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Paprika - Does it enhance colors ?
#1
Parika, as in the spice? I dont understand how that enchances colors?

Anyone know exactly how it works?
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#2
I'm not sure, but I have always heard that if you feed it to tads and froglets, it helps them keep their yellow later in life.
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#3
Red, yellow, and orange vegetables contain carotenoids. These compounds are what give the vegetable their color. When they build up in a frogs system, they will also enhance the color of the frog. But the frog being supplemented with carotenoids must be red or orange for the enhancement to benefit it. Tomato, paprika, and carrots are the most commonly used powders for this purpose, but it is still quite a new practice, so there really isn't any data on it yet.

For frogs that are green, you can use spirulina and chlorella to enchance their colors.

As to feeding it to tads and froglets; the most impact any supplements, UV, nutrition etc. happens during the early stages of life, such as the tadpole stage. This is when the organism is growing the most rapidly and develops organ systems which will not change much once it gets older. So making sure that a tad or froglet is very healthy and receives the best nutrition and supplementation affects its final development,color, size etc. a lot more than once it is a few years old for example.

Luke
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#4
I've seen Marcus B. feeding Paprika to various Tinc and Tinc type tadpoles, so I'm going to assume it works and there is something to it, plus it's pretty cheap...so...why not give it a try.

NatuRose is the main powdered supplement that most people use. I'm not sure if it's still produced anymore.

I've heard people say that it (NatuRose) actually made blues and green colours appear shiny and metallic.
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#5
As far as blue,greens, yellow go here is some stuff I found on the net....

An excerpt from webexhibits.org

"In the typical green frog, light penetrates to the iridophores, which act like tiny mirrors to reflect and scatter mostly blue light back into the xanthophores above them. The xanthophores contain yellow pigments, and act as yellow filters so the light escaping to the skin surface appears green to our eyes. If a frog lacks the yellow xanthophores, blue light scatters back and the frog appears bright blue. Iridophores do not synthesize pigments, but reflect and refract color. They contain platelets that produce a scattering effect. The real advantage to these stacks of pigment cells lies in their potential to create color changes. The animal can darken its color by moving the melanin pigment. By manipulating the three types of cells, a wide range of colors can be produced, usually extending from bright green to shades of brown and grey. "

So it isn't green that we need to supplement for but yellow....
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#6
I now use Superpig and am happy with the results.
Later and Happy Frogging,
Jason Juchems
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#7
Juchems Wrote:I now use Super Pig and am happy with the results.


Agreed.....I do as well and the oranges of my varadero are super bright and metallic.

I am going to try dusting some organic spirulina algea every so often to see if I can get the blues in the legs and the greens of my female variabilis to get even brighter. Not that they are bad now but.....
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