Concerned with new baby pacman

[Hypnotic]

Don't worry, he clearly has an appitite, my little Bubba din'd ear much either when I first got him, now he's a little pig. I bet if you take a picture next month and compare ,you won't even recognise him.

[Nathan Tetzlaff]

So we called around town and found a Petco that had Repta+Boost in stock and drove nearly 20 minutes to pick it up. When we got home, we realized it was expired by 3 months. I called the store and they said they had one box in stock not expired, but I couldn't make it back out before they closed. Is it safe to use some expired Repta+Boost for tonight and exchange it tomorrow for the non-expired box? I'm assuming it would still be good for him, just not as effective. I'm not sure though !

[Lija]

yes go ahead with expired for today, better then nothing, I'm so happy he ate, now just get in him as much as you can, meaning every day as much as it'd eat, but small items, pieces of nightcrawler would be the best and it is good he does eats from tongs. please keep us updated, so hoping it is gonna be a success story!

[CHiNO]

good luck, i would force feed him. it's better for you to stress him with a full stomach, than comfortable and starving. good luck with this frog, i really love it's colors.

[Nathan Tetzlaff]

He doesn't seem very interested in crickets. Today I tried feeding him, and he seemed very stubborn. I cut up some small segments of worm and would rub them on his lips, but he just burrowed deeper. When he couldn't burrow anymore, he would finally lunge at the worm, but he would only eat two small pieces ( coated lightly with repta+boost ). After two pieces, he would completely turn around in his hole, and at one point he hopped out to the other side of the cage. How much should someone as tiny as him be eating? I'm cutting pieces of worm about 1/4 of his size since he's so tiny. I'm not sure if his stomach is getting full, or if he's just getting too stressed to lunge at the tongs anymore.

[Lija]

That is enough for him, he is letting you know he is done, continue what you are doing, you're on a right track. Force feeding should be as a last resort if he eats like you're describing it is awesome, as he gets stronger you will feed him easier. If you can, order pacman food, that stuff is good for gaining weight and you can mix in reptiboost or anything you need.

[Hypnotic]

Yeah, pacman frogs signal us, I have one that turns away from me, two that headbutt my tweezers and one that burrows under.

[kainu7]

Well good news, he has been eating! Not very much, usually a piece or two of small segments of worm with reptaboost on it. Tonight awhile after eating he was out hoping around so I tried to take some new photos of him. They arent the best but it shows hes looking better.

[danfrog]

Great News! Glad the fattening is going well.

[Nathan Tetzlaff]

It was kind of hard to tell from the last pictures, so here's a new picture showing how fast he's growing! He's still a very stubborn eater. Usually I have to rub the worm on his lips for a few minutes until he gets fed up enough to bite at it. Every night I feed him one worm segment powdered in repta+boost. He refuses to eat any more. He seems a pretty high-stress frog - I peaked in his cage this morning, and he had completely buried himself! I've read sometimes they'll do this to cool off, but his cage was only 82 degrees, so I'm thinking he was hiding....even though during the day I keep his cage facing a wall, so he has nothing to stress himself out over xD !



No more bones poking out! He's starting to look like a baby pacman! Comparing this picture to the first ones in the thread is like night and day! I'm so happy !

[danfrog]

Sounds like everything is going well. I would move the temp probe to the middle of the enclosure so you can get an averave reading of the enclosure. Make sure your food items are not too big. Since your frog is eating decently, start incorporating calcium dust with D3 and vitamins in his diet. Sometimes they will bury themselves entirely during the day, nothing to worry about there. Make sure you have three sides covered of the enclosure. Minimize moving the enclosure as much as possible (its like an earthquake for the frog when you move the enclosure).

[Nathan Tetzlaff]

...Make sure you have three sides covered of the enclosure. Minimize moving the enclosure as much as possible (its like an earthquake for the frog when you move the enclosure).

Will do! I have three sides always covered, and during the day I face the open side of his enclosure at a nature picture so he has something nice to look at :P Tonight is the first night he's completely refused food. I offered him a worm segment and rubbed it on his lips, but instead of being stubborn and head-butting it like he usually does, he instead buried down as deep as he could go until I couldn't see him anymore :c Poor guy. The substrate is deep enough for him to cover himself completely, but he wanted to go so deep I could hear his little legs squeaking against the plastic of the keeper as he tried to dig deeper! I'm going to try a couple of crickets in his enclosure. Now that he's larger, maybe he'll have the energy to be interested in them. I've never seen him react to a cricket except for the first night I had him.

[danfrog]

Best not to be overly forceful with the littleones. You can give cricket heads a little squish with the tongs. That will make the crickets squirm a lot and trigger a feeding responce, and they will not be able to hop/crawl away.

[danfrog]

You are on a great start. I'm really happy for you and your frog.

[Nathan Tetzlaff]

Second night in a row where he has refused food. He just turns away and tries to dig deeper. I put two tiny crickets in his cage dusted with calcium and checked on them 30 minutes later and one was gone. I'm not sure if the cricket is just buried or if he ate it; whenever I've watched him, he's never shown any interest in crickets. He's still looking much healthier than when I got him, but he's not showing any feeding response now.

[Hypnotic]

Drop 4 in tomorrow and check on them in the morning. Maybe he's just scared of being tong fed. One of my babies doesn't respond to tongs at all, not even when his mouth is rubbed, he just tries to dig deeper.

[Nathan Tetzlaff]

Third night where he refused to eat More turning away and trying to dig down when offered a worm segment with tongs. Before he seemed to be eating without much trouble! The two crickets I placed in his enclosure are nowhere to be seen, so either he's eaten them or they've escaped.

[Hypnotic]

Don't worry, It sounds like your frog is a little shy. Not all frogs are instantly open to the idea of being tong fed. Crickets can't climb glass, so unless you have a plant leading to the top without a lid, they won't be able to escape. Keep dropping prey in there and I have a feeling you'l see many more dissapear! You can always tong train at a later age, be sure to drop the prey on the floor with the tongs, so tongs will be associated with food.