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Thread: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

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    Default My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    I have had my frog for about 8 months now, got him when he was a tiny baby. He is now a little over 3 inches long.

    Over the past several months he has been eating less and less. He used to love crickets then stopped eating them so I switched to Night crawlers. He loved these and gobbled them up. He started snapping at these less and less, and now I am at a point where he wont snap at anything. He last ate 1 week ago, and before that was another week before he had another meal. He simply will not snap at anything.

    I dont understand whats wrong with him. He has been in the same enclosure all his life, the temps and humidity have not changed since I have had him. The temps are 80 - 81 in the day and 75 - 76 at night. Humidity is between 60 to 80 percent.

    He is in a 10 - 15 Gallon tank. 3 sides are covered by forest scenery paper. He has fake plants to hide under and a water dish that he never uses.

    I measure the temperature and humidity about 2 inches above the substrate. He is in coco fiber and has been going poop so I am sure he is not impacted.

    I have tried bumping up the temp to 84 and it didn't make a difference. I dont know why he wont eat???

    When he was younger he used to sometimes walk the perimeter of his cage trying to get out and never really buried himself. Now he wants to bury himself most of the time, and usually comes out at night trying to walk the perimeter of the cage trying to jump out and escape. He has been doing this a lot and I dont know why.

    I really dont know what more to do, I know all his husbandry is right, so why wont he eat!!!

    The only thing I can think of is I use the Zoomed Repti fogger and it uses distilled water. Could the distilled water used for misting be hurting him?? Is it poisoning him over time???

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  3. #2
    Moderator Lija's Avatar
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    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Sorry nobody replied sooner, how are things right now?
    Save one animal and it doesn't change the world, but it surely changes the world for that one animal!

  4. #3

    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by Lija View Post
    Sorry nobody replied sooner, how are things right now?

    Still not eating. He still hides most of the day and comes out at night to walk around the edge of the cage then hides again by morning.

    I have had to force feed him night crawlers the past 2 weeks (once a week) as I dont want him to lose weight.

    I dont understand the change and what to do. I do notice on this board there are many many threads of pacmans that stopped eating. usually they are younger ones but there are some older ones too. Seems to be a common thing?

    Right now I am trying to wait 2 weeks before force feeding him (its been 1 weeks so far). I even bought him a small mouse to see if maybe he needs more larger prey to trigger a feeding response.

    Its really frustrating because he used to be such a good eater, and would lunge at my hand/tongs when trying to feed him.

    When I look at him he looks nice and healthy, although he/she is only 3 inches so he is not the largest and has stopped growing.

    How long should I ideally wait before fore feeding? I really would like him to try and eat on his own.

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    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Keep in mind when pacmans grow older they only eat less frequently and need time to digest larger meals. Crickets are only really good for small frogs, and adults or frogs near adult size will be looking for something a bit larger. Roaches, pink mice and nightcrawlers are best, but just nightcrawlers might be a bit boring to your frog and could eventually lead to difecencies as although they are good, they are not complete. Fish could also be offered but there's risk of disease. Superworms are another thing you can feed but not too often and be sure to gutload and supplement them as they have a bad Ca:P ratio.

    Place the thermometer right at the floor to get a good reading and go for the digital type. Even with the proper temps and humidity the frog may still sense the change in seasons. For an example, even though my bearded dragon is kept at the same temps and photoperiod he has became less active and hiding most of the time, animals just seem to know. Be sure to maintain the proper photoperiod of 12:12 with a fluorescent bulb if you're not using a daylight heat lamp.

    hope that helps

  6. #5

    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by jasonm96 View Post
    Keep in mind when pacmans grow older they only eat less frequently and need time to digest larger meals. Crickets are only really good for small frogs, and adults or frogs near adult size will be looking for something a bit larger. Roaches, pink mice and nightcrawlers are best, but just nightcrawlers might be a bit boring to your frog and could eventually lead to difecencies as although they are good, they are not complete. Fish could also be offered but there's risk of disease. Superworms are another thing you can feed but not too often and be sure to gutload and supplement them as they have a bad Ca:P ratio.

    Place the thermometer right at the floor to get a good reading and go for the digital type. Even with the proper temps and humidity the frog may still sense the change in seasons. For an example, even though my bearded dragon is kept at the same temps and photoperiod he has became less active and hiding most of the time, animals just seem to know. Be sure to maintain the proper photoperiod of 12:12 with a fluorescent bulb if you're not using a daylight heat lamp.

    hope that helps

    Thanks for the reply. I know they do eat less as they age, but he has not eaten in over a week. I dont know but I dont think this is normal? His staple for a long time was night cralwers (dusted with calcium and vitamins) and the odd horned worm every 2 weeks or so. I do have a Thermometer and Hydrometer about an inch off the substrate floor and I keep him on a 12/12 night /day cycle. Like I said i have not changed anything in how I keep him since he was a baby frog and he has grown up nicely with this setup.

