days; in dry weather for many days and with continuous high temperatures, change the water once every 2 days. Management during the metamorphosis period: about 70 days after the frog eggs hatch, they become young frogs. In the stage from the appearance of the forelimbs to complete metamorphosis, the tadpoles mainly rely on absorbing the tail for supply, breathe air with their lungs, and begin to jump out of the water and come ashore to rest. When more than 90% of the tadpoles have become young frogs, they can be moved into the young frog pool for rearing.

2. Feeding and Management of Young Frogs. Intensive taming: with high-density concentrated enclosure rearing, they can be kept at a density of 100~150 per square meter in a cement pool with smooth inner walls and a height of more than 1 m; the pool water depth is about 20 cm, a feeding platform is placed on the water surface, and no land is set in the pool, forcing the young frogs to come onto the platform to feed and rest in a concentrated way. Bait taming: first feed live bait for 1~2 days, and on the 3rd day begin to add 20% artificial feed to the bait, then increase the proportion day by day, and after 10 days increase it to 80% “live bait” material, mainly earthworms, fly maggots, small fish and shrimp, insects, snails and loaches, etc.; “dead bait” refers to dried silkworm pupae, animal offal and compound feed, etc. Use movement to drive stillness, “activate” the “dead bait,” and finally transition to completely ingesting artificial bait. At the same time, feeding is required to be regular, quantitative and at fixed locations. Feeding time: in spring and autumn around noon, in summer in the evening or morning, feeding 1~2 times a day, and each feeding should be finished by the young frogs in about 1 hour. For young frogs weighing less than 50 g, the feeding amount should be 6~8% of body weight; for young frogs weighing more than 100 g, the feeding amount should be 8~10% of body weight. The bait is required to be fresh, clean and nutritious. Screening, grading and separate rearing: when the young frogs have been tamed for 20~30 days, the pool water should be drained, and the large-sized young frogs should be transferred to the adult frog pool at a density of 60~80 per square meter for rearing; the small-sized young frogs remain in the original pool for taming. Using feed, indoor three-dimensional, multi-layer box and cage intensive rearing is a new method of farming frogs. Raising frogs in plastic boxes and wooden boxes for small-scale farming gives an extremely high yield, and several hundred can be raised per square meter. Generally, from hatching to adult frog takes only 5 months.

3. Feeding and Management of Adult Frogs. After the young frogs are transferred into the adult frog pool, the frogs have a large food intake and their growth speed accelerates; this is an important period for forming commercial yield. In addition to supplying sufficient bait, when the tadpoles metamorphose into frogs, animal feed needs to be increased, mainly artificially cultured live baits with high protein and high reproduction rates such as fly maggots, earthworms, red worms and chlorella water fleas. When live bait is insufficient, mixed feed can be used, such as 60% rapeseed cake (powdered), 30% rice bran (or wheat bran), 5% soybean powder and 5% fish meal mixed evenly, which gives a relatively good effect. Tadpoles are active in the water, and after 5 days they can be supplied with fine feed, namely soybean milk, egg yolk, water fleas, water spinach, tomatoes and aquatic plankton. In addition, raising earthworms on the soil mound: as long as some lime water at a concentration of 3~5% is sprinkled in sections on the soil mound every evening, the earthworms will come out in full force and serve as frog bait. A proper amount of compound feed should also be fed, and timely separate rearing and adjustment of rearing density are needed. After the adult frogs have been raised for 1 month and the frog body weight reaches 100 g, the rearing density is 30 per square meter; after 2 months, change it to 10~15 per square meter. After a short period of further rearing, they can become commercial frogs and go on the market.

Frog Breeding TechniquesThe key to frog farming techniques is artificial breeding, because wild field frogs often have a parasite called diplostomulum [sic] parasitic in the frog's muscles, and using the method of artificial egg laying and isolating adult frogs can effectively prevent this disease. Stock at a density of about 1 group of breeding frogs per 3 square meters (putting them in before May is better). Breeding frogs are required to be plump, and parent frogs that have been producing for 1~2 years are best. The mixed stocking ratio of females to males is 3:1, and the stocking density is relatively lower than that of meat frogs. From young frog to sexual maturity takes about three years. Management of breeding frogs: strengthen the feeding of protein feed, mainly earthworms, supplemented by moth trap worms [sic]. Maintain the normal balance value of the pool water, requiring it to be fertile and lively. When the water temperature stabilizes at about 22°C, prepare for spawning and hatching (at this time the male frogs croak incessantly). Female frogs over 50 g can lay many eggs at a time. Generally, males and females in amplexus lay eggs on aquatic plants. Frog eggs are light yellow, round, and attached in sheets to the gelatinous egg membrane floating on the aquatic plants, and are very easy to identify. 1. Spawning: an artificial spawning ground needs a still-water area. Generally, the cage spawning method is used, that is, forcing the frogs to spawn in baskets or cages. With a ratio of female to male frogs of 1:1, 5 spawning baskets or cages can be placed in a 20-square-meter spawning area. The pool water depth should be kept at 10~15 cm, and the water temperature should be kept at 10°C~11°C. In order to increase the hatching rate, the egg sheets can be protected with a surrounding net to prevent the parent frogs from disturbing them and causing them to sink.

2. Hatching: during the hatching period, the temperature for the fertilized frog eggs should be kept at 20°C~28°C, mainly natural hatching; the plastic film mulching hatching method and the waterless hatching method can also be used. Generally, after 3~5 days, all can hatch into tadpoles. Newly born tadpoles depend on the egg membrane to survive safely, so do not stir the pool water casually. After all the frogs have spawned, catch the frogs out of the pool at once to avoid interfering with hatching and the tadpoles' living environment. After the eggs hatch for 5 days, fine feed can be supplied, such as soybean milk, egg yolk, water fleas and aquatic plankton, fed 2 times a day, but the amount of bait should not be too much, so as not to worsen the water quality and cause the tadpoles to die. After the tadpoles have been raised for 1 week, they can be moved into the rearing pool for rearing.

Efficacy and Effects of Frogs  

1. Frog meat is rich in protein, calcium and phosphorus, which helps the growth and development of adolescents and alleviates osteoporosis in menopause.  

2. The vitamin E and trace elements such as zinc and selenium it contains can delay body aging, moisturize the skin, and prevent and fight cancer. Moreover, frog meat is cool in nature, salty in taste and non-toxic, and is a nutritious food that greatly tonifies vital energy and treats spleen deficiency.  

3. Frogs can treat yin deficiency toothache, waist pain and chronic dysentery, and are suitable for people with hypoproteinemia, insufficient energy, insufficient milk production, cirrhotic ascites and neurasthenia.

Anyone who has eaten frogs knows that frog meat is extremely delicious and very tasty, and the nutritional value of frogs is also very high. But in the process of farming frogs, winter is still rather particular, because many animals hibernate in winter, and in winter animals' resistance is relatively much weaker.