My gray tree frog doesn't trust me anymore!

[Dace]

Greetings. I'm new. A couple days ago, I decided to feed my dubia roaches a spicy radish. I plucked one off of the radish and went to feed it to my smallest gray tree frog, Copper. I noticed just before he ate it that it vomited a red drop of radish juice, but by that time it was too late. I didn't think much of it, but the next day I somehow managed to give him another roach that had been eating radish. After that, he refused to eat (I hand- feed them otherwise the roaches hide) and I was was worried about him- he refused to eat from my hand and only ate when I put him in a small container with a bunch of roaches. These past two days he has completely refused to eat roaches. Last night I put a ceramic bowl of roaches in the vivarium but he showed almost no interest and the other frog devoured them all. I feel like my attempts to feed him are just stressing him out. I know he's not sick because if I show him a video of a crawling ant through the glass, he leaps right at it and tries to eat it through the glass- yet he ignores actual roaches! I'm pretty sure that the mouthful of radish juice is deterring him from eating roaches or eating out of my hand- just like that experiment where they fed the toad bumblebees. The weather is too cold to find flies or moths, and he's a 1.5 inch baby and is getting skinnier already! How do I get him eating again? Will he never forgive me for the radish roach?

[Frogman1031]

Hello and welcome to the frog forum !

That doesn't sound good . Remember, your frogs are what they eat eats and that radish obviously did not sit well.

Have you tried feeding crickets? Maybe he will take them instead of the roaches.

You should not be getting food from outside. They could have parasites that can be harmful or worse, fertilizers/pesticides.

You can also try earthworms that are dye and chemical free. Make sure they aren't red wrigglers as he won't thank you for those either.

I would hold off on feeding roaches for a while. Maybe he'll forget his bad experience eventually and start taking them again.

For future reference the best foods to feed crickets are carrots and leafy greens. You should also be dusting with calcium+vitamin d3 powder every other feeding and a multivitamin powder once a week.

I hope your frog starts eating soon. Good luck!

[elly]

I fed one of my white's a red wriggler worm once and he never forgave me. Since then I've had to bowl-feed or put the crickets on his ledge.

[Dace]

I fed one of my white's a red wriggler worm once and he never forgave me. Since then I've had to bowl-feed or put the crickets on his ledge.

That's depressing. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess he may never eat out of my hand again.
no I have not tried crickets. Don't have any. I'll bet he would eat them if I did, though.
i know you people aren't big fans of feeding wild insects, but I've done it for years and my frogs are fine. No pesticides or fertilizers around here. And where are you going to get more nutrition and variety? I know my bugs pretty well and only feed species I know to be safe.
I'm gonna try putting him in a small Bare Kritter keeper for a few hours till he's calm, then throw in a bunch of really tiny roaches. Maybe he won't recognize them.

[elly]

Well he might. My frog started out skittish and not used to people ( so the worm didn't help. Yours may be more tame.

Parasites are a problem since wild crickets and grasshoppers are especially known to be carriers. However if your frog is a native wild-caught species, it may already have parasites so more might not be a problem. Or you might be a bug expert and able to find ones that don't carry large parasite loads. I don't know.

[Dace]

It was a complete failure. He wanted nothing to do with the roaches. Yet I show him a video and he goes nuts trying to catch the digital ant. This is actually really interesting though because it shows me that frogs are more aware than I thought. I used to think they attack anything that moves and spit it out if it's nasty, but apparently he can recognize species.

[Dace]

Ok... I believe he ate 2 crickets tonight. unless I'm really bad at counting.

[Cliygh and Mia 2]

That's good! At least he ate something!

[Dace]

Well, tonight he attacked his crickets quite viciously! He's almost back to his old self.

[Dace]

One thing I left out is that he has occasionally been acting restless at the front of the tank- trying to push his way through the glass and pacing back and forth. Which is what he's doing right now. When he does it, he ignores food. The enclosure is a 10 gallon tank with two frogs but they're both juveniles. That kind of worries me and I don't know if it started before or after the radish roach incident because I wasn't watching him so closely then. Any idea what might be causing this?

[Dace]

These past two nights he didn't do it and ate, but tonight he's doing it again. There's a trench at the front of the tank where he's been pacing...

[Dace]

It's really getting quite alarming now... Here's a picture:
Copper With His 'trench' Photo by Dace667 | Photobucket
Hes been spending most of his time on the floor recently, and I have no idea if he's been eating his crickets... I'm really worried now. I removed the other frog and the crickets appear to disappear, but he also seems disinterested when they walk past him. Even when he's not pacing.

[Crispy42]

It sounds like it might be time to upgrade their tank. Do you have any branches in there for them to climb on?

I would recommend trying bowl feeding so you can at least tell if he is eating or not. That would also prevent the bugs from finding hiding places to your frog from ingesting substrate when he grabs the. Speaking of which, that moss in your tank can be an impaction risk if swallowed.

Also, have you gotten a fecal test? With wild caught feeders and a lack of appetite I would be concerned about him having parasites. I would get the fecal do e before upgrading the tank, so that you can treat them first and not have to disinfect the whole new setup.

[Dace]

He's only about an inch long. The tank is a ten gallon and the other frogs (who are also now in a ten gallon) aren't behaving like him even though they're larger than him.
although I do use wild caught feeders in the summer, he hasn't eaten any since October and the problem just started recently.
there is a feeding bowl, it currently has both dubias and crickets in it. But he seems to ignore stuff in the bowl thus far.
iv'e since removed the moss. It clung to the substrate pretty tight and wasn't such a risk until he dug it up.
i highly doubt that I could just walk into a veterinary office, even an exotic one, and ask them to check this tiny wild frog for parasites. They'd probably just laugh.
since I took that picture he stopped pacing and is now resting on a branch. I showed an insect video but he was disinterested.

[Crispy42]

i highly doubt that I could just walk into a veterinary office, even an exotic one, and ask them to check this tiny wild frog for parasites. They'd probably just laugh.

I'm not sure why you think this, but it's at least worth calling local vets to ask. It's a simple fecal float test just like they'd do for dogs or cats.

[Dace]

I gave him a honey bath today. It sort of perked him up. I did a really thorough search of the enclosure for feces and found none, so I'm worried he's not eating even though the crickets are disappearing.

[DigitalPunk]

If he is not eating and the crickets are disappearing than where are the crickets going? Starting to feel like we are being trolled.

[Dace]

I mean the crickets loose in his enclosure. He might be eating them, they might be hiding.

[Dace]

Ok- so here's some pictures showing how he's been losing weight over time. March 7th- back when he ate a dubia every day out of my hand. He's the smaller frog:http://s356.photobucket.com/user/Dac...tml?sort=3&o=2
More in a minute

[Dace]

March 28- a few days after he stopped accepting dubias, before I got him crickets. (I think )

http://s356.photobucket.com/user/Dac...t.jpg.html?o=1