How to Solve the Frog Feed Problem? Developing Animal-Based Feed Is Key

Bullfrog Farming

    For frog farming, developing animal-based feed is an important step. Long-time frog farmers share nine methods for farmers to reference.

    (1) Light traps for insects.

    Above the feeding platform in the frog pond, 23 cm from the water surface, hang a 30-watt black light or ultraviolet lamp to attract insects, planthoppers and others; at night the bullfrogs will gather under the light to feed. This method works best from May to September. Turn on the light after sunset until the first half of the night; in the second half of the night there is more dew and fewer insects, so turn off the light to save electricity.

    (2) Raising earthworms.

⟧    On the land area inside the bullfrog pond, add cow dung, rotten fruit, rice-washing water and the like, mix with soil, and introduce seed earthworms to let them reproduce. After a period of culture, the earthworms come out at night and move about, and can then be caught and eaten by the bullfrogs. You can also use scattered wasteland, apply plenty of cow dung and so on to cultivate earthworms, producing 5-7 kg of adult worms per square meter.

    (3) Sericulture.

    Use the land in front of and behind the house to plant mulberries and raise silkworms. Silkworms grow quickly, needing only about 20 days for a whole generation. Young silkworms can be used to feed young frogs, and when they reach the 4.5th-5th instar they can be used to feed adult frogs.

    (4) Raising yellow mealworms.

    Yellow mealworms are the best feed for bullfrogs and are easy to raise, needing only wheat bran and green vegetable leaves. However, the worms grow slowly, so the rearing scale must be expanded to ensure a feed supply.

    (5) Farming apple snails.

    Use scattered ditches and ponds or build small pools, or breed and farm them in the water of the frog pond. In the hot season they lay a pink egg cluster every 5-10 days, each cluster containing about 1,000 eggs. When the eggs hatch into small snails, they serve as bullfrog feed.

Bullfrog Farming

    (6) Attracting flies to breed maggots.

    Hang large-mouthed basins, trays and the like 30 cm above the bullfrog pond, put bait such as waste livestock meat and fish viscera inside to attract flies and breed maggots. When the maggots crawl out of the basin and fall into the water, they become a delicacy for the frogs. You can also build a small pool, put tofu residue inside, then add rice-washing water and the like, cover the pool surface, and after several days the maggots are ready and can be fed to the bullfrogs.

    (7) Using slaughter by-products.

    Disinfect and mince slaughter by-products from meat processing plants and restaurants, mix into compound feed and feed them. Where there is a silk reeling mill, silkworm pupae can be used as feed; you can also buy pig lungs and beef lungs, chop them up and feed them.

    (8) Culturing water fleas.

    Water fleas, commonly known as "red worms" or "fish worms," are ideal feed for small tadpoles. First drain the water from the culture pool, clean and disinfect it, then scatter 1 kg each of dry chicken manure, tofu residue and the like per square meter of pool (or other livestock and poultry fertilizer). Best to sun-dry for a week, then fill with water to 40 cm and introduce water flea seed stock. After a few days the pool water turns green, and after two weeks a large number of water fleas will have bred in the pool water.

    (9) Catching small fish and shrimp.

    Farms located near rivers, lakes or fish ponds can regularly catch wild trash fish and small shrimp as feed.

    Using the courtyard for artificial frog farming not only creates environmental conditions suitable for forest frog growth, but also, by raising earthworms, grasshoppers, yellow mealworms, fly maggots and other forest frog feed, provides the frogs with rich and abundant nutrition. It also prevents and controls various diseases.