Going on vaction procedures

[daltar08]

So i will be going on a trip in a month for about 10 days, i have my family and girlfriend here to check on my female 1 yr one month year old female pyxie daily, that said i am still nervous about being away from my frog. She is very very healthy and active, eating and swimming, rarely burrowing. I will instruct my family to check water levels and mister bottle daily as well as adjusting the heating if needed and changing light for day/night. My question is about feeding, the majority of feeding i do, maybe 90% is tong feeding crickets and dubia roaches. And as i do not trust someone without experience to tong feed my frog, i am wondering if i should feed heavily before leaving, and holding off on food for 10 days? or maybe should i have them dump some crickets into the aquarium every few days. My concern with that is the crickets ocassionally will drown themselves and that can pose a biological risk if i am not mistaken if not cleaned up quickly. SO what is the general opinion of the forum, should i be as worried as i am or am i being an overprotective froggy parent. Also what is the opinion on the feeding issue?

[Lija]

option 1 - teach how to tong feed, it is not really a rocket science.
option 2 - she won't die without food for 10 day, feed her heavy before you leave, give her hopper perhaps and she can digest it for the next 10 days she is gonna be VERY hungry and will probably hate you when you return lol
option 3- before you leave try to put a bowl with worms if she'll eat them like that, if she won't mind then ask your family to do the same.

[daltar08]

1. I worry about someone acidently poking my frog with the instrument. who knows, it could happen.
2. She has yet to have a rodent, i have heard stories about frogs being bitten by the mouse, so that is something i'd like to avoid.
3. Last time i was feeding worms she stopped eating for 2 months, as a result i have avoided worms, probably unrelated but still a concern. If i do feed worms what kind should i get, there are canadian night crawlers, "trout worms" (no idea what those are), and to add to it, i fear the use of chemicals in baitshop worms.

Now perhaps i can have the caretakers check for drowned crickets every morning and night and provide them a net to retrieve. That way crickets can still be eaten while i am gone and at the frogs own leisure.

[SCF]

Lija's suggestions are good. You could use a pre-killed rodent to feed before you leave, or buy one and pre kill it yourself. There are Canadian night crawlers from walmart that are unscented and a lot of us have used them successfully. Your caretakers using a net to scoop out dead crickets is a good idea as well. That being said, your frog easily can go (as you have observed) more than 10 days without food and be fine.

[daltar08]

i know, i honestly think i'm having some like paternal separation anxiety or something. shes my baby, my green, fat, baby. i think every 2 days, im going to have someone dump in like 12 crickets, it's not much, but itl be enough to sustain her comfortably in addition to the roach feast il give her before leaving. do you guys think that is a reasonable plan?.

[SCF]

It sounds like a good plan.

[Lija]

agree, it is a good plan.
by the way mine went close to off food for 4 months too, it was called winter, and how she is trying to catch up, her diet this week looked like that:
mon 10 nightcrawlers, tue 10 nightcrawlers, wed 10 nightcrawlers, thurs 40 crickets ( was very very funny to watch), fri 6 nightcrawlers + 4 hornworms, sat 10 nightcrawlers, today she is looking very hungry again lol

[daltar08]

are you saying they normally stop eating in the winter?

[Lija]

yep pretty much and go under the substrate too, i kept digging her out once in a while, she'd eat a few things and go under again looking very annoyed.

[GRABibus]

Your female can easily not eat during 10 days...
You don't have to worry.