    How long should I wait before force feeding him again? I was doing it once a week but I would like to stop that. I am trying to wait 2 weeks this time to see if he will eat. I have bought a mouse for him and so far he has refused it. Its like he doesn't even see it, no reaction at all. I hope in another week (it would have been 2 weeks by then) he would eat the mouse.

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    Moderator Lija's Avatar
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    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Based in what you are saying it seems you are doing everything right, I would love to see pic to confirm he is fine though.

    but what you are saying is very normal, they feel weather changes outside and slow down substantially on eating. I think the longest mine were off food is 4 weeks, they are not actually brumating, but false brumating, just resting, sleeping. You need to watch if they are ok though and offer food once in a while, but don't stress out too much. What can help us if you do a warm bath for a frog ( water level no higher then frog's chin). It usually wakes them up, they poop and then ready to eat.
    All of that is applicable only to adult frogs.

    force feeding is very stressful and should be used as a last resort when there are no other choice.
    Save one animal and it doesn't change the world, but it surely changes the world for that one animal!

  8. #7

    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by Lija View Post
    Based in what you are saying it seems you are doing everything right, I would love to see pic to confirm he is fine though.

    but what you are saying is very normal, they feel weather changes outside and slow down substantially on eating. I think the longest mine were off food is 4 weeks, they are not actually brumating, but false brumating, just resting, sleeping. You need to watch if they are ok though and offer food once in a while, but don't stress out too much. What can help us if you do a warm bath for a frog ( water level no higher then frog's chin). It usually wakes them up, they poop and then ready to eat.
    All of that is applicable only to adult frogs.

    force feeding is very stressful and should be used as a last resort when there are no other choice.

    I tried the warm bath but it doesn't seem to make a difference for him. He also did poop on his own but still wont eat on his own. I am curious about them sensing the season change and slowing down eating, this doesn't seem to be a factor for younger baby frogs. When I bought this one it was during winter and he was an eating machine. I also have a young Ornate and he is an eating machine too, so I am wondering if the seasonal changes is only for adults, as when they are babies all they want to do is eat and grow.

    Last night I got lucky and caught him shedding, so when he opened his mouth to eat his skin i was able to slip in some big night crawlers. I was able to feed him 5 big ones and a medium horned worm, he ate them all, then finished his shedding after. I got lucky but I dont want to have to depend on seeing that or forcing him *sigh*

    The mouse I bought for him looks like is going to be my new pet since he wont eat him, I have to wait another 2 -3 weeks now again to to see if he will be hungry enough to eat the mouse.

    Here is a picture of him after he had a soak.

    https://postimg.org/image/9ghb29vf1/

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    100+ Post Member monster's Avatar
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    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Hello, as mentioned I would have to agree it sounds like hes just slowing down for the winter. All mine have done this in the past month and my big female actually started at the start of October. Since then I have seen her a few times and she came up and had a bath, poop and something to eat and then shes gone again. The 2 males haven't been down for as long periods of time as her but they are doing the same thing, and like you nothing has changed. And i have acquired all mine in the winter when they were babies and they stayed up and ate like you mentioned but the following year things slowed down a lot, and at 8 months your frog would be considered a sub adult. And as mentioned if they seem to be under to long i will give them a bath to wake them up just so i can check on them and see if they are hungry and the next morning they are gone again. This will usually happen from October or November and continue till the spring. When he is hungry he will eat for you so I would maybe wait and let him eat on his own instead of forcing him, when they do this they slow down there whole system so you don't want to over feed him and have the food sit in there longer then it should. Hes slowed down his metabolism so If the food stays in there too long it could rot and make him go septic. When this occurs here with mine even if the amount of food doesn't seem to be much i don't push it and just stop.

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    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Ok thanks everyone. I think I will stop force feeding him until he starts to look skinnier then I will intervene. For now I will leave him be and offer him food when he comes out, if he doesn't take it then I will leave him be.

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    Default Re: My Carnwell pacman wont eat please help me!!!

    Good decision! Babies are different they need to grow fast or they will be eaten in a wild, that is why eat tons, but as they grow they don't need to eat as much as they slow down and that is when they can afford resting for a winter.
    Save one animal and it doesn't change the world, but it surely changes the world for that one animal!

